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Captain Trips
State tourism czar Dombroskas says out-of-staters are finally getting the message that Connecticut is a great place to visit - even if they don't want to live here
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Business New Haven
2/17/2003
By: BNH
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Since 1992 Ed Dombroskas has been executive director of the state's Office of Tourism, which spends about $5.5 million each year to convince out-of-state visitors to spend more time in the Nutmeg State - even if they're not coming here solely to gamble.
Why does Connecticut have so many semi-autonomous "tourism districts" that make no geographic sense - for example, Branford isn't in the New Haven district, which plainly is absurd. What other state runs its tourism business this way?
Connecticut's organization is unique in the country. No other state in the nation has as many regional tourism districts for its comparative size. California, for instance, has 11 tourism districts - the same number as Connecticut. But there is also no other state that has a similar funding mechanism [for local tourism bureaus] as Connecticut's, which [is characterized] by direct funding from tax returns to the districts without any state oversight.
How has the tourism business been in Connecticut post-September 11?
There's good news and bad news. Leisure tourism in the state is doing extremely well as people stay closer to home and plan shorter vacation getaways. Business travel has been down all over the country, including Connecticut, since September 11. Connecticut has an opportunity to increase its travel-market share, and that's what we're focused on this year.
How?
There's been tremendous product development in the business and meetings market - the two casinos with their large-scale hotels, the imminent [scheduled for 2005] opening of the Hartford Convention Center. Connecticut as a meetings and conference destination has pretty much been off the map. This spring we're unveiling a new campaign to attract the meetings and convention business and we'll try to make a bit of a splash. The theme is that Connecticut is New England's newest business and meetings destination and that we can handle business and conventions from small to extra-large.
Do people even in Connecticut believe that?
I think there's some skepticism in our own business community. One of the things we've discovered is how different the meetings and conventions market is from the leisure market. We're not even on the radar screen for most meeting planners. We need to jump up and down, show them what we have and find a way to meet their needs.
Providence [R.I.] has a new convention center, the casinos have new facilities, Springfield [Mass.] is building a convention center - is there enough business for all these non-Boston New England facilities?
I think there's plenty of business. Companies in the meetings market are looking to move to different locations and rotating venues, and in an $80 billion [nationwide] market, there's plenty of opportunity. It's mainly a matter of making sure you're getting your share of the market.
Should the Connecticut districts examine a regional approach and consider including nearby non-Boston attractions such as the Basketball Hall of Fame [in Springfield, Mass.] and Old Sturbridge Village?
Interstate cooperation is important. Meeting planners look at a region, and don't consider state borders important. A new organization, Discover New England, is promoting the six New England states as a destination. Our office has been working with a number of other entities, including [groups] in Hartford and Springfield to help them be viewed as a regional destination. The same is true of southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island.
How has your job changed in the almost 13 years you've been doing it?
It's like a whole different world. Back in 1992 tourism was about a $3 billion-a-year industry. Now it's about $5 billion, not even counting the casinos. Connecticut has really grown up as a tourism destination. We're now entering a second phase [characterized by] vast improvements in physical properties, in marketing and outreach, vast improvements in economic impact.
How much in the way of secondary economic benefits do the casinos actually generate?
This is actually where some of the most significant change has taken place over the last few years. About six years ago we did some research in the metro Boston market that told us that Connecticut had nothing that people who lived in the Boston area were interested in. Last year we went back to see if there were any changes, and we were very much surprised to discover that the Boston market now looks at Connecticut as a viable destination. What we're getting is the person who originally came to [Foxwoods Resort Casino or Mohegan Sun] as a gamer and is now returning to Connecticut as a leisure traveler because they saw something they liked. So this year we'll be expanding some of our marketing effort into that Boston market to try to encourage that a little bit.
The casinos obviously chart their own marketing course. Do they involve themselves in your efforts on any level?
Our marketing and PR efforts are for the most part cooperative. The casinos are always there to help if it's appropriate for them, they're interested in what we're doing, and we consider them strong partners.
Why would anyone deliberately come to Connecticut other than on their way to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun?
They come for one or more of four reasons: 1) rest and relaxation; 2) culture and heritage; 3) outdoor activities such as fishing, biking, hiking; and 4) to be with their families. More than a third of out-of-state visitors are coming to Connecticut to visit friends or relatives.
Are we doing a good enough job marketing our outdoor attractions, because they typically are not managed by organizations with large marketing budgets.
We're seeing tremendous growth in tourism related to outdoor attractions. No one would have thought ten years ago to come to Connecticut in February to be out on [the Connecticut] river with a pair of binoculars. But the eagle festival in Essex attracts thousands of people now. Our rivers and lakes, hiking and biking - all have really taken off. What has changed is we've learned how to put them together into a consumable package. So if we talk about hiking in Connecticut, we are talking about specific venues. If we talk about viewing nature first-hand, we talk about Audubon and where we can find those opportunities.
Where will Connecticut tourism be in ten years?
Although we have some substantial problems that we need to address - transportation is one, including I-95 - the answer is that we can probably be a strong and even more important industry in this state. We've taken advantage of some of the potential, but clearly we have not fully exploited it. I hope that in ten years Connecticut will be viewed as an important tourism destination for people from outside the state.
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