Connecticut Wants to Boost Tourism…But What is There to Promote?

In an effort to bolster tourism in Connecticut, the Department of Economic and Community Development is launching a contest for residents to share their favorite experiences in the state. 

While there are things that are nice about living in Connecticut, most of them are not things that would help to boost tourism very much.  Sure, we have some beaches given that we are located along Long Island Sound but the beaches tend to be nicer in neighboring states.  That also doesn’t take into account that while we have beaches to entice visitors, there isn’t much in the area of the beaches to retain them for very long. 

Mystic is a nice place to visit but it still isn’t somewhere visitors can go and spend several days.  It’s good for a day trip or even a weekend getaway, but longer than that is pushing it. 

Anyone who has applied to college in Connecticut knows that one of their favorite ways to entice students to attend is the proximity to New York City and Boston.  Noting this proximity isn’t going to entice people wanting to visit those cities to come to Connecticut, though.  After all, New York City is about an hour and a half train ride from Shelton; Boston can take anywhere from two hours and a half to three plus hours to get to. 

That so-called proximity isn’t going to attract visitors. 

Connecticut has no major cities to attract visitors with like neighboring states do.  Many of the state’s major cities aren’t even appealing to residents of Connecticut.  So why would they be to visitors? 

The state can promote its sports teams to draw in visitors.  But that is contingent on the sport actually being in season for starters and chances are people coming in to the state for a game aren’t going to stick around that long afterwards, let alone make an entire vacation out of. 

Even the casinos, which are probably the state’s biggest draw, are not going to exponentially increase tourism more than they have.  Most people visiting the casinos that stay aren’t sticking around for weeklong trips.  They’re here for the weekend, for a couple of days and that’s it.  And chances are those people are not really venturing out and about.  It’s not as if anyone could blame them; there isn’t much else around the casinos that are of interest. 

The long and short of it is that Connecticut needs to do more to increase tourism in the state.  Running a contest for an upcoming advertisement is a good start but getting residents’ input about what makes Connecticut great is not going to draw in visitors when there is nothing much to do when they get here.    

Most of Connecticut’s attractions are good for a day trip or an overnight trip.  And even then there is little to be seen besides the destined attraction.  Connecticut has areas that would be great to promote to potential visitors; there is no denying that fact.  However, all of these areas have the same issue in that they have nothing to offer to visitors except for that point of interest. 

It is impossible to expect to see an increase in tourism when there is a very limited amount of attractions to promote to potential visitors in the first place.  If the state really wants to see an increase in tourists, they need to work at building up more areas that might interest them and give them something to do while they are here.