Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced the start of New York’s 2022 fall foliage and travel season campaign to showcase popular fall activities and attractions throughout the state.

As the president of Hudson Valley Tourism, Amanda Dana has seen a decrease in visitors due to COVID-19, but she says she’s excited to bring back the fall festivities.

“Frankly, Orange County is one of the fastest recovered counties in the state of New York, and I really have to say it's because of tourism,” said Dana.

According to the state comptroller’s office, a 10-year period growth in tourism came to an end in 2020, as 43.7 million fewer visitors came to New York City and the economic impact fell from $80.3 billion in 2019 to $20.2 billion in 2020.

Just like many events that had to be cancelled due to COVID-19, Apple Fest is celebrating its annual run in the town of Warwick.

Dana believes that events like Apple Fest will help rebuild the economy.

“It doesn't just bring people in here and just spend money, but it also brings people to see what how beautiful this downtown is and see how great the community is,” Dana said. “And in fact, I would bet you that people are considering ‘maybe I should relocate to Warwick or Orange County,’ because that's what tourism really does. It brings people in and it makes them want to come back over and over again.”

Dana believes there will be more people out this year.

“We saw numbers higher than 2019. So I'm very confident that 2022 will bring even more visitors to Orange County and downtowns like Warwick,” she said.