Baker Cuts $150K from 1Berkshire Tourism Budget

If Gov. Charlie Baker $3 million cut to the state’s Tourism Trust Fund stands, it will take a $150,000 bite out of efforts to market the Berkshires to visitors during the spring and summer months. The deduction cuts in half the $300,000 the county received for fiscal 2017, said 1Berkshire Executive Vice President Lauri Klefos, who headed the former Berkshire Visitors Bureau. The bureau was absorbed into 1Berkshire, the county’s leading economic development agency, in July. “We’re just discouraged because tourism has been part of the economy in the Berkshires that has been growing and doing well,” Klefos said. “Visitation to the area has been going up for the last five or six years pretty steadily. This comes at a time when New York is promoting upstate New York, which we see as a competitor of ours.” Read more about potential state funding cuts to tourism >>