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CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY & SHORELINE
The Appeal of an 'Experience'
Reaching out to meeting planners has helped build a reputation as world-class hosts
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Business New Haven
8/23/99
By: Jackie LaBella
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It's like the old adage about the three most important things in real estate. The Connecticut River Valley and Shoreline region has three premier assets that appeal to meeting planners: location, location, location.
We're smack in the middle of Connecticut, a two and a half hour drive from both Boston and New York City, and centrally located to some of Connecticut's top attractions, such as Mystic Seaport, Yale University, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.
And, if you'll indulge me for a bit of boastfulness, we are beautiful. We may not have the aforementioned big-name attractions within our borders, but we do have bucolic scenic drives with magnificent fall foliage, antiques dealers who are the envy of the Northeast, quaint New England villages and, of course, a beautiful river.
We are, perhaps more than any other district in the state, an experience, rather than a mere destination. Our visitors can cruise through the Thimble Islands, or enjoy a four-hour fall foliage river tour. Take up hiking at Devil's Hopyard State Park, or get a history lesson at one of our dozens of historic homes. Visiting our district is all about choices: shopping, dining, entertainment, maritime and natural attractions are all just a short jaunt away.
How do you market an experience?
Building name recognition and developing a good reputation as hosts, of course, are challenges we face in all of our efforts to promote tourism. We've had great success in the past five years, as our efforts have boosted tourism revenues to record levels. In 1998 alone the district's revenues increased 30 percent over the previous year as a result of our marketing efforts.
Last year, we recognized the need to reach out to meeting planners throughout the region and tell our story. We hired Laura Falt as a liaison to tout our area at regional trade shows geared to corporate and association planners as well as to continue to build the motorcoach market. She also attends "destination showcases" and build contacts with independent meeting planners.
We've found this personal attention pays off. We don't have a big-name convention center here, but we do have several first-class accommodations and facilities capable of serving either a large association or an intimate group. We offer to take meeting planners on a tour of the district, show them some of our better facilities, and find a good fit between their needs and what we have to offer.
In doing so, we've come to recognize that meeting planners are practical folks: They want to know what kinds of facilities we've got and where they're located.
To that end, we designed a new destination planner, which is a comprehensive listing of our facilities and attractions, to market our region and serve as a quick and easy reference for someone planning a vacation, retreat, tour or conference.
We try to encourage people to use us as a resource that can help them solve their problems. For instance, the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Cromwell has 26,000 square feet of meeting space, which is perfect for a larger group. Although it's the largest such space in the district, some groups require more than its 211 rooms.
With imaginative thinking, Cromwell can accommodate larger groups. Between the Holiday Inn, the Comfort Inn and the Super 8 Motel, 350 additional rooms are within walking distance of the Radisson. That puts us in the market for larger groups than we might otherwise not be able to compete for, and spreads the benefits of our efforts to more of our hotels.
We also have great opportunities to appeal to smaller groups which are looking for unique experiences. We have the Water's Edge Resort & Country Club in Westbrook, the Saybrook Point Inn & Spa or the Inn at Chester, each of which offers an elegant, resort-style experience.
Our efforts of reaching out to meeting planners have paid off. We have made some great contacts in the region, and have booked several pieces of business.
More importantly, we have started to build a reputation as a great host for people who want to escape the hustle and bustle of city life, even if only for a weekend. After all, we're confident that once people experience our region, they'll come back over and over again.
Jackie LaBella is executive director of the Connecticut River Valley & Shoreline Visitors Council, a region of 20 towns in south-central Connecticut through which the Connecticut River flows
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