🔒Coping strategies evolve as tourism advocates seek to restore funding

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A move is afoot to restore regional tourism district funding, but in Connecticut's uncertain fiscal climate, attraction owners and tourism officials aren't relying on the state for support and have devised other ways to draw visitors.

In mid-January, freshman state Rep. Brian Ohler (R-North Canaan) introduced a bill that would restore $1.1 million to the three districts — Eastern, Western and Central — that the state defunded last July.

Enabled by state statute more than 30 years ago, the districts promote attractions and locales by connecting smaller venues to national and local media, providing a printed brochure of attractions and events, and keeping regional tourism websites and blogs fresh and inviting.

Ohler says Litchfield County relies heavily on tourism as an economic driver, helping the northwest region of the state generate $1 billion in annual economic activity. Statewide, tourism is a $14 billion industry.

Ohler's bill, however, will likely have a tough time getting through the legislature as lawmakers tackle billion-dollar deficits for each of the next two fiscal years.

Since July, the state Office of Tourism and tourism attractions have had to make do without that funding, forcing the districts to operate with volunteer staff and tap funding reserves as they try to continue providing expertise to their constituents.

Meantime, state government's marketing budget, which received a boost when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy first took office, has also been cut from a high of $15 million to $6.4 million.

Working within these limitations, state officials are avidly pursuing digital and social-media marketing and reaching out to chambers of commerce and councils of governments (COGs) to help.

And attractions are depending more on themselves to gain attention, said Central Connecticut Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Cindy Scoville.

State Tourism Director Randy Fiveash says digital marketing is proving a success in the absence of more funding, particularly with the relaunch of the www.ctvisit.com website in April.

From January to November 2016, the site had 4.1 million visitors compared with 2.8 million in 2015 — a 49 percent increase. The state also has doubled the number of free partner listings from 2,000 to 4,300. And partners featured in promoted website articles have been seen by 1.8 million visitors, he said.

All that is without having any TV advertising in the latter half of 2016 to compete with New England neighbors, he added.

Meantime, on Jan. 27 the state tourism office launched a regional tourism program, which aims to improve partnerships with arts organizations, chambers and other groups to publicize smaller towns and attractions.

More than 15 organizations have joined the program so far to better leverage no-cost marketing opportunities like social media or getting listed on the state’s tourism website.

“A lot of [those groups] haven't been involved before but want to be, so we're talking to them,” he said. “Everybody has something they can promote from a tourism standpoint.”

Still, chamber leaders are leery of trying to function without more funding, if not regionally then definitely statewide.

“The difficulty you have is the dollars. You need the dollars to advertise,” said Larry McHugh, president of the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce. “[State tourism staff] are trying the best they can and everybody knows the financial difficulty the state is in, so shared sacrifice is what everyone has to do.”

Nobody knows that better than Janet Serra, co-executive director of the Western tourism district, which covers about 50 towns in the northwest and western central part of the state.

She and her counterparts in the other two districts are still trying to maintain websites that get more than 30,000 hits a day, work with travel writers, tour operators and meeting planners and support their regions, despite the funding cuts.

Connecticut is the only state in the country without some form of publicly funded regional marketing for tourism, Serra said.

Scoville said the majority of small attractions that rely on tourists to survive have been doing their own marketing since losing the bulk of regional district support.

That is taking the form of self-promotion via websites, reaching out to print and television media, press releases, and social-media marketing, but also networking and partnerships with peers, according to Louise DeMars, executive director of the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol.

“Our [visitation] numbers are on the upswing because we've put renewed energy into marketing ourselves,” said DeMars.

While some success is evident, DeMars thinks putting the districts back in place would bolster tourism regionally and statewide even more.

Dan Jaskot, president and general manager of EMPOWER, a leadership, sports and adventure center in Middletown, says promotions that predate the regional tourism district cutbacks continue to help — like the “Zip, Sip and Stay” package that combines zip-lining adventure at Empower with drinks, appetizers and an overnight stay at the Inn at Middletown.

Whatever path the state and its districts take, he said, it will require “continued opportunities to make connections and network, both on a regional and state level, to cross promote businesses and offerings.”