Regional attraction
Amid upheaval of summer travel plans, vacationers seek Connecticut shoreline
As airlines cancel summer flights to Europe and travelers decide against jaunts to states where COVID-19 cases are spiking, visitors appear to be choosing the Connecticut shoreline as an alternate destination for vacations and day trips.
Local tourism officials, restaurant owners and hotel operators in the area are reporting a more successful summer than originally predicted, considering the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.
“There’s definitely, I would say, more people in town than I would’ve anticipated, given everything that’s going on in the world,” said Dan Meiser, the owner of the Oyster Club, Engine Room and Grass & Bone restaurants in Mystic. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised with that.”
“I can tell you that the hotels are as full as they can be now, given the restrictions,” added Peggy Roberts, president of the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce. Vacationers who’ve checked in at the Chamber’s welcome center have mostly come from northeastern states like New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, she said.
Roberts said she’s seen an uptick of visitors in Mystic since Connecticut hotels were given the go-ahead to reopen in mid-June. Travelers are heading to tourist attractions like the Mystic Seaport Museum and the Mystic Aquarium, booking boat tours and water activities, and eating at town restaurants, many of which have expanded outdoor dining setups.
“Overnighters might be up a little bit, because people are looking for places to get away to for a couple days at a time, at least,” she said. “They’re not going far on planes.”
“People are eager to travel,” added Randy Fiveash, director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism. “We know that they’ve been pent up in their [homes]. This goes for in-state travelers, as well as surrounding states. But they want to be safe when they do travel. … So they’re opting for destinations that are closer to home.”
Last month, the office launched a $1.2 million multimedia campaign, “So Good To See You, Connecticut,” with digital content on ctvisit.com, social media marketing and TV ads featuring state attractions like hotels, museums, breweries, wineries, arts and cultural organizations, historical sites and nature centers.
“We want to make sure that people know that our tourism businesses are open and ready to welcome guests, and at the same time, they’re open safely,” Fiveash said.
At Mystic Seaport, president Stephen White said the museum has seen a “steady increase” of visitors each week since Memorial Day. The museum benefits from having 17 acres of outdoor exhibits, and they’ve also offered free boat rides along the Mystic River.
“It seems to us that the public is craving experiences that are safe, that are outdoor-oriented,” he said. “I think the state of Connecticut is working hard to market that message, that there’s a lot to see right here at home. If you haven’t been to many of the destinations in Connecticut, now is the time, particularly outdoor venues.”
In Old Saybrook, all available rooms at the Saybrook Point Resort & Marina recently sold out two nights in a row, said general manager John Lombardo. “Since we were able to reoccupy the rooms, it didn’t take people too long to make reservations and come back.”
About 65% of the overnight guests are Connecticut residents, he said. The resort is strictly following guidelines from the state, where anyone traveling into Connecticut from a state with high positivity rates must selfquarantine for 14 days. That list included 31 states as of July 21.
The venue has lost a good portion of its 2020 wedding business, but they’ve moved about half of this year’s weddings to 2021, Lombardo said, with 25% of the events still on the calendar for this fall.
Outdoor dining is also “booming,” he said, with about 90% of guests asking to sit outside. The resort has spaced out its seating across outdoor areas normally used for weddings and events, and invested in more umbrellas and additional tables and chairs.
Shoreline hotels have been doing well, said Steve Matiatos, president of the Connecticut Lodging Association, with some reporting occupancy numbers close to summer 2019 figures. But he noted that many have yet to fill August bookings, and he believes the unpredictability of COVID-19 across the country is causing hesitance among travelers.
“It’s still materializing, it’s still fresh,” he said. “Every day you wake up to new stats, new numbers, new concerns, it’s not going the right way. I would’ve thought August would be on the books, but not so much the case all around.”
Matiatos said he’s seen a stark difference between hotels along the shoreline, some of which are reporting occupancy numbers close to 2019 figures, and hotels in downtown Hartford, New Haven and Stamford which rely on business travel.
“There’s a greater concern for the long-term future than there was, I think, a month ago,” he said of the city hotels. “Especially for these downtown locations.”
In Madison, the summer at The Clam Castle has been “very different, and it’s been very busy,” said David Donahue, owner of the fried seafood restaurant on Route 1. “I did not think [this season] was going to be this busy, but I really didn’t know what to expect. … I think people are really itching to get out after being cooped up.”
The clam shack is less than a mile from Hammonasset Beach State Park, making it a popular pre- or post-beach stop. With Connecticut beaches offering limited capacity, Hammonasset fills quickly, Donahue said.
With COVID-19 concerns, Clam Castle is not offering indoor dining. Takeout has made up a large part of business, Donahue said, accounting for about 65 to 70% of sales. Outdoor dining is available at about 12 tables, down from the normal 15, to offer proper distancing between parties.
“We’ve been super, super lucky with the weather,” he said. “We really haven’t had a ton of rain. I’ve had maybe three days of rain, and even those days are busy with the takeout.”
In Mystic, Meiser said outdoor seating has been critical to the overall sales at the Engine Room, his gastropub on Holmes Street that focuses on burgers, beer and bourbon. They’ve extended seating into the restaurant parking lot. His flagship restaurant, Oyster Club on Water Street, has been closed for renovations, but he’s planning for an August relaunch of the dining room and the Treehouse, its popular casual rooftop bar area.
With the Oyster Club temporarily offline, he and his team have been hosting outdoor pop-up dinners at Stone Acres Farm in Stonington, with four-course dinners, cocktails, beer and wine. Guests have come from around the state, as well as Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island, he said.
“Most of our guests either would prefer to be outside, or are quite frankly not ready to go back inside yet,” he said. “The Stone Acres pop-up is the perfect blend of an amazing dining experience in a beautiful dining room that’s outside and safe. It checks all the boxes.”
Meiser, however, is also looking ahead to fall, as the weather cools and outdoor dining phases out.
“We’re anxious and nervous to see what happens in the fall, what happens when patio seating goes away,” he said. “Then our restaurants are all of a sudden at 50% of indoor capacity, and what does that look like, how does that work. The unknown there is nervewracking, but for right now things are certainly headed in the right direction.”
“If you can use the old standby term of cautiously optimistic, we are,” Fiveash added. “We’ve got a long way to go and we’re not there yet, but the hotels and restaurants and attractions are doing a terrific job. The governor’s safety protocols are getting us in the right direction, and we feel like we’re making progress. And we’ll continue on.”