New London - The privately funded Greater Mystic Visitors Bureau and the state's Eastern Regional Tourism District will "jointly partner" on the promotion of eastern Connecticut's tourism assets, the groups' top officials said Wednesday.

Under a cooperative agreement, the bureau will assume management of Mystic.org, which, when relaunched next week, will feature a "booking engine" that will enable users to make reservations and purchase tickets to events online.

"It brings us closer to speaking with one voice," Tony Sheridan, chairman of the bureau's board of directors, said during a meeting with The Day's editorial board.

Ed Dombroskas, executive director of the tourism district, and Randy Fiveash, director of the state Office of Tourism, also attended the meeting. Both hailed the public-private partnership, unique among the state's tourism districts.

Sheridan and Dombroskas signed the agreement on March 28.

"It makes a lot of sense; it certainly is where the bureau's leadership has wanted to go for some time," Stephen Coan, the bureau's founding chairman, said in a phone interview Wednesday. Coan, president and chief executive officer of Sea Research Foundation, which operates Mystic Aquarium, is also a former member of the tourism district's board.

Mystic Aquarium has made a significant financial investment in Mystic.org, which is owned by Mystic Seaport, Coan said.

Sheridan, long an advocate of consolidating tourism-promotion efforts, had urged Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to abolish the state's tourism districts, of which there are now three. The state legislature, however, approved less than $500,000 for each of the districts in the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years.

"One group would be better," Sheridan said in response to a question during the editorial meeting. "But a better question might be, Can we do a better job as two groups?"

While the bureau will pay all expenses related to hosting the website, the bureau, the tourism district and the state will all provide content for the site. The bureau will be responsible for implementing the booking engine, a project to be funded in part by a $7,500 grant the district received from the state.

The district will have access to data related to the traffic Mystic.org generates "on a need to know basis," the agreement states. "Under no circumstances will 'Analytics' be shared with anyone without specific prior approval from the GMVB Board."

The bureau and the district will appoint members to a committee that will be responsible for approving a marketing plan designed to increase traffic to the website.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com