For some Fairfield County families still stuck in staycation mode, a visit to the local tourism bureau is about to require a longer car ride than they may have planned.
With the arrival of the new year, southwest Connecticut no longer has a locally based tourism bureau to help local attractions market to visitors, prospective or actual.
On Jan. 1, the state folded the Coastal Fairfield County Convention and Visitors Bureau into a sister agency, and the bureau”™s CEO of four years Cathy Sidor is no longer with the combined organization.
Perhaps surprisingly given Fairfield County”™s size and proximity to New York, and large attractions like the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk and Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, the Northwest Connecticut Convention and Visitors Bureau is now running the combined entity, with operations in Litchfield and Waterbury.
The Fairfield County bureau is in the process of shutting down its Norwalk operations, according to a state official, but its website remains up.
While some calendar listings feature indefinite exhibits such as seal feedings at the Maritime Aquarium, a large number of new listings kicked off in January, including those posted by a range of entities including Bartlett Arboretum Gardens in Stamford; Silvermine Art Guild of New Canaan; Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk; and the Black Rock Branch Library in Bridgeport.
To date, no notice has been posted on the Fairfield County bureau”™s website regarding the consolidation, however, and the site has not been updated to reflect the change in other ways ”“ for instance, Sidor”™s contact information is still posted on a page reserved for meeting planners.
For its part, the Northwest Connecticut bureau has been under its own pressure to keep up with developments. It has posted up-to-date offers to tourists on its web home page, but Aug. 5 marked the last date the agency issued a press release in 2009, ignoring autumn and winter attractions it has featured prominently in the past such as leaf peeping, skiing and winter sojourns at its inns, among others. The bureau has been operating on reduced hours due to budget cuts.
The consolidation could limit support for local venues, which are already struggling with staff cuts as a result of state budget cuts, and the recession”™s impact on household budgets.
The Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism has shouldered some of the load of marketing Fairfield County attractions ”“ for instance, it prominently advertised the recent “Alchemy: Magic, Myth or Science?” exhibit that ran through Jan. 3 at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich.
The commission”™s own website reflected budget strains, however: As of mid-January a prominent “Connecticut Top Ten” link on the home page featured 10 events that all had been completed, some of them that did so before Christmas.
Barbara Cieplak, marketing director for the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, referred questions to staff members at the Northwest Connecticut Convention and Visitors Bureau, who could not be immediately reached for comment on the resources it can devote to Fairfield County marketing and venues.
