Hartford — He might describe his Old Saybrook Point Inn & Spa as a “small player, with less than 100 rooms,” but Stephen Tagliatela, the property’s innkeeper and managing partner, garnered plenty of attention Wednesday at the Connecticut Governor’s Conference on Tourism, where he was named Tourism Leader of the Year.

“I’m very honored and humbled,” Tagliatela said later in an interview at the Connecticut Convention Center, site of the conference.

Tagliatela’s parents, Louis and Mary Tagliatela, bought the former Terra Mar Hotel in 1980, replacing it with the Old Saybrook Inn, which opened in 1989. Since then, Tagliatela has helped oversee a number of capital improvements at the inn, including the addition of a spa and Fresh Salt, a well-regarded restaurant, as well as the renovation of Three Stories, a guesthouse on the property, which opened in 2014, and the adjacent Tall Tales, another guest house that opened earlier this year.

“Stephen has been a transformational force in Connecticut’s shoreline region,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in presenting Tagliatela's award.

Also recognized at the convention was Regan Miner, a Norwich Historical Society consultant, who was named Connecticut tourism’s Rising Star.

Over the past 2½ years, Miner has been the driving force behind three major projects: the Walk Norwich Campaign, the restoration of an 18th century schoolhouse and the creation of a permanent exhibit on Norwich’s history. A recent graduate of the University of Connecticut, she's enrolled in the master’s degree program in public history at Central Connecticut State University.

Tagliatela helped found the Connecticut Tourism Coalition, an alliance of hospitality interests that this spring lobbied the state legislature for more reliable funding of statewide tourism promotion. The group backed a bill that would fund a separate account for that purpose with 13 percent of the revenue generated by the state’s highest-in-the-nation hotel occupancy tax.

Still hopeful the legislature will pass the bill before it adjourns next week, Tagliatela said the proposed account could restore annual tourism funding to near the $15 million level.

He said funding for statewide tourism promotion next year now stands at $6 million.

“New York state has allocated $50 million for tourism — and we want New Yorkers to come here,” he said. “Over the course of time, you can’t plan when you don’t know what you’re getting from year to year. With an account funded by the bed tax, it would vary a little from year to year, but not by much.”

Investment in tourism pays off, he said.

“We think we’re part of the solution to the problem,” he said, referring to the state’s budget woes. “If you invest $15 million in tourism, you’re going to get $40 million to $60 million back.”

“We’re not GE, we can’t pick up and move,” Tagliatela said. “So we want the state to be a better place to live in.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com