Jim McKenna, the CEO of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, speaks at the Lake Placid Beachhouse on July 14, 2023. He cracked a joke about Senator Gillibrand’s illustrious career of captaining the women’s congressional softball team. (Enterprise photo — Arthur Maiorella)

LAKE PLACID — Jim McKenna, CEO of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, announced Thursday that he would retire on April 30, 2024 after more than 40 years at the helm of various local tourism councils and offices.

“I don’t have golf clubs, so I’m not going to go golfing anywhere,” McKenna said. “Why I’m so comfortable retiring is that (ROOST is) the most accountable and probably one of the more thorough destination marketing and management organizations that I’ve come across. Other areas have certainly looked at ROOST as a model, developing a regional approach rather than a one-destination approach.”

McKenna, 72, was born in New York City and lived there during his early life. He graduated from Mount Assumption High School in Plattsburgh in 1970 and, after college, moved to Lake Placid to operate the Newman Opera House — a country, rock and blues club where Lisa G’s restaurant currently sits — with a college friend. They sold the club in 1979.

He first pitched the Lake Placid Convention Bureau to the North Elba Town Council in the fall 1981 as a way to maintain the village’s tourism momentum following the end of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games. The next year, the bureau was given $35,000 by the town and he was hired as one of its two employees.

“Placid, coming off the Olympics after 1980, the whole focus was always the Olympics. We tried to say that a significant differentiator is the Adirondacks,” he said. “That’s something that’s going to be there and is going to be consistent and ongoing and it’s a very unique asset, and that got us also into the preservation and conservation, which is also a part of our mission, and understanding that that is the true long-term differentiator for the region.”

Around five years later, the convention bureau combined with the Lake Placid Chamber of Commerce to create the Lake Placid Visitors Bureau. That turned into the Lake Placid-Essex County Visitors Bureau in 1990.

“I first got to know Jim when I was on the visitor’s bureau board in 1994,” Lake Placid Mayor Art Devlin said in a statement. “Not only was he in charge of the bureau, but was also on many of the major boards in the area, giving him a lot of knowledge and a chance to network throughout the county. Due to this, Jim became a big force not only in Lake Placid, North Elba, Essex County and the state of New York but also in the international sports community.”

In 2010, that bureau renamed itself as ROOST to signal its commitment to tourism across the region, not just in Lake Placid. McKenna said that people “thought we were crazy” when ROOST was created.

“It gave us the ability to be more of a region-wide organization, number one, because we don’t have a single-destination identifier,” he said. “Number two, we got the word ‘sustainable’ in there before people started using it all the time, and that gave us the ability to start talking about some of the things that we were concerned about.”

McKenna said that sustainable tourism differs from traditional tourism because it is primarily “for the benefit of communities.” It focuses on building up a region for its year-round occupants and avoiding overcrowding, while still making the economy and infrastructure conducive to tourism. In the past few years, according to McKenna, ROOST has emphasized a community-first approach.

“We’ve been concentrating now, for the last four to five years, really starting to work on things that aren’t seen as direct tourism,” he said. “That’s community needs. That’s housing. That’s making sure that, if you want to have a tourism economy, you need a gas station, you need a drug store, you need a grocery store. How do we help position communities that want to go in that direction? How do we help them attain it?”

The most prominent component of ROOST’s and McKenna’s community support in recent years has been its advocacy for Community Tourism Enhancement Funds, according to Essex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Shaun Gillilland.

“One of (McKenna’s) major visionary accomplishments is the development of the occupancy tax as a dedicated revenue stream to fund these vital initiatives,” he said in a statement. “By transferring responsibility for these expenses from local taxpayers to our visitors, Jim ensured a level of financial stability that was necessary for Essex County’s success, and he paved the way for other important initiatives including the CTEF that has supported community betterment projects needed for tourism growth.”

Essex County began collecting a 3% occupancy tax in 2000, which mostly went toward funding the county’s contract with the visitors bureau/ROOST. In 2020, that tax was increased to 5%. McKenna lobbied the Essex County Board of Supervisors to allow the additional 2% to become CTEF money, or money that is given to towns for enhancement projects or grants for non-profit organizations. This led to the creation of North Elba’s Local Enhancement and Enhancement Fund grants, which help fund local organizations such as the Adirondack Film Society, John Brown Lives! and the Adirondack Sports Council, where McKenna is the chairman of the board of directors. ROOST received a New York state Tourism Excellence Award for its work with CTEF in July.

“It is a legacy of which he can be proud,” North Elba Town Supervisor Derek Doty said.

McKenna has also been involved with major sports competitions in the region. In 1996, he tried to launch a bid alongside former Lake Placid Mayor T. James Strack for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. He also spearheaded the Adirondack Sports Council, which organized the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games. He opened the games with Gov. Kathy Hochul in January.

“For decades, Jim McKenna has been the face and voice for Adirondack tourism,” Hochul said in a statement. “He’s been instrumental in supporting and preserving the region’s winter sports legacy, and promoting the area’s incredible year-round events and attractions that welcome visitors from around the world. I was proud to work with Jim to bring the 2023 Winter World University Games to the North Country, and to join him on the ice for the Opening Ceremony. He’s been a tremendous partner, and his leadership will be missed.”

As for the future of Adirondack tourism, McKenna said that it is bright, but will be colored by climate change.

“My crystal ball says that we have to be very conscientious about the future,” he said. “This region has been identified as maybe a region that is a little safer, a little better and a little better weather conditions over the next 50 years. With that in mind, I think there is a big population out in the world. We have to be positioned so that we can maintain our sustainability. … We might be too popular.”

As ROOST’s board of directors searches for the next CEO, it is encouraging local and regional candidates to apply for the role.

“Though ROOST’s programs and day-to-day work will continue to evolve as they always have, one thing will remain the same: ROOST’s success in catalyzing sustainable growth and prosperity for our region,” ROOST Board Chairman Nick Politi said.