WATCH: Ithaca surrenders to winter, tells tourists to go to Florida instead

WATCH ABOVE: New York’s Ithaca Visitors Bureau Welcome Center surrenders to winter weather, telling tourists to visit the Florida Keys instead.  Jessica Bard reports.

TORONTO – A city in the state of New York has decided they’ve had enough of winter and are telling tourists to stay the heck away – telling them to visit Florida instead.

The website for the Ithaca Visitors Bureau Welcome Center recently launched an anti-tourist campaign in good humour. The marketing stunt was inspired by the snow storms that have hit the area over the winter.

A statement on the site read, “Ithaca invites you to visit the Florida Keys this week. Please come back when things thaw out.”

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Ithaca is situated south of Lake Ontario – at the southern end of Cayuga Lake in New York state. You can almost draw a line directly south from Kingston, Ont. Between lake effect snow and storms hammering the east coast, Ithaca has seen a ton of snow this year.

“Yeah, after the – I forget what round of snow storms it was – we finally said enough already winter! You win!” Visitors Bureau Director, Bruce Stoff told WETM. “Then when New York City and Boston got that last round in the forecast and this week was going to be starting out below zero, that’s when we said we’ve got to do something fun here to brighten things up,” Stoff said.

The centre’s phones have been ringing off the hook since. The website itself, that usually averages around 15,000 hits daily is currently surpassing 80,000 hits.

But while the stunt may have been a stroke of comedic genius – not everyone is laughing.

“I would think that the Ithaca tourism board would drive people to the area and not drive them out of the area,” part owner of Greek Peak Resort, Marc Stemerman said.

What the visitors bureau seemed to forget, says Stemerman, is the large amount of citizens who actually rely on cold temperatures for tourist dollars.

“I just needed to speak out for the 800 employees that we employ that thrive on the winter business, don’t give up, and work their butts off to take care of our customers,” Stemerman continued.

Stoff says hopefully business owners, like Stemerman, will eventually get over the stunt if and when they profit from it.

“I hope that we’re able to show him that this is intended as good fun and it gives everyone the opportunity to talk about winter sports in New York with the snow and skiing right now which is phenomenal,” Stoff added.