Ithaca, NY tourism office: Go to Florida instead

“Really, it’s for the birds here now.”

Tourist officials in Ithaca, New York, fed up with the repeated snowstorms and below-freezing temperatures, have stopped trying to lure visitors to their city and are instead steering them to Florida’s Key West.

“That’s it. We surrender,” read a message that began popping up at VisitIthaca.com Sunday night. “Due to this ridiculously stupid winter, Ithaca invites you to visit The Florida Keys this week. Please come back when things thaw out. Really, it’s for the birds here now.”

The note ends: “P.S. Send us a postcard.”

This is no joke, and not paid for by the Florida Keys, although the exercise in reverse psychology was noted by Visit Florida.

Bruce Stoff, director of the Ithaca/Tompkins County Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the Miami Herald that the idea came about as he woke up one day to find the temperature was -5 and it has only “warmed up to zero” by late morning.

“It’s gone beyond sub-freezing temperatures. Now it’s sub-zero temperatures,” he said.

In comparison, temperatures in the Florida Keys right now is in the low 70s.

A spokesperson for the Florida Keys Tourism Council called it “the wackiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”