Watkins Glen, NY (WENY) -- The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce offered a preview of the upcoming tourist season, as they hosted what they called a pep rally on their Facebook page. The rally included excitement over the return of racing at Watkins Glen International and what things are being done by Finger Lakes Wine County.

The rally comes just three days before the track opens for the season and the Village of Watkins Glen and Schuyler County can finally start having some tourists return. 

All races were canceled last year, because of the pandemic, which had devastating consequences to the tourism industry and economy of the finger lakes region. Watkins Glen and Schuyler County are looking for a bounce-back year. Watkins Glen Chamber Executive Director Michael Hardy and others are remaining optimistic as the 2021 season revs up.

“Last year was rough for us. with us not having any of our regular scheduled events but things are looking really great for this year,” said Jose Cervantes, the Director of Special Events at Watkins Glen International.

The optimism is in part thanks to the return of racing at the track. During the rally Watkins Glen International President, Michael Printup spoke on the schedule. They're jam-packed. They announced that there will be ten race-type events this year that include Go Bowling at the Glen, Winefest, and Salen’s Six Hours.

“It's one of the largest spectator schedules that I can remember in our history so it's going to be a great season,” said one of the speakers.

“It's opening weekend, that's this weekend, April 10th and 11th. As Rob and Andrew eluded to it's the first event of a jam-packed season,” said Michael Gardner, the Track Marketing Manager.

The hope that opening weekend will bring tourists back from all over and giving those folks the chance to drive the track and rev up the tourism revenue.

“We're all challenged, or we're all tasked to raise sales tax and bed tax so we'll do our best,” said Hardy.

The pep rally comes just days before opening weekend, however, the gears in Watkins Glen and at the track are already running.

“We are, I am NASCAR and it's been a lot of fun a great transition and we've got a lot of things to accomplish, and this sports just getting bigger and better,” said Printup.

Tickets to race around WGI are already on sale. To take your car around the track it'll cost you about $30. More information can be found at https://www.theglen.com/.