GEDDES, N.Y. -- More than 1.1 million people walked through the new opening gates at the NYS Fair this summer. But Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to beat that record.
"How do we do any better? How do we break the record we just set? How do you take the state fair and maximize the potential of the state fair?" Cuomo said.
The governor says the state invests $130 million to promote tourism, but collects about $8 billion in taxes related to the industry. He says last year, Central New York had 15 million tourists.
Now, he's putting together an advisory group to come with a plan to attract more people to the fairgrounds in the off-season.
"How do you make it the premier convention, exhibition site where companies all across the country want to come here all year long?" said Cuomo.
Some already have ideas for improvements.
"We can start looking at the west end of the Fairgrounds, and how we can improve traffic and put anchors down there -- from redoing the 4-H stables and the rings to the possibility of an expo building of some size to really filling in the gaps towards the east side," said Acting Fair Director Troy Waffner.
“There's great ideas on the table, back from the very beginning, that will need more funding and more creative funding in order to happen,” NYS Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard Ball.
The governor wants the advisory group to send him ideas by the end of December, so he can propose a plan in his State of the State Address in January.