Connecticut’s tourism industry had an economic impact of $14.7 billion in 2015, a 4.6 increase compared with 2013, according to a new state-commissioned study.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the Connecticut Office of Tourism announced the results of the study late Thursday morning at the Mystic Seaport in Mystic.
The study, compiled by Tourism Economics of Wayne, Pa., and Oxford in the U.K., also shows that tourism employment grew 2 percent since 2013 to reach 82,688 jobs in 2015, the fifth straight year of employment growth.
Other key findings include:
- Direct traveler spending totaled $8.7 billion in 2015, up 5.1 percent from 2013 and up 3.3 percent annually over the past five years.
- Traveler spending increased across Connecticut from 2014 to 2015.
- Travel generated $1.7 billion in tax revenues in 2015, including $910 million in state and local taxes and $778 million in federal taxes.
Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner (DECD) Catherine Smith said investment in tourism will perpetuate this success, but the most important spending should come in the form of out-of-state advertising.
Since 2012, the state’’s “still revolutionary” tourism marketing efforts have focused on increasing awareness of Connecticut as a travel destination.
