New London - The group whose mission was to promote New London as a stop for cruise ships no longer exists.

In its heyday, the Connecticut Cruise Ship Task Force brought nine cruise ships in one year to New London. The most recent large cruise ship to dock in New London, the first since 2010, was the 856-foot Dawn Princess, which stopped in the city in July during a round-the-world trip from Sydney, Australia.

The 2,000 passengers on board received a warm welcome from the city. Businesses along Bank and State streets hung "Welcome Dawn Princess" signs in their storefronts. New London Main Street led visitors on bus tours of the city, and others rode on segways to tour downtown.

But despite successes, the task force grappled with a lack of a consistent funding source throughout its lifetime.

An email Oct. 22 from George Cassidy, executive director of the task force, to Capt. Chuck Beck, transportation maritime manager for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, announced, "In a CCSTF board meeting last night we officially voted to go out of business. Web site, email and phone numbers have been terminated. We just couldn't continue without state financial support. It was a very sad meeting for all of us."

Beck, a member of the Connecticut Maritime Commission, shared Cassidy's email with the commission, which, at its Nov. 19 meeting, showed an interest in pursuing future possibilities to bring cruise ships to the area.

John Casey, a local attorney who served as board president of the task force, attributed the decision to legislation signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in June to create a state Port Authority.

"Since that entity is going to be responsible for the development of ports, we felt it more appropriate for the state to handle marketing and cruise ship visits as part of their responsibility," Casey said in a phone interview.

Casey said he didn't view the dissolving of the task force as a failure.

"We showed that it was viable to bring cruise ships here. In our best year we had nine cruise ships come into New London," he said.

The task force started as an ad hoc group in 2002, and was incorporated as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit in 2004. The 501(c)(6) tax classification is often used by chambers of commerce and similar organizations.

The group received several grants over the years, but never had a consistent funding source.

"We did a lot with what we had," Casey said.

The task force received more than $180,000 in funding during its lifetime. Its biggest grant of $69,905 came in 2012 from the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Casey said the money was used for operations and recruiting cruise ships. The task force's most recent funding came from the City of New London, which budgeted $1,000 for the group during the 2014 fiscal year.

DECD also gave the task force a $52,000 grant in 2007. According to a July 2010 report from the state Office of Legislative Research, that grant paid for shuttle buses to take cruise ship passengers from State Pier to a welcoming stop at Union Station, and also for various rental costs.

In 2007, the task force also received a $30,000 grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism that was matched by an equal contribution from the Mystic Coast & Country Travel Industry Association. Randy Fiveash, state director of tourism, said the grant supported operational costs for two years.

Security rules that went into effect in 2009 from the federal Department of Homeland Security affected the task force by making it harder for cruise ship companies to add New London to its port calls, Casey said.

"So we saw a downturn … (cruise ship companies) set their itinerary years in advance, so once we got off the regularly scheduled stops, it was difficult to get back on again," he said.

Limited funding at the time of the proposed DHS regulations also meant that there wasn't a lot of marketing money for the task force. "So we couldn't promote the port in the way we had in past and in the way we thought was needed to bring in cruise ships," Casey said.

Over the years, proposed state legislation that would've given the task force a dedicated funding stream never passed.

"We were reliant on ad hoc grants from the state and funding from the city when that was available," Casey said. "The city doesn't have a lot of extra money to fund these types of things. Once the Port Authority was created we thought it was the more appropriate entity to do this kind of work."

Since the Port Authority isn't expected to come on line until October of next year, commission member John Johnson asked, "Does that leave us without a seat at the table for a year or a year and a half or two years with the industry? I suspect it does."

Johnson asked whether in the meantime there was a way to have a seat at the table through DECD.

"To the extent that there are things we can do to keep the flame lit and not fully drop off the screen in the space of the Port Authority coming on board, I think that's certainly something we'd be open and willing to do," said Tim Sullivan, of DECD.

Commission member Tom Dubno, who is also a member of the Connecticut Maritime Coalition, which advocates for the state's maritime industry, said the coalition will also look into the matter and "see what the possibilities are."

Joe Salvatore of the state Department of Transportation, which oversees State Pier, said instead of the larger cruise ships that "everybody seems to want to target, we should be looking at the boutique, smaller cruise ships, which is probably the more fitting market. We need to define what you're going to tackle."

Commission member Bob Ross, executive director of the state's Office of Military Affairs, said real interest in the industry needs to be gauged.

"Because what our consultants told us is that they could not find interest from the cruise lines in coming to New London," he said, adding later on, "You can't argue the facts. If it was a great destination in the minds of the cruise (ship) companies, they would be here."

Johnson reminded his fellow commissioners that the U.S. Coast Guard Museum that is in the works for New London "becomes a great attraction, obviously, for cruise lines."

The Office of Legislative Research report cited a 2004 DECD analysis of the economic impact of a scheduled visit of a cruise ship to New London, as one of Connecticut's three deepwater ports. The analysis estimated that the arrival of a ship carrying 1,800 passengers and crew would generate an economic gain of $183,105 in gross state product to the Connecticut economy in the year of the visit.

The analysis found that "as a one-time event, the cruise ship industry would have negligible consequences for the Connecticut economy," and that "even as a one- or multi-visit-per-year annual phenomenon (two-, six-, and 12-visit scenarios were run), there is a very nominal gain for the state and a negative impact for the local economy. The tax structure is such that the local government derives no meaningful new revenue."

The analysis also found that a cruise ship visit of the 1,800 passengers and crew size "raises questions about what costs may be incurred by the state and City of New London for infrastructure (pier and road) improvements, security, promotional and other currently unknown costs." However, the analysis cautioned that efforts should be made to meet with tourism experts and officials in the state "to ensure that the assumptions made in this document are reasonable and defensible."

Casey said task force board members would make themselves available to talk with members of the Port Authority Working Group, which is charged with determining what the powers and duties of the Port Authority will be.

j.bergman@thday.com

Twitter: @JuliaSBergman