Playing to your strengths is not just a strategy for athletic teams. The tactic is important, too, for the economic health of a community.

Tourism is one of the economic engines powering Franklin County, even as the region tries to tap into other ways to revitalize and sustain the living its residents make here. And while it remains critical to find other powerful economic engines so the community doesn’t depend on just one, the region must continue to strengthen tourism.

Listening to Francois Nivaud, who heads the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, it’s clear he feels we should consider the big picture while focusing on specific interests of our region. Speaking at a recent Franklin County Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Nivaud emphasized seeing the connections to neighboring regions, the rest of the state and even the nation and world.

That kind of cooperation, collaboration and communication among the state’s 16 regional tourism councils and other business entities are key in making sure the economic engine that is tourism — a $32 billion industry in Massachusetts — remains well-oiled.

Franklin County is one of the parts in that engine. Nivaud provided some specific numbers for the county. Last year tourism here brought in $68 million in direct spending with an additional $20 million in “indirect induced spending.” Foreign visitors accounted for $8 million of the direct tourism spending while the tax benefit overall from that spending was $3.7 million. The state data pegs 560 tourism-related jobs in Franklin County.

“I’m amazed at the value of the assets here,” Nivaud said. “You have so much going on.”

“I believe when people come to visit, even to see family, friends … they are not coming here just for one reason,” Nivaud said. They are driven, too, by personal interests, including culture, history, sports and recreation.

Nivaud’s right. It remains so important for specific tourism business to offer suggestions to visitors about what other attractions are nearby or events taking place. For the head of the Office of Travel and Tourism, this also means being able to provide information about attractions elsewhere in Massachusetts and neighboring states.

“I would like to see more cooperation between various tourism councils, to make a much more powerful marketing effort,” Nivaud said.

That’s sound advice for moving Franklin County forward and playing to our strength.