With a $1.3 million investment from the state, the Greater Hartford Convention and Sports Bureau expanded its scope June 26 to become a statewide organization.
Now the Connecticut Convention and Sports Bureau (CTCSB) aims to increase the number of conferences and sporting events held in the state.
“This is something we”™ve needed to do for a long time,” said Randy Fiveash, director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism under the Department of Economic and Community Development, at a Bridgeport press conference. “Tourism is economic development and it is one of the purest forms of economic development.”
The state”™s investment is coming from its $15 million tourism-marketing budget and membership dues will also fund the organization.
Although the state, like many other areas, has to compete with New York City and Las Vegas to hold conventions, the industry is still very lucrative and creates jobs, said Michael Van Parys, president of the new CTCSB, which will be adding four jobs to its current staff of five in July.
Last year, the CTCSB generated 65,000 nightly hotel-room leads and this year the group is aiming for 200,000 leads statewide. Multiplying that number for the cost of a hotel room and what guests will spend on food, transportation and entertainment, Van Parys said the dollars and jobs add up.
With roughly 790,000 hotel rooms to rent during the year in just the five largest hotels in Stamford, Joe Kelly, general manager of the Stamford Marriott Hotel & Spa, said the initiative was needed and much appreciated. Speaking for smaller hotels, Jillian Alps, a past president of Connecticut Lodging Association and general manager of Residence Inn, Shelton, said the new bureau would also give smaller hotels that can”™t as easily compete a voice as well.
“This energizes those of us who have supported tourism initiatives,” Alps said. “We needed this.”
Connecticut”™s biggest convention attractions remain the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in eastern Connecticut, and the Connecticut Convention Center, which opened in 2006 along Hartford”™s riverfront.
“The (Connecticut) Convention Center has enjoyed its most successful year this past year, with over 333,000 visitors,” said Jim Abromaitis, executive director of the Capital City Economic Development Authority, in testimony earlier this year before a committee of the Connecticut General Assembly. “This represents a 50 percent increase, with this year”™s numbers tracking at the same pace.”
Speaking on the sports side, Curt Jensen, CTCSB sports marketing director, said the group would be working to bring both amateur and professional sporting events into the state, but that the bureau will also need to work on maintaining the sporting events they have and working up from there.
Bringing the NCAA Hockey tournaments to Webster Bank the last three years, Wayne Dean, senior associate director of athletics at Yale University, said he was glad to see the formation of a coordinated effort and a one-stop shop for event planners.
“We”™re all on the same team,” Dean said. “Presenting Connecticut.”
”“ Alexander Soule contributed to this report.
