Cultural tourism outlets partner to grow audiences

Photo | Theresa MacNaughton Dramaturg Fiona Kyle (starting left) actresses Brenda Pressley and Olivia Cole, and Director Jade King Carroll discuss Hartford Stage's production of “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years” during a recent salon at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford. Partnerships between cultural tourism organizations like the theater and center reflect a growing trend to collaborate on programming to expand their audiences.

Photo | Lisa Beede Harriet Beecher Stowe Center visitors Phyllis Satter (left) of Avon, and fellow patrons share opinions during the nonprofit’s recent “Salons at Lunch.” The salon was a joint effort with Hartford Stage and the talk was based on the Stage’s production of the play “Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years.” The organizations’ collaboration is part of a growing trend on the part of cultural tourist outfits to partner on programming to expand their audiences.

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By Patricia Daddona Special to the Hartford Business Journal

As cultural tourist destinations, the Hartford Stage and Harriet Beecher Stowe Center exemplify an evolving trend, in which organizations share programming to reach wider audiences.

On April 6, for example, the organizations collaborated when actresses from the drama, “Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters' First 100 Years,” discussed race and gender barriers with the center's afternoon “Salons at Lunch” audience.

The center preserves the legacy of its namesake, the author of the ground-breaking anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom's Cabin.”

While the center's crowd of 50 people and the salon's free tickets did not by themselves necessarily raise the profile (or revenues) of the two organizations, the center's Executive Director Katherine Kane says that partnering works.

Programmatic niche

Engagement at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center has grown from just under 23,000 visits annually eight years ago to about 40,000 people a year now, and the salons and partnering are both part of the reason, she said.

“The Stowe Center has a programmatic niche that fits with our historic character and makes it easier to partner successfully,” she said, “because decisions are being made around meaningful content that works for both sets of audiences.”

Partnering is a trend that, while not completely new, is used more and more to jumpstart cultural tourism, according to David Henderson, director of marketing, sales and communications for Hartford Stage, and Richard Benfield, head of the geography department at Central Connecticut State University.

On April 27, they elaborated on the collaboration trend at a session on cultural tourism innovation at the Connecticut Governor's Conference on Tourism at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.

“As the media has become so splintered and you need to reach more and more people through relationships, there's been a lot more partnering,” Henderson said.

He cited the “Play! In CT” collaboration of six regional theaters that marketed drama along a “trail” modeled after a fall foliage trail. The effort yielded $15,000 in annual economic impact for each of the past two years for the theater companies and lodging partners, he said.

Themed partnership

Benfield, who is also vice president of the board of directors for the New Britain Symphony Society, said in 2014 the society partnered with the American Watch and Clock Museum in Bristol to offer a themed concert that attracted 500 patrons.

Both organizations were “delirious” over the large turnout, he said.

“It's just greater awareness and exposure for both organizations,” he explained. “People today are much more eclectic and wide-ranging in their interests and in forming partnerships. You cater to that.”

Partnering is becoming a staple, in part, because cultural tourism represents only about 14 percent of all tourism nationally, said Benfield. That 1999 data is from the Travel Industry of America and was confirmed in 2013 by Mandala Research LLC, he said.

Shopping and tourism

On average, 33 percent of Americans want to shop when perusing tourist destinations, he added, so competition for attention can be fierce.

Randy Fiveash, director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism, and officials at the Central Connecticut Regional Tourism District confirmed that many cultural tourist organizations are partnering to maximize marketing and package “experiences” — though he could not say exactly how many nonprofits and businesses do so.

“It used to be, years ago, people would 'windshield travel' — see pretty things, and look out the window, and say, 'Isn't that nice,' but now they want to experience [places they visit],” Fiveash observed. “They want to experience art, attractions, the beaches, not only just look at it but be a part of whatever it is.”

Stephen F. Hard, chairman of the central tourism district, said the increase in partnering is no surprise because of limited resources. He is also executive director of the Greater New Britain Arts Alliance.

Central Regional Tourism District Executive Director Anne Orsini added that customers and patrons welcome the effort.

Becky Thatcher connection

“It's something we are regularly doing, finding those partnerships within the different attractions we represent,” she said. “It makes it very easy for the potential visitor to say, 'Oh, wow, everything's done for me,' because it can be intimidating, if you are not familiar with the area.”

At the Mark Twain House, Executive Director Cindy Lovell says her organization, which has a history of teaming up with others, is working with the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat to host an evening riverboat tour with whiskey and cigars on its “Becky Thatcher” riverboat. Becky Thatcher is a character from “Tom Sawyer.”

Like other organizations, Lovell said, the Mark Twain House wants people to stay longer in the area when they come, not just come to Hartford and leave.

“With a boat named Becky Thatcher, we should have been 'on' this years ago,” Lovell said. “It's just such an obvious connection.”

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