A recent survey on tourism found that optimism is growing among Thousand Islands-area businesses.

Of the 170 “usable” responses from U.S. and Canadian business owners gathered by the 1000 Islands Tourism Council, 65 percent predicted that the tourism industry would improve over the next five years; only 8 percent anticipated a decline.

Last year, 47 percent of responders predicted an improvement, 36 percent said they believed the status quo would prevail and 12 percent had a negative outlook on growth in the Thousand Islands.

Gary S. DeYoung, executive director of the Tourism Council, said he thinks people are noticing a lot of development proposed along the St. Lawrence River and becoming more optimistic about the region’s future.

“In almost every town, there’s a neat thing moving forward,” he said in reference to Krog Corp.’s $26 million hotel development in Clayton, Brockville’s Aquatarium and many other projects proposed in the region.

Low water levels and high gas prices largely drew negative comments from area business owners, but 77 percent said the dry and sunny summer weather had a positive impact on the region’s tourism.

Other than that, Mr. DeYoung said, the region had a “pretty normal year,” with the overall satisfaction rate remaining the same as last year, at 80 percent.

The full survey report is available online at the council’s website: www.ticouncil.com.

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