Members of the Connecticut Tourism Coalition want state lawmakers to keep a promise they made seven years ago to fund tourism promotion.
In 2010, lawmakers passed a bill that allocated three percent of the hotel occupancy tax towards a promotion fund but that money has since been redirected.
“After the first year, that three percent was redirected into the General Fund. So the entire Occupancy Fund has been going into the General Fund ever since. Now we are asking our state legislature to fulfill their commitment they made in 2010,” said Stephen Tagliatela, managing partner of the Saybrook Point Inn in Old Saybrook.
Tagliatela and other members of the tourism coalition were in Hartford this week calling on lawmakers to restore the funding.
Tagliatela says neighboring states like New York and Rhode Island have dramatically increased their tourism budgets. He says Connecticut must do all it can to compete.
