Tourism district biting the bullet

With state funding for tourism on hold and expected to dwindle, the agency that promotes tourism in the 42-town region and is responsible for generating $7.5 million a year in tourism-related activity is preparing to furlough its staff by Aug. 27.

The Eastern Regional Tourism District is working to complete monthly newsletters for September through December and will arrange to have them automatically e-mailed on the appropriate dates to the 65,000 consumers who receive them, Eliza Cole, the district's marketing manager, said Wednesday.

The furloughs of five full-time employees would remain in effect until a state budget is passed, and perhaps longer depending on how much funding the budget provides for the district, Cole said.

"We've heard everything from $750,000 to $1," she said.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell's latest budget proposal calls for $1.1 million for the state's five tourism districts, less than a quarter of the $4.9 million the state's previous two-year budget provided for the districts in fiscal 2009, which ended June 30. During the fiscal year, state departments absorbed a 5-percent budget cut, reducing funding for the Eastern Regional Tourism District to slightly more than $1 million.

Under the governor's plan for 2010, the five districts would share a $900,000 appropriation, or $180,000 apiece. The Eastern district, which encompasses a third of the state, would receive an additional $100,000, and the (Connecticut) River Valley and Litchfield Hills districts would each receive an additional $50,000 a year.

"We'd certainly like to be funded up to last year's level; we could get along very nicely on that," said Tim Ford, the Putnam selectman who chairs the Eastern district. "For the state to be pulling funding from tourism doesn't make any sense, particularly in eastern Connecticut with all the attractions we have. We're glad the governor recognizes that we deserve to get a little more than the other districts."

Ford said a state budget that provides $280,000 for the district "would significantly impact our staff." He said the district has been able to keep operating into the current fiscal year through effective management of its resources. In July, the district moved its offices from Huntington Street in New London to Olde Mistick Village, the Mystic shopping complex, where it was offered rent-free space for a year.

"Our marketing plans are already in place through the rest of the year and I'm very confident we can carry them out," Ford said.

Cole said the district has taken on no new projects since July 1.

"We've had advertisers call wanting to buy ads (in future publications), but we haven't been able to accept them," she said. "We've just been finishing up projects that were funded during the last fiscal year."

The consumer newsletter, which touts monthly events, special packages and hotel rates in a "top 10" format, is mostly e-mailed to consumers in the Boston and New York metropolitan areas and on Long Island, "people we know are interested in coming here," Cole said.

The district also e-mails a biweekly corporate newsletter to those who work in the tourism industry or have some vested interest in Connecticut tourism. Its publication will likely be suspended while the staff is furloughed, Cole said.

According to Karen Senich, executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the state's four other tourism districts are also laying low while awaiting approval of a state budget. The River Valley District has furloughed two staffers, she said.

Funding for the commission itself remains uncertain.

"We don't know our fate," Senich said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com