Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 10, 2024 21 Congratulations to the 2024 LeadHER Award honoree ERICA DEAN Comcast Thanks to the generosity of sponsors and donors, together we closed gaps and created opportunities for local women and their families. @wuforuwct unitedwayinc.org/women LEADING THE CHARGE. INSPIRING THE CHANGE. THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: ONWARD ONWARD860 860 YEARS 1924 2024 Moses Tax Group Poulin Wealth Management Group PeoplesBank seafood shops that help tourism offi- cials "plant these little flags in places where we know we can not only stand out, but also help us market ourselves better." Return on investment The timing for promoting the oyster industry is also strategic, Anthony said, as the industry is likely to get a boost from recent legislative changes. A bill passed in 2021, for example, extended decades-old protections that allow aquaculture lands to be classified as farms and subject to reduced property tax rates. Legislation passed last year allows the Department of Agriculture to designate oyster harvesting areas in waters under state jurisdiction. That will ensure preservation of the industry longer term, officials said. The state has 61,000 acres of shellfish farms, which generate over $30 million in annual sales; oyster sales alone reached $14.6 million in 2023, according to the Department of Agriculture. Just over $30,000 went into production of the oyster documentary and development of the oyster trail, Anthony said. The trail includes a map that charts more than 12 oyster farms and 20 restaurants and seafood markets in the state. Meantime, the state spent $5,000 to charter the Avelo Airlines flight to D.C. for the pizza delegation. While it's difficult to gauge the impact of each individual campaign, efforts to broaden the state's tourism reach have been effective, Anthony said. In 2023, the state had its best year ever for the number of visitors, at just under 68 million, while lodging reve- nues increased to more than $1.3 billion, he said. The state's tourism website had 9.4 million visitors in 2023, up 32% from the previous year, Anthony said. State officials are also doing more with less, he noted. Neighboring Maine spends more than $20 million on its tourism efforts, versus Connecti- cut's $4.5 million tourism department budget in 2023, Anthony said. Jan Jones is a lecturer and professor of hospitality and tourism management at the University of New Haven's Pompea College of Business. She also serves on the state Tourism Coalition, Connecticut Hospitality Education Foundation, and CT Meetings board. She said promoting smaller desti- nations can have a broader effect on the state's tourism efforts. People who might come for pizza will then stay for ice cream or shopping. "So, there's a lot of cross collabo- ration, which is why it's important to promote these," Jones said. One challenge, Jones said, is measuring the tourism impact of smaller attractions like pizza parlors or oyster dinners, but with advances in data analytics, it could become easier to do that in the future. "As analytics data improves, we're going to see more and more of that kind of data collection, being able to track where visitors are coming from, whether Connecticut or out of state," Jones said. "As the power of analytics and looking at that data grows, tourism figures and efforts are going to actually only improve." $20M $15M $10M 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 Source: CT Dept. of Agriculture Annual oyster sales in CT SALES Connecticut's new "oyster trail" highlights restaurants and local shops that sell native oysters. MAP | CONTRIBUTED Jan Jones

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