Ithaca, N.Y., best known as home of the fictional University of Ithaca in 2000's Road Trip, has given up trying to attract tourists to the snow-packed town. In an ad on VisitIthaca.com, the Ithaca-Tompkins County Convention and Visitors Bureau is instead directing people to visit the Florida Keys.
"That's it," the ad screencap from the Daily Mail reads. "We surrender. Winter, you win."
"Key West, anyone?"
The ad directs visitors to "please come back when things thaw out" and to send the visitors bureau a postcard from the Keys. "Really, it's for the birds here now."
The visitors' bureau said the ad reflects the sentiment of most Northeasterners and is helps keep them connected with potential future visitors. "On behalf of 100 million Northeasterners, we're saying that we're done with cold and snow," bureau director Bruce Stoff told the Ithaca Journal.
"This is a way for us to stay engaged with our customers at a time when Upstate New York isn't exactly top-of-mind."