Town’s charm attracts tourists to Kent

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KENT—Tourism has long been an economic driver of the town and a number of business owners are reporting that this summer season is showing great growth over past years, an experience different from that of the rest of the state.

Kent’s charming town center is one of the biggest attractions, along with natural beauty and its cultural scene. Multiple art galleries have long drawn visitors, particularly from New York City. Many local business owners say that some tourists who visit ultimately end up moving here because they find it so attractive. 

Kent Chamber of Commerce officers Gary Kidd and Lulu McPhee attended a conference this spring presented by the state Office of Tourism that operates CT Visit. They heard from a variety of speakers and took away the message that collaboration is the key to success with tourism.

“It’s all about collaboration. These small towns need to collab,” said Kidd during a recent interview. He said that is what the Sidewalk Sale Days that begins today are all about, the town’s businesses collaborating. However, Kidd would like to see collaboration between area towns as well. “We should encourage people to go to these other towns because it’s actually gonna come back in your favor.”

They both also expressed some disappointment with the tourism office because they believe Kent and Northwest Connecticut don’t receive as much focus as other parts of the state, particularly the coast. Even at the conference, there was very little mention of towns in the Litchfield Hills. “Stretching from New Canaan all the way up to North Canaan was kind of forgotten about,” Kidd said. 

“It was underwhelming, or absent, this corner in Litchfield County,” McPhee said of the presentation. She attributes it to limited resources and the staff being new.

McPhee would like to see the state follow through on its offer to repost on Instagram events and activities CTvisit is tagged in. She’d also like to see the state collaborate more with the businesses and the chamber.

However, Chief Marketing Officer Anthony M. Anthony disputes there isn’t a focus on the area, saying that his office is “dedicated to including Western Connecticut, in particular Northwest Connecticut in our promotions through a variety of resources and initiatives.”

The state of Connecticut is seeing lower numbers so far for 2024 but last year was a 2 percent increase over 2022, Anthony shared.

“In 2023, we had nearly 67.86 million visitors, as determined by Tourism Economics, a service our office has used for more than a decade,” Anthony said. A visitor is defined as someone who travels more than 50 miles and stays in place for more than two hours. The state also makes use of cellphone data for visitation that is tracked by Arrivalist, he explained. He presented a number of examples to The Kent Good Times Dispatch (see below). Kent is part of the Litchfield Hills region on the state’s tourism website.

Currently, the only Kent listing from the CT Visit site summer fun in the Litchfield Hills is the state-owned Eric Sloane Museum, which is listed under museums and galleries. However, once you click on the Sloane link, the site offers “While you’re in the neighborhood,” suggestions of town restaurants. 

Andrew Rowand, curator and administrator of the Eric Sloane Museum, said the tourism office recently went through dramatic changes and greatly increased staff in the past year. Anthony confirmed that five new staff, including himself, were hired in 2023. Rowand is hopeful that the town and the region will receive more attention. The museum was recently featured in a video posted on social media. 

“I think we’re in a better place than we’ve ever been,” Rowand said. “They’re really thinking outside of the box for new ways of looking at Connecticut. I’ve seen a lot of support here at the museum, which had not been the case in the past.” 

As a longtime state museum with 54 years of attracting visitors to town, the Sloane Museum sees 6,000 visitors each season (May to October). Right next door is the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association, which also draws thousands of visitors to town. He also credited Western CTVisit as another partner assisting with tourists, with accounts on Facebook and Instagram. 

“People come and spend the whole day in Kent and there’s so much to offer,” Rowand said, adding that many times his staff is asked to make recommendations of where to eat or visit in town and they readily do that.

Kidd agreed that the fact the town has so much to offer is part of its attraction.

“It has the old school shops, but it’s got a modern twist and a modern welcome, where you can spend an entire day here. You can go on your walks, you can go on your hikes, you can go and explore, you can go shopping and eat out in some amazing restaurants,” Kidd said. 

Increasing tourists

Ore Hill and Swyft Restaurants have grabbed the attention of the state tourism office and were invited to share food at the state conference. Allison Mitchell, the assistant general manager, said Sunday both restaurants have seen an increase in customers. She said they average 500 people dining each week, but acknowledges that number includes many who eat multiple times in a week. 

Mitchell said 75 percent of those dining at Ore Hill, the fine dining restaurant, are from New York City. Swyft is more balanced between residents and tourists.

“We do get a good amount of locals, I would say it is about half and half for Swyft,” Mitchell said.

She agreed that collaboration helps the town’s businesses and the restaurants work closely with the Kent Barns and the House of Books, which are all under the same ownership, on events, book salons and author dinners as well as gallery parties. They try to employ local companies for services they need, she said.

Outreach from the tourism office’s marketing company led to Ore Hill being featured at the state conference. “We were on the top of some people’s list,” Mitchell said, following a story in The New York Times last fall and a series of accolades the restaurant received as being one of the best restaurants in the state.

While state numbers have seen tourism decline by 6 percent this year, Mitchell said her numbers show increases. 

“All services, lunch, brunch, dinner, have increased 15 percent over last year. We’ve been doing well this year,” Mitchell said. She acknowledged that it has taken a long time to recover from the Covid pandemic and only now the numbers are exceeding pre-pandemic business. As an employee for six years, she has been through what she hopes is the worst.

“Tourism is doing well in the area. It is only getting bigger and better. I hope that we can sustain it,” she said.

Another business that brings tourists to town is Club Getaway. Owner David Schreiber said there are 10,000 adults who come to town on weekends through programming at the resort during the six-month season. The resort is “exceeding pre-Covid numbers.” In the 13 years he’s owned the business, they’ve always encouraged guests to go to Kent. 

“We always open our gates at 5:30 (on Fridays), so we always send a text message to say ‘make sure you check out town,’ “ he said, adding they encourage going to the Kent Farmers Market and 45 on Main. “We never knew until 45 on Main came into the picture how much people do follow that.” Schreiber is one of four partners that own 45 on Main with Kidd.

During the weekends there are six organized trips into town from Club Getaway, including vans driven to Main Street, as well as walks and biking into town. Guests find visiting Kent to be a lovely beautiful town, Schreiber said.

“That little stretch of road on Main Street is so charming,” he said. “I think many of us take it for granted. To spend two hours walking around, our guests love it.”

The Kent Farmers Market has been recognized as one of the best in Connecticut. Manager Nancy Rohr said Kent earned third in the state in the American Farmland Trust’s annual contest in 2023. She has seen many tourists visit during the season, which is May through mid-October. She also sees a lot of part-time residents bring guests with them to the market. The market is open Fridays from 3 to 6 p.m.

Recreation

The Kent Land Trust offers its 10 preserves to the public and doesn’t make a distinction between tourists or locals who hike the trails. 

“Recreation is a huge reason why people come here,” said Connie Manes, KLT executive director. 

The town is home to three state parks that also draw tourists. Kent Falls is one of the most popular and very well known. Both Macedonia and Lake Waramaug State Parks offer seasonal camping. Efforts to obtain data from state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) officials on the number of visitors to the parks were not successful.

Advertising and Publicity

Many of the business owners said they rely on Instagram as the main source of advertising, rather than traditional print advertising. Both Club Getaway and the Kent Collective are working with influencers on Instagram. 

“Now the big thing is influencers—bringing people up here, sometimes paying them or giving them a free weekend, knowing that they have not only a large following but an engaged following that would be interested in what we do,” said Schreiber. Most of his budget has moved from paid advertising to more organic forms of social media and marketing with influencers.

Lulu and John McPhee started The Kent Collection when they saw the former railroad train car in Railroad Station Square was for sale, along with the buildings on either side of it. They had moved to Gaylordsville full time during the Covid pandemic. 

“It took a lot of money to bring them back to where they needed to be, but we had a vision, and we thought, well, there’s not a need for more retail,” John McPhee said. Later they were made aware of The Victorian, which was a bed and breakfast with eight-unit condominiums in the back. They renovated the B and B with great care, Lulu McPhee explained, paying close attention to the historical nature of the building, which dates to the late 1870s, as well as transforming it to be comfortable for today’s travelers. 

The Starbuck Inn property on North Main Street became available when the former owner, Peter Starbuck, became ill and agreed to sell it to them. It is now called the Firefly Inn. All the properties are managed by innkeeper Keli Benitez. As of June 1 all of the properties have been open for one year.

Their clients vary but many are coming for a weekend getaway. Sometimes it is a group, such as a wedding party. They have a total of 17 rooms available. 

The charm of Kent is what attracts visitors, the McPhees say and what keeps them coming back.

“The schools are very good for us. High Watch has a lot of visitors coming to stay,” explained John McPhee. “Our primary group is people coming out of the city. It’s two hours and an easy getaway.”

“We’re fortunate that 25 percent of our guests in one year are repeat clients,” he added.

The couple have put a lot of effort into social media to attract clients and have 15,000 followers on Instagram. 

“We’ve been giving stays to appropriate influencers to come up here and they’ve done some videos that are better than if we hired professionals,” he said, adding part of the reason the videos are effective is they seem authentic and “from the heart.”

State tourism

Anthony said his office wants to be partners. He cited the work his office has done with an enhanced web presence, social media and outreach to national media outlets to obtain coverage of towns in Northwest Connecticut. On social media the tourism office is encouraging use of hashtags #ctvisit #makeithere and #connecticut. The office is also doing listening tours and welcomes input from its partners, Anthony said.

He encouraged businesses to contact him directly 860-969-7857 or email anthony.anthony@ct.gov.

“We are making focused efforts with our growing staff to not only better advertise the state, but to be more accessible and collaborative with our partners,” he said.

State promotion references to Western Connecticut sites

Summer 2023

Pilobolus (Washington, CT)

Club Getaway (Kent)

UTVs/Backyard Adventures (Canaan) 

Spring Hill Arts Gathering/Silo (Washington)

Berkshire Balloons (New Hartford)

Thrillz (Danbury)

Fall 2023

Llama Hiking – Rowanwood Farm 

Lee’s Stable – Horse Riding (Litchfield)

Club Getaway (Kent)

UTVs/Backyard Adventures (Canaan)

Winvian Spa (Morris)

Lime Rock Park (Lakeville)

Berkshire Balloons (New Hartford)

American Mural Project (Winsted)

Burr Pond State Park – Kayaking (Torrington)

Summer 2024

Burr Pond State Park – Hiking (Torrington)

Winvian Spa (Morris)

Llama Hiking – Rowanwood Farm 

UTVs/Backyard Adventures (Canaan) 

Spring Hill Arts Gathering/Silo (Washington)

Pilobolus (Washington, CT)

Berkshire Balloons (New Hartford)

Upcoming – Fall 2024

Bike Riders on the Cornwall Bridge

Club Getaway (Kent)

General Western Region Drone Footage

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