🔒Oysters, hiking trails and the arts — CT retools tourism marketing strategy as sector rebounds from pandemic

Despite a steady diet of weekend rainfall throughout much of the summer, Niantic-based party fishing boat the Black Hawk has had an unusually good year, routinely nearing its maximum capacity of 55 to 60 anglers on twice-daily summer weekend runs.

“We had more and more first-timers, even up until a couple of trips ago we had first-timers, which is really unheard-of in the fall months,” veteran chief mate Claude “CJ” Adams said during an Oct. 14 trip. “There was a lot more tourism this summer: newcomers, new faces, which is nice to see.”

Heather Harris, a member of the family that owns the Black Hawk, said the nearly 70-foot-long boat has booked many more private charters this year than in the past, with family-and-friend groups adding to the corporate-dominated trips of years past.

She attributes it to the public increasingly shaking off COVID-19-inspired hesitancy.

“I feel like last summer (2022), a lot of things weren’t quite back to normal yet,” Harris said. “But I feel like this summer, people were like: ‘OK, we are back to normal.’ I feel like a lot of people who hadn’t been out in a couple of years are going back out.”

Tourism activity in Connecticut has rebounded from the COVID-19-imposed crash of 2020 and, according to several industry measures, has even surpassed pre-pandemic performance levels.

State officials and tourism operators said the declining threat of the pandemic has boosted the industry. So has a renewed focus by the state on outreach and marketing, with increased funding and sharpened tactics.

According to research by Tourism Economics, the first half of 2023 saw 31.8 million visits to Connecticut tourism destinations, up nearly 3% year-over-year. The research group counts visits to the state from people traveling more than 50 miles, as well as shorter trips involving overnight stays.

It excludes travelers moving in a repetitive pattern, which could indicate work-related commuting.

The formula does not include shorter-distance day trips, state officials said.

Visitations in Connecticut have been trending upward since a low of 50.6 million in 2020, according to Tourism Economics. Last year’s tally of 66.5 million beat out 2019 by several hundred thousand visitations.

This year’s numbers appear to be trending even better, state officials said.

Gov. Ned Lamont, in September, trumpeted the nearly 3% bump in “visitation” statistics and a 10% increase in Connecticut lodging revenues.

At the time, Connecticut’s tourism website, CTvisit.com, had logged 7.3 million visits for the year, up 44% from the same period in 2022.

“This spike in both current visits, and interest in future visits, reflects Connecticut’s growing appeal,” Lamont said.

Tourism is a major industry in the state, supporting 120,000 jobs and $17 billion in sales in 2022, according to Tourism Economics.

Renewed push, new strategy

The state launched its new $3 million “Find Your Vibe” tourism campaign last year under former Office of Tourism Director Noelle Stevenson, who, without much fanfare, left her position this past summer.

She was named to the role in November 2021.

Anthony Anthony, appointed as chief marketing officer for the state in March, has led Connecticut’s tourism efforts since Stevenson’s departure. He praised her work as an excellent base from which to grow.

“There has been good work over time,” Anthony said. “With frequency, it starts to take root.”

Anthony said he isn’t letting the good work of the recent past go to waste. In May, he held a series of six “listening” forums with dozens of tourism-related business operators from around the state.

The input from those sessions helped Anthony and his staff craft a new tourism strategy just being finalized now, he said.

Part of that strategy is to spotlight and cultivate unheralded or under-publicized strengths of the state, Anthony said. That will mean new marketing focused on the state’s culinary offerings, hiking trails and “rich” arts-and-culture scene.

Anthony’s office has already commissioned a short-form documentary on Connecticut’s deep ties to oysters. Expected to premier this winter and be featured in online campaigns, the documentary will highlight the state’s coastal oyster-farming industry, and the use of oysters at local restaurants.

“We want to make oysters to Connecticut the thing that lobsters are to Maine,” Anthony said.

The state’s tourism and marketing office has a $4.5 million budget, up from $4.25 million last fiscal year. Since 2022, Connecticut’s tourism efforts have been bolstered by an $8.8 million federal COVID-19 relief grant.

Anthony said the state will draw on $3 million from the grant for tourism advertising this fiscal year; another $2 million to $3 million will be used on advertising in fiscal 2025.

The state is also tightening its target audience, with new advertising focused on the 25 million potential visitors within 2.5-hours driving distance. The state has pulled back spending on farther-flung markets like Chicago, Seattle and Atlanta, Anthony said.

The state earlier this month also unveiled a new $1.5 million statewide “Make It Here” marketing campaign. It highlights Connecticut’s innovative culture and quality of life, and promotes the state as an ideal place to live, work and grow a business.

Tangible improvement

Tony Sheridan, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, said his region is enjoying a growing economy thanks to expansions by Groton-based submarine marker Electric Boat and the offshore wind industry.

That translates into extra ancillary spending and new residents to bolster area tourism, he said. A growing public confidence with the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic is also helping, he said.

“Certainly, the Mystic area has done very well,” Sheridan said. “You can tell that by the shortage of parking.”

Sheridan also said state tourism officials are doing a “much better job,” presenting a far clearer and consistent message.

JoAnn Ryan, president and CEO of the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, said the state’s increased marketing is having an impact.

“I see more about Connecticut, which we need, because people don’t know how beautiful it is here,” Ryan said.

Syed Bokhari, general manager of the 32-room Litchfield Inn, said his visitor stays have actually dipped year-over-year, but revenue is up. A hike in average daily rates that accompanied a roughly $2 million property makeover has caused some price-sensitive customers to shy away, Bokhari said.

But the renovation will prove to be a good investment for the inn’s longer-term success, he said.

Rooms that rented for $300 a weekend night last year are renting for more than $400 now.

Bokhari said he had to cut his staff of 10 in half during the COVID-19 doldrums. Now, he is up to 20 employees.

He has also noticed an improved marketing effort by the state. Someone actually reached out to him and updated the inn’s information, including pictures, on the state’s tourism website.

“I know they are pushing a lot of advertisements and making Connecticut a state to visit for New Yorkers,” Bokhari said. “I think they are making more of an effort.”

Working together

Gregg Dancho, director of the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, said his venue’s post-COVID-19 rebound was aided by an influx of New Yorkers, both as day-trippers and new area residents.

“That was a brand-new market that hadn’t seen what we had to offer in the area,” Dancho said. “I could see that by looking at license plates in the parking lot.”

Given its open-air layout, the zoo was one of the first tourism venues to reopen during the pandemic. That helped reintroduce patrons who hadn’t visited in a while, Dancho said.

The zoo has also undertaken a series of upgrades since the pandemic, including new habitats for spider monkeys and Andean bears.

Dancho, who chairs the Western Connecticut Tourism District, has also noticed an improvement in the state’s tourism efforts, although its overall tourism budget remains well below that of neighboring states.

But money isn’t everything, he said.

Out of necessity, the state’s three tourism districts have learned to stop competing and collaborate to their mutual benefit, sharing common themes and graphics, Dancho said.

“The state is too small not to work together,” Dancho said. “Collaboration is going to form partnerships, and the partnerships form excitement, and excitement translates into people coming to us.”