Connecticut's tourism season is kicking off this Memorial Day Weekend, but restaurants are asking for more support from the state as the governor works on the budget.
The Connecticut Restaurant Association is asking the state for $20 million committed to tourism marketing, opposed to the $4.5 million invested currently.
"We've done an incredible job at getting people to come to our state, our hospitality as a whole, but we need to make sure we're investing," said Scott Dolch, of the Connecticut Restaurant Association.
Dolch says Connecticut is behind its neighbors Maine and Rhode Island, who spend $23 million and $16 million on tourism marketing, respectively.
He's pointing to the 1% meals and beverage tax to contribute to an increase in investment.
"It's great that we've had so many people come in, but if they start to not come in, what does that mean for our restaurants, our hotels, and our other hospitality businesses?" said Dolch.
State data shows the tourism marketing budget was just over $12 million in 2022 and remained around the same in 2023, supplemented with federal help. It's down to $4.5 million now.
"A lot of that was related to the APRA federal money coming out of COVID, we had more visitors in the state than ever before coming out of COVID," Gov. Ned Lamont said.
Lamont says they're still in negotiations at the state level and will be working on the budget in the next week or so.
"We're sitting down with leaders this week and next week and trying to get that exact balance right. I've got 187 legislators and 100 advocates coming in with specific asks," Lamont said.