Randy Fiveash is ending his 12-year-plus run as Director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism by retiring, effective April 1.
“I”™ve been hesitant to make this move until now,” Fiveash, who was appointed COT director in November 2008, wrote to staffers this week. “But with vaccines becoming more widely available, business restrictions easing and pent-up travel demand increasing, there are so many reasons to be hopeful for a solid recovery for our state”™s many tourism businesses.
“I know there are still challenges ahead,” he continued, “but I have the utmost confidence that you will all demonstrate once again how critical travel and hospitality businesses are to our economy — by working together to spark Connecticut”™s resurgence this spring and summer.”
The state”™s approximately $15.5 billion industry generates $2.2 billion in tax revenues and supports over 123,000 jobs.
Prior to his appointment in Connecticut, Fiveash was Kentucky”™s commissioner of tourism. He also served as executive director of the National Tourism Foundation, and was CEO of several convention and visitor bureaus, mostly in the southern U.S.
In thanking his staff, Fiveash highlighted such accomplishments as restoring funding for promoting Connecticut as a tourism destination, and building a data-driven marketing program. That included a reinvention of the tourism office”™s website, www.CTvisit.com, which he said receives more than 7 million visits per year and features over 5,000 Connecticut tourism businesses and events.
Fiveash did not specify why he is leaving the post, except to say that he plans to spend “some more time to travel myself.”
A new COT director is expected to be named in the coming weeks.
