Obama stops by Cooperstown to promote tourism

President Barack Obama is taking a day trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown as part of an effort to promote American tourism. He is the first sitting president to visit Cooperstown. "The amount they have invested in the Baseball Hall of Fame is incredible,'' New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand told the Journal News. "It is this extraordinary archive now. They cover all these eras in time. They make all this history understandable to kids.'' Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to join the president at the Hall of Fame. Cuomo has made tourism a priority of his administration, aiming for drive some New York City's 54 million annual tourists to the rest of the state's famous locales. "The location, we think, is ideal to highlight the importance of travel and tourism, and particularly for the international visitors given the international nature of the game and importance of travel and tourism to the U.S. economy," said Jeff Zients, director of the National Economic Council. Residents of the small New York town are as excited to host the president as he is to be there. "We've been completely at the disposal of the White House and happy to be so," Cooperstown Mayor Jeff Katz told Syracuse.com. The website reports that business owners have been contacting Katz all week vying for visits from President Obama.