Connecticut”™s tourism sector appeared to freeze during the storms that walloped the state in January.
Now, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy hopes to thaw visitors”™ views of the Nutmeg State ”“ and has hired Kip Bergstrom, a former Stamford official, to lead that effort.Â
The leisure and hospitality sector suffered the biggest job loss statewide in January, dropping 4,000 positions that the Connecticut Department of Labor theorized could have been the result of severe winter weather. The ice and snowstorms helped boost employment in the construction industry, however, due to roof damage and other property needs.
The Fairfield County area gained 2,100 jobs in January, according to DOL estimates, even as the state lost 2,700 jobs overall. The statewide unemployment rate remains flat at 9 percent, mirroring the national unemployment rate.
Connecticut has 22,600 more jobs than it did in January 2010, including an estimated 9,200 jobs in the Fairfield County region. The professional businesses sector, a major driver of Fairfield County”™s economy, led all industries statewide with a gain of 3,500 jobs.
Malloy hopes to duplicate that success in the tourism sector by folding the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism into the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and hiring Bergstrom as executive director of the tourism office, which until recently was led by Karen Senich.
Malloy said Bergstrom would have additional duties under new DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith, without providing further details initially.
Since 2008, Bergstrom has been executive director of the Stamford Urban Redevelopment Commission, and between 1993 and 1998 was the city”™s economic development director. Between his tenures in Stamford, he was executive director of the Rhode Island Policy Council.
Bergstrom will have an annual budget of $15 million, if Malloy”™s budget request for the tourism office is passed intact by the Connecticut General Assembly. Malloy”™s predecessor M. Jodi Rell slashed the department”™s marketing budget to $1 on paper, which resulted in the Discover New England website dropping Connecticut from its tourism listings ”“ not to mention its map of New England.
In a press conference, Malloy said it would take time to repair the state”™s image.
“I thought we should rejoin New England ”“ and we have ”“ but I also believe we actually have a fair amount of catching up to do,” Malloy said. “Colorado, which at the time had been the leading summertime destination state, once cut its advertising budget to zero. It took them 15 years to get back.”
Malloy repeatedly stated his desire to increase TV advertising touting Connecticut to other states, and recalled his time as a college student working on the “I love New York” campaign that galvanized that state”™s tourism sector.
For his part, Bergstrom thinks of tourists and tourism in the broadest possible context.
“It”™s the part of the economy that if you invest in it strategically, you can most quickly turn it into new jobs,” Bergstrom said. “It”™s also the place where Connecticut brands itself. While it”™s doing that in a specific way (for) the tourism sector, it”™s incidentally branding itself most broadly.
“I think we really have to think about how do we do that in a careful way (so) that we get a two-fer ”“ so that we”™re stimulating tourism but we”™re also positioning the state (for) our existing businesses and prospective businesses, because business owners and their employees are also tourists,” he added.
