New Yorkers Respond To State’s Tourism Pitch

HARTFORD (AP) – Daytrippers from New York and New Jersey are heading to Connecticut for short vacations at a record clip, according to a new study.

Tourists from the metropolitan New York area spent $100 million on Connecticut attractions and related businesses in 1999, an increase of 46 percent from the year before.

“Connecticut isn’t the drive-through state anymore, but the drive-to state,” Ed Dombroskas, executive director of the Office of Tourism, said Monday.

Based on the $2.5 million tourism budget, the state recouped $40 from New York-area tourists alone for every dollar spent, Dombroskas said.

Dombroskas credited the increase to the new tactic of featuring only the state’s bigger attractions in advertisements. The $100 million from metro New York tourists is a small part of the state’s overall tourism industry, which generated $5 billion in 1999, up from $3.8 billion in 1992, Dombroskas said.

The state tourism office of the Department of Economic and Community Development attributes the increase to a seven-year marketing campaign aimed at metropolitan New York.

“This clearly demonstrates that Connecticut’s marketing efforts are paying huge economic dividends,” said James Abromaitis, commissioner of the state DECD.

The New York campaign included 30- and 60-second television spots that featured tourist destinations in Connecticut, regional magazine and newspaper advertising, a cooperative summer radio program in New York and newspaper inserts in Connecticut and New York.

Other parts of the study, which was conducted by Witan Intelligence Strategies Inc. of Avon, showed large increases in specific areas of spending. Lodging revenues jumped 24 percent, shopping figures increased 41 percent and restaurant dining rose 6 percent.

The study was conducted through a telephone poll of 700 people from metro New York who had called the state tourism office. Mystic continues to be the No. 1 destination for travelers from New York. Ninety percent of New York travelers were repeat visitors.

The study showed that visitors were pleased with their Connecticut vacations. Some 88 percent of travelers to the state said they plan to come back within the next two years.