Research Outline

Connecticut Tourism Topics & Speakers

Goals

To plan the keynote speaker and breakout session topics for an upcoming conference in Connecticut aimed at providing education and inspiration to businesses supporting tourism in the state.

Early Findings

  • The 2019 New Jersey Conference on Tourism included topics on branding, using Google for growth, tourism analytics, international tourism, content-driven marketing, website-building, experiential tourism, climate change-related tourism topics, scenic byways, state-based theme topics ("NJ American Dream"), and heritage tourism.
  • The Connecticut tourism industry, in 2015, was challenged by a need to quantify its tourism economy. This may still be an issue within the state since one tourism district had to return funds that went unspent during the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
  • Another challenge faced by the Connecticut tourism industry is that the state was recently at risk for losing millions in tourism revenue to other states, namely New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
  • At the 2019 Governor’s Conference on Tourism and Recreation in Montana, the conference organizers used TV personality and Travel Channel host Samantha Brown as the opening keynote speaker.
  • Roger Brooks is promoted as a bookable speaker by the Destination Development Association. Brooks is described as “an incredible motivational keynote speaker, thought leader, and change-agent in tourism development, downtown destination marketing, and economic development. His audience includes government leaders, businesses, and non-profits looking to increase their travel spending. He is described as an "enthusiastic storyteller with real-life, meaningful content so your attendees go home excited and motivated to implement what they learned." A video of one of Brooks’s presentations can be viewed here.
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