🔒New state tourism director Stevenson brings Sunshine State experience to CT

Connecticut has a new tourism director with almost three decades of industry experience who hopes to spur growth and more opportunities for the state’s attractions.

Noelle Stevenson quietly began her new post Nov. 15, taking over for Randy Fiveash, who retired in April. After meeting her team and some local stakeholders, she’s been travelling the state to check out some of Connecticut’s regional attractions.

The Greece native, who speaks six languages, said she plans to bring a new perspective to the state after 28 years in the industry across New York and Florida.

Under Stevenson’s leadership, the Office of Tourism in late December launched a $1 million winter tourism campaign — called “The State I’m In” — that is highlighting hundreds of Connecticut businesses and destinations, including restaurants, hotels and other attractions. It will run through March 31, and include ads on TV, streaming services, billboards, paid search marketing and social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

“I’m very passionate about our industry and tourism as a whole,” Stevenson said. “There’s always room to grow, there’s always room for more.”

A fresh face

After growing up in Greece, Stevenson moved to Boston where she got her bachelor’s degree in business and organization at Emerson College. She continued her education at Cornell University in New York, completing a professional development program in marketing management, where she said her “love for the tourism industry began.”

Stevenson moved to Florida in 1994 and held several industry leadership roles in the Sunshine State for years. Most recently, she came from Broward County, Florida, where she served as a member of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau executive leadership team.

Prior to that, she led Miami-Dade County’s rebranding efforts as vice president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. Under Stevenson, the county’s tourism marketing efforts expanded to include film, music, fashion and shopping, and boutique and lifestyle hotels.

“When we first started this exercise in Miami, Miami was just very neutral. We had great leadership but we also had great ideas that we brought to the table and we knew we wanted to go after those market segments,” Stevenson said. “It wasn’t until we did that, that you now have a metropolis down there.”

Her experience in other regions is an attractive attribute to some stakeholders in the state.

“She’ll have a new take, a new perspective on how things are done,” said Jim Bellano, chairman of the Eastern Regional Tourism District.

Tony Sheridan, chair of the Connecticut Airport Authority and CEO of the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, said Stevenson seems eager to get started. He said she has an open mind and wants what’s best for tourism in Connecticut.

“The sense I got is that she’s not afraid to try new ideas and she is not wedded to programs and policies of the past,” Sheridan said after recently meeting Stevenson. “It was refreshing.”

Diversified offerings

Stevenson said one of the things that brought her to the state is its wide breadth of natural resources and attractions, including the combination of mountains and shoreline.

“New England is not foreign to me, but what attracted me to Connecticut is the diversity,” Stevenson said. “That is what a visitor looks for when they’re thinking about where they want to go, that perfect one-stop shop.”

She touted Connecticut as a four-season destination that has “something for everyone.”

“Connecticut is extremely rich in visitor community experiences, that right there puts us in a great position on the map,” Stevenson said. “I am so impressed with what the state offers.”

According to data from a Connecticut tourism economics study, roughly $15.5 billion is spent every year by travelers in the state, generating $2.2 billion in tax revenues, including $960 million in state and local taxes.

The state’s tourism industry is made up of three regional districts — central, eastern and western — that each get $400,000 a year from the state tourism office for marketing.

A close partnership between the districts, each with their own specific attractions and assets, and those in Hartford is important, industry officials say.

“We just want to be able to continue that relationship with the state,” said Bellano, who is also Windham’s director of economic and community development.

Coming out of COVID-19

The last year-plus has been challenging for the tourism and hospitality industry, not just in Connecticut but worldwide.

COVID-19 threw a wrench in many business operations when parts of the economy were shut down to stop the spread of the virus. Connecticut’s tourism sector was hit extremely hard, shedding more than half its workforce (or 90,800 jobs) from Feb. 2020 to April 2020.

There are still questions about how quickly business travel — which Hartford, Bradley International Airport, and numerous venues across the state rely on for business — will bounce back.

But the industry is slowly recovering. At the end of November, the state’s tourism and hospitality sector employed 135,800 people, down 14% from Feb. 2020 employment levels — before the pandemic proliferated across the state.

“[The pandemic] impacted the tourism and hospitality industry more broadly than any other industry,” Bellano said. “Hotels and restaurants and venues really took a hit. The challenge is to still come out of that.”

One silver lining of COVID-19 was the increase in “staycations,” Bellano said, and the state’s tourism industry can learn from that. Connecticut should leverage people’s desires to get back out and do what they want to do.

“People could not travel, therefore if they did do something they did it within the state of Connecticut or fairly regionally,” Bellano said. “I think we want to build on the fact that people did get used to local and regional travel and travel experiences.”

Stevenson said her early priorities include increasing awareness of what the state has to offer and opening up new marketing segments.

“I believe tourism is at its best when we reach a group of diverse audiences and help instill a feeling of curiosity and innovation about a destination,” Stevenson said. “We are looking to broaden our message, showcase all of Connecticut’s attributes, and share the vibrancy, energy and some of the edginess of our tourism offerings.”

Trying to connect with underrepresented segments of the population is key.

“What I’m hearing overall is let’s make sure we factor in those untapped opportunities,” Stevenson said.