Critics Fear State Tourism Shake-Up

Will Draw Dollars Away From The Area

By Jan Howard

It was a day of packing up and letting go last week at the Housatonic Valley Tourism District office on South Main Street in Danbury. September 30 was the staff’s last day because the district, once one of 11 in the state, has been merged into one of five districts statewide.

To oversee these five districts, the state has created the Commission on Arts, Culture, History, Film, and Tourism. Bill SS 210-239, 241-Tourism created the commission, incorporating the current tourism, culture, arts, and film commissions into one entity and transferring their duties and responsibilities to the new commission.

The bill gave this new commission planning, budgeting, financing, and managing responsibilities for various aspects of these activities. It consolidates the current 11 regional tourism districts into five, and requires the commission to review and ultimately approve their annual budgets.

For fiscal years 2003–04 and 2004–05, the bill earmarks $20 million in lodging tax receipts to fund the commission, the districts, other specified organizations, and specified projects. It supplements these funds with a $4 million appropriation in each of these years. In subsequent fiscal years, the commission must be funded out of general appropriations.

The bill also specifies that each district and the Humanities Council must annually receive at least $1 million. The bill creates a nonlapsing General Fund account to receive and disburse the funds from this stream.

The first meeting of the new Northwest Connecticut Tourism District took place in Newtown on September 30, but not without controversy and undertones of discontent (See related story).

“For the state, in a positive way, it becomes more consolidated and efficient,” said Catherine Brashich, who has served as director of the Housatonic Valley Tourism District for the last six years. The decision was made as a result of budgetary concerns, and she questions if that decision was the right one.

Tourism, she noted in an interview last week, is a cash cow for Connecticut. “Is this the thing to do?” she questioned of the downsizing. “It’s an investment that generates money. If you take away the grass, what will the cash cow live on?

“It’s a short-term solution to fill a budget gap,” she said of the consolidation. “Hopefully that will change once they see the impact of their decision.”

She said 80 percent of her budget of $1.2 million was paid out to local businesses. “They’re like family,” she noted. “They’re not going to have my business tomorrow. This will have an impact on everything.”

Tourism was part of the recent budget debate, according to Lt Gov Jodi Rell, who visited The Bee’s office last week. “When the budget debate was continuing, we were looking everyplace we could to save money. It is cheaper to have five districts, but we have to make sure they don’t get lost in the shuffle,” she said. “Everyone has to do more to promote local tourism. Let’s give it a chance before deciding it’s not going to work,” she said.

State Rep Julia Wasserman of Newtown (R-106th) said a 1997 Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee report recommended downsizing of the tourism districts. However, she noted, though the money each district will receive is less than what they individually received, there are other funds available to them through grants.

“We have to consider that now they are able to get grants and certain historic and art funding,” she said.

Resident Mae Schmidle, an appointee of the local tourism district, said officials from this area were very upset about the study and testified against it. The legislature took no action on the report at that time, she said.

“The [recent] budget deficit fueled the desire to cut the districts,” Ms Schmidle said.

Ms Brashich noted that the number of districts is not the only thing being downsized. The money coming back to the districts from tax revenue generated by hotel lodgings will be less. While the Housatonic district once received $1.2 million for its nine-town region, the new 49-town region, formed from the Housatonic district, Litchfield Hills Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Greater Waterbury Convention and Visitors Bureau, would receive $950,000, as would the other four tourism districts, for a total of under $5 million.

Ms Brashich termed the $950,000 the new district would receive as a “Band-aid.”

The Housatonic district was begun in 1983 when the state legislature created the initial tourism marketing act. Ridgefield, Bethel, and Danbury were the first to join with other Housatonic Valley towns joining later. New Milford opted to join the Litchfield district. The district’s Board of Directors are appointed by the nine participating communities, Newtown, Bethel, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, Redding, Ridgefield, and Sherman.

Six years ago, Ms Brashich said the district was receiving $650,000 from taxes from lodging revenues. The growth in the district, she explained, was not just in tax revenue but in hotel rooms as well. Eight hundred hotel rooms were added, with the hotels continuing to have 70 percent occupancy.

Even in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the district was able to attract events, she said. “We had the flexibility to spend the money where we felt.”

While it was hoped the new district’s office could remain in Danbury, reality had volunteers and staff busy taking down shelves, boxing office supplies, and moving furniture. The items were donated to area nonprofits, such as the Red Cross and Danbury Museum and Historical Society.

“It is a tradition with our board that what was acquired here stays in the community and helps others in the community,” Ms Brashich said.

Ms Brashich said the state government has not taken into consideration the diversity of the districts. She said a town such as Newtown is different from a town in the northwest corner of the state or Waterbury.

 “Our customers are different from Waterbury customers.” She noted that Waterbury is trying to become a convention center while historic and sporting events are important in the Housatonic district. “It goes along with Connecticut ingenuity, but it does show the differences.”

The tourism district has represented all components of the tourism industry, including hotels and inns, restaurants, public and privately funded attractions, shopping malls, artistic and cultural institutions, and special events. It has offered professional counsel on tourism marketing, event development, promotion, and market research.

“Product development will be one of the first things to go,” Ms Brashich said, as a result of limited budgets. “Our board tried to identify events and work with them with seed money in their initial phases for two years.” Under the new, larger district, the members would have to advise how they are going to use the money a year in advance. “You don’t know in advance what’s happening.”

She is concerned that local programs may be in jeopardy, such as the annual Housatonic Valley Classic International Bike Race in May and the Foxwoods Bass Fishing Tournament at Lake Candlewood in April, as there are extra expenses that no one will be able to pick up now. It is hoped that locally based organizations would pick up sponsorship of sports and special events in the area.

Bass fishing is a growing sport, she explained, and the event occurs at a time when there are fewer tourists in the area. The Eastern Scrabble Championship in February is another event the district brought to the area at a time of year when tourism was down. “It grew from 80 participants to 200,” Ms Brashich said. “We were supporting the economy and helping Scrabble grow.”

Ms Brashich said the tourism office made the area attractive for businesses to come here. Benefits to the area were not only to the hotels, she said. People were looking for food and other places to do things.

Other programs for which the Housatonic Valley Tourism District provided seed money are one act plays, such as about Mary Hawley in Newtown, reenactments at the Danbury Historical Society and Museum and Putnam Park in Redding, and the Housatonic Valley River Trail, which was develed by Peg Daley of Newtown. The district was also responsible for sending four film companies to Fairfield Hills.

Ms Brashich said the tourism district was looking into additional sporting events, such as a triathlon, 10-K running event, or a lacrosse tournament. A long-range vision was to have a training area for the 2012 Olympics if New York is selected to host them. “We have the fields and tracks and enthusiasm to welcome them and were alert enough to go after it now.”

 She said the new, larger district would need to be innovative in its approach to tourism and call upon its Yankee ingenuity. She said there would need to be an increase in cooperative advertising.

Ms Brashich noted if tourism goes down, employees in many businesses will be affected.