By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
New Jersey wants to get some respect around here.
New York's neighbor, long the source of jokes for Manhattan residents, has opened a tourism store in the Upper West Side designed to attract city visitors, the New York Times reports.
"We are not here to compete for New York’s tourists, but for New Yorkers themselves," Nina Mitchell Wells, New Jersey's secretary of state, told the paper.
"Our goal is to steer New Yorkers away from places like Washington and Philadelphia and cities in Florida, and to get them to come to New Jersey instead."
The store at Columbus Avenue and W. 73rd St. opened Oct. 6 and will be open Tuesdays through Sundays until Nov. 16.
Tourism, not all of it in Atlantic City, brings in $7.7 billion annually to the New Jersey economy, making it the third largest industry in the state, according to the secretary of state's office.
New Jersey ambassadors working in the store said they wanted to highlight the things New Yorkers can't find in the city.
Brian Thompson, 22, talked up the state's birding, wildlife trails, lighthouses and places for canoeing and kayaking, according to the Times.
Dressed in a George Washington costume, actor Bill Agress, a New Jersey resident, shared New Jersey's revolutionary war history with visitors.
“Everyone talks about Valley Forge, but George Washington spent two winters in Morristown that were just as harsh as the winters he spent in Valley Forge," Thompson told the paper.
The idea of taking a shorter trip to New Jersey seemed to be making sense to some people visiting the store.
“As New Yorkers, we sometimes get stuck in our own little worlds, unwilling to leave our routines," said Betsy Timberman, a fund raiser for the New York City Ballet, in an interview with the Times.
"Many people move to New York because of job opportunities and just keep their focus in the city, but a store like this lets them know that there is so much more out there for them to see.”
