Important Dues Notice To NYSTIA Members: 2025 NYSTIA Annual Dues Adjustment & Billing Procedures

Your support and participation as an active, dues paying member of the New York State Tourism Industry Association is vital to our success. When asked to describe 'who/what NYSTIA is, we provide this statement: 

The New York State Tourism Industry Association (NYSTIA)
is a member-driven, member-directed 501(c)6 nonprofit organization
at the vanguard of best-practice tourism marketing, advocacy,
stewardship, and long-term strategic thinking. 

Thanks to your support, leadership from our board of directors, and the efforts of your dedicated NYSTIA staff, the New York State Tourism Industry Association is stronger than ever. You are a valuable part of a growing membership community representing all sectors of New York State’s travel and tourism industry. 

As you are aware, inflation has dramatically increased costs in the five years since the last adjustment in the NYSTIA membership dues structure*. These inflationary increases have significantly impacted NYSTIA's operational costs. The NYSTIA board and staff have worked hard to mitigate these increases through a combination of revenue growth and improved efficiencies, while also working hard to increase member value and benefits. Positive feedback from members like you have both guided and validated these efforts. 

Despite the success of these initiatives, we ultimately need to adjust our annual dues structure to offset our increasing cost of operations.

NYSTIA's Membership, Finance, and Executive committees each met in the fourth quarter and collectively recommended new dues for 2025. The new dues structure was unanimously approved by your Board of Directors at their December 18, 2024 meeting and announced in the January 7th NYSTIA newsletter.

The new dues are in effect for dues invoiced in 2025 and represent an increase of approximately 2%/year since the last increase (2019), or 10%. The new dues schedule is linked below for members to review.

There will also be a new invoicing schedule for dues. Effective immediately, dues invoices will be sent out quarterly rather than monthly. Your annual dues commitment and the applicable year of your dues commitment are unaffected by this change.

It is my sincere hope that you feel that your membership investment is more than justified by the savings, services, resources, and support you and your industry colleagues benefit from as dues-paying members.

I have listed some of the benefits that members have anecdotally shared with us as significant, and invite your reflection and input on what you feel should be added:

You/NYSTIA members benefit economically:

• Save over $500 on your event registrations for the New York State Tourism Conference (annually, April) and New York State Tourism Excellence Awards/Summit (annually Sept/Oct). You also save significantly due to the reduced hotel rates negotiated on your behalf for these events.
• Cost-effective, collaborative media and event Co-Opportunities administrated by NYSTIA - the Tourism Champions initiative alone saves members $2,000+ on consumer travel show visibility.
• Grant-supported tourism marketing initiatives administrated through NYSTIA save members up to 50% of the cost of participation.

You/NYSTIA members benefit from professional growth:

• Personal and professional development programming at our live and virtual events from leading executives and national/international thought leaders in the tourism industry. 
• A peer support network connecting you with your colleagues in New York State's tourism community. Share ideas and insights with your New York State colleagues.
• 1:1 networking sessions with leading regional, national and international solution providers keep you abreast of the latest tools, technology and techniques available to you.
• Timely, informative webinars to stay abreast of the latest news, research and trends to help you shape the future for your organization/destination.
• Access to NYSTIA's valuable online tools and resources developed to assist you in your daily tasks and strategic planning.
• Facilitating career awareness and exploration for students and
  prospective tourism professionals;
• Raising consumer awareness and appreciation of the benefits of tourism, and of travel and vacation opportunities in New York State;
• Advocating for government policies and programs that enable New York State's tourism industry to realize its potential, providing positive outcomes for New York State residents.

You/NYSTIA members benefit from member communications:

• Stay Informed/Share Your News – you can receive and contribute to the highly regarded NYSTIA weekly industry update email:
  • Introduce new staff members, and share successes and new initiatives.
  • Post industry events on our event calendar.
  • Post job notices to our industry careers board.
  • Post RFP opportunities to reach qualified solution providers.
• Communicate 1:1 - Dues-paying members can also access the NYSTIA membership primary contact email list to communicate 1:1 with your colleagues. (use of the email database for mass emails requires prior approval and is usually restricted to NYSTIA-related purposes; merging it with a different database tool or sharing it with a third party is prohibited)

You/NYSTIA members benefit from NYSTIA's Advocacy Tools & Outreach:

• Access the NYSTIA's Advocacy Page to :
  • Utilize NYSTIA's ‘Tourism Talking Points’ and downloadable economic impact literature, and PowerPoint presentation deck(s) to use in your day-to-day advocacy efforts.
  • Access your state and federal representatives by email and/or phone.
  • Participate in or propose industrywide email campaigns, petitions.
  • Access Proposed Legislation to review the language and status of proposed/pending legislation.
• Request a Guest Speaker for your events and meetings. In 2024, members of NYSTIA's staff and advocacy committee presented to:
  • New York Association of Counties (NYSAC)
  • Association of Towns of New York (AOTNY)
  • New York State Economic Development Council (NYSEDC),
  • New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals (NYATEP)
  • Member meetings/events and national/international tourism association meetings.
• NYSTIA works closely with NYSHTA, participating in the NYSHTA-led advocacy day in Albany and the legislative meetings managed by Mark Dorr and the NYSHTA team.