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We Built It.
Are They Coming?
Greater New Haven and the state struggle mightily to attract
tourist dollars
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Business New Haven
2/23/1998
By: Susan Banfield
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In 1990, tourism was an inconsequential industry in Connecticut. When people in New York or northern New Jersey were asked to name the places they would be most likely to go for a getaway, Connecticut ranked only seventh among destinations named. Neither were people doing much to try to change this state of affairs: The state ranked 49th in the nation in the amount of money spent to promote tourism (ahead of only Hawaii, which spends nothing to promote tourism).
Tourism as a viable Connecticut industry was not a foreign concept; the state had created 19 tourism “districts” as far back as 1982. But it wasn't until 1992-93 that much of anything was done to try to realize their potential.
In 1992, legislation was enacted that for the first time provided for the funding of state activities to promote tourism - namely, a $1 daily surcharge on car rentals. The following year, a major image campaign was unveiled.
The state's Office of Tourism targeted the metro New York area (New York, Long Island, northern New Jersey) as “the most likely area we could convert to [regarding Connecticut] as a destination for leisure,” says the office's executive director, Ed Dombroskas. The campaign was conducted through ads in newspapers and other media, and has been fairly aggressively funded: In 1997 the Office of Tourism's budget totaled $5 million.
The notion of Connecticut as an ideal destination for short getaways was especially pushed. “Two-week vacations are not what people want anymore,” notes Jackie LaBella, executive director of the Connecticut River Valley and Shoreline Tourism District.
In addition to the media campaign, a key element in the 1993 effort to boost tourism was a consolidation of the regional tourism districts. The 19 districts were reduced to 11. This regrouping caused predictable consternation in the New Haven area. Formerly, the six communities of East Haven, Branford, North Branford, North Haven, Madison and Guilford had been a single, relatively homogeneous group. Now they were given the choice of affiliating with a region centered around New Haven and extending as far as Ansonia and Trumbull, or of joining a region that included Connecticut River Valley towns as well as shoreline communities. Three municipalities - East Haven, North Haven and North Branford - elected to throw in their lots with the New Haven region, while Branford, Madison and Guilford chose to affiliate with the Connecticut River Valley group.
The difficulties engendered by the regrouping can be seen in the experience of Friskie Wheeler, who was president of the Shoreline Visitors Bureau at the time. “I was a big proponent of being part of New Haven,” she says. After some agonizing, however, she did an about-face.
“I finally decided we would be more identified with the shoreline and the Connecticut River. We felt we had more identity with the shoreline towns than with some of the towns going with New Haven, such as Ansonia.”
Wheeler is currently the Branford representative to the Connecticut River Valley and Shoreline group, and also serves as chairperson of Branford's Tourism Committee.
Each regional tourism district has a board comprising representatives from the various towns in that district, headed by an executive director (and, in the case of New Haven, overseen by a chairman). The districts generate their own advertising to both individual travelers and the travel trade (piggy-backing on the state's campaign); produce brochures, calendars and maps; and meet with tour operators, hotel managers, and others. There is an effort to coordinate with local tourism initiatives as well as with those coming out of Hartford.
Michael Schaffer, chairman of the Greater New Haven Convention & Visitors' Bureau, is in the process of setting up a meeting with the area chambers of commerce. Says Jackie LaBella: “Many towns have tourism subcommittees. We'll act as a resource for the town when asked.”
The current regional tourism districts are funded by money from the sales tax charged on hotel stays. Each region receives 1.5 percent of the money spent on hotels in the region.
The two districts that market New Haven-area communities use overlapping but distinct approaches. “The water, the natural resources we have here are the main draw,” Jackie LaBella says of the shoreline communities she markets. “It's peaceful.”
Also, “These are quintessential New England towns. That's a real strength: the pretty rides you can take along country roads.” LaBella promotes the area's quiet inns, restaurants, antiquing and picturesque town greens. The shoreline is promoted to the convention, group tour and leisure travel markets.
“We have something for everything,” says Karolyn Kirchgesler, the new executive director of the Greater New Haven Convention & Visitors' Bureau (see related story, page 3). Kirchgesler tries to promote the diversity of her region's offerings: the cultural draw of New Haven, with quaint New England towns close by.
In addition to the convention, group tour and leisure travel markets, Kirchgesler also promotes greater New Haven to the sports market, working to bring in various tournaments. She sees the Eastern League New Haven Ravens and the American Hockey League Beast of New Haven as draws as well, but is unsure of their overall economic impact.
Chris Canetti, general manager of the Ravens, says that while the team has attracted some one million fans since its debut season in 1994, those who go to the games are “mostly a local crowd.”
Yet another market Kirchgesler hopes to explore in the future is international travel. “I think we could be a big draw to the international traveler, with Yale being here. I think there's some unrealized potential there.”
The combined regional and state promotional campaigns have been up and running for five years now. And, according to Dombroskas, they've been a success.
“We've been successful in developing Connecticut's image,” he says. “Before the campaign, Connecticut's name was the seventh named [by metro New Yorkers as a destination for leisure travel]. Now it is second.”
But questions remain. What, beyond an image, is needed to further develop tourism in the state? And where do we go from here?
“We've come to a crossroads with tourism,” Dombroskas explains. “The most important thing to do to grow tourism is to connect things for the consumer. [We] don't have a lot of natural connectivity.”
Dombroskas points to the need for towns and regions to work better in concert “to put together viable packaging.” Dombroskas suggests that the regional tourism councils may have to be regrouped yet again.
In 1992, a large factor in determining the shape of the regions was where individual municipalities wanted to affiliate. Now the issue is: “How can we most effectively form those regional organizations in order to promote the area for tourism?” as Dombroskas frames it.
Michael Schaffer is inclined to agree with Dombroskas about the need for improvement in how communities and regions work together.
“I would welcome a complete evaluation of district boundary lines,” he says. “The boundary lines should be addressed, and it should be done on a statewide basis - not on a town-by-town basis.”
Schaffer points out, however, that he currently has no problem marketing the attractions of the shoreline towns, or even Ledyard or Mystic, to a group coming to New Haven. Kirchgesler sees even less of a need for redrawing regional lines. “I'm not sure the regions are segmented the best way they could be,” she says, “but I think the districts work well together, from what I've seen.”
Perhaps an even more pressing concern for those trying to grow tourism in the region and the state is the dearth of convention space. “The convention and meeting market has the highest economic impact,” Kirchgesler notes. “A delegate attending a national or regional meeting on the average spends $218.43 per day” - more than any other class of traveler.
In response, tourism officials are actively pursuing that convention market. “We're refocusing our efforts and expanding our sales force to go after that convention business,” says Schaffer.
Jackie LaBella plans to hire someone to focus solely on conference sales. Everyone, naturally, is excited about the opening of the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale and the proposed expansion of the New Haven Hotel and Water's Edge Resort in Old Saybrook. But even these new spaces are not enough.
“Four years ago you could book a meeting of 100-200 people in Connecticut four months in advance. Now you have to book 18 months in advance,” says Dombroskas. “One of the greatest challenges we've had in the state is the convention market - because of limited space.”
Schaffer underscores Dombroskas' concern: “We still have a gap in exhibition space,” he says. “We need to be able to go after bigger groups that stay three to five days.”
Finally, New Haven-area tourism officials worry about the detrimental effects of a less-than-adequate airport in the region. “We need to improve our infrastructure, specifically our airport,” says Schaffer.
Those in shoreline communities are similarly concerned. “I feel strongly about the need for an airport,” says Branford's Wheeler. BNH
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