PROVIDENCE – State tourism officials have released a five-year strategic plan to continue the growth of visitation to the state, while interconnecting and identifying untapped assets to make Rhode Island a sustainable year-round destination.
In 2023, the R.I. Commerce Corp. board of directors awarded a $220,000 contract to Ohio-based firm Clarity of Place Inc. to create the five-year development plan for the agency’s marketing arm and the state’s six tourism regions.
During a Feb. 24 meeting of the R.I. Commerce board, Chief Marketing Officer Anika Kimble-Huntley presented the Rhode Island Tourism Development Roadmap and provided an update on current efforts, saying the goal was to better align the state’s marketing strategy with Gov. Daniel J. McKee's administration’s long-term development plans.
Visitation volume to Rhode Island grew 2.2% year over year to a record 28.4 million visitors in 2023.
“We want to continue the positive momentum we are seeing in our tourism trends,” Kimble-Huntley said.
The roadmap includes a comprehensive inventory assessment of the physical assets in the state and provides benchmarks that tourism officials hope can bring annual state and local tax revenue related to tourism from the $935 million in 2023 past the $1 billion threshold, Kimble-Huntley said.
R.I. Tourism Director Mark Brodeur said this “regional integration" will help the agency market the state beyond its typical reputation as a seaside resort, or the city of Providence as a metropolitan destination.
Though no dollar figure was attached, one of the roadmap recommendations involves a potential sports complex in Warwick to build upon the growing sports industry, which now accounts for roughly 80% of convention activity in the state, Brodeur said.
Included in the advocacy goals was a recommendation to “research and propose alternative funding mechanisms beyond the State Hotel Tax,” which funds the regional tourism districts.
“What is not here now that we can add to help enhance or build programming?” Brodeur asked.
However, Kimble-Huntley said there are still new challenges for the state to compete – both domestically, and internationally with countries like Canada and Mexico – because of the uncertainty over the polices of the Trump administration.
The U.S. Travel Association recently reported that about 2 million people have stopped visiting the Unites States from Canada, historically one of the largest subsets of visitors to Rhode Island.
But honing in on increasing domestic travel can offset losses from Canada and Mexico, Kimble-Huntley said.
In January, the South County Tourism Council received a $107,500 Place Making Initiative grant from R.I. Commerce to bring the Troll Trail installations created by award-winning Danish artist Thomas Dambo back this season and expand the number of trolls to three.
North Kingstown received the same amount of money to build a sculpture there, too.
Data on the total economic impact of the troll installations from South County Tourism Council CEO Louise Bishop was not immediately available, but the organization previously reported that approximately 60,000 people visited the trail in Charlestown’s Ninigret Park in June and July of 2024 alone.
On Wednesday, Kristen Adamo, CEO and president of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the organization, which assisted in the creation of the plan during quarterly meetings with the state’s regional tourism districts, “fully supports this five-year strategic plan.
“Commerce engaged all of the regions, as well as key stakeholders in our communities,” Adamo said. “The result is a measurable and thoughtful roadmap for how tourism should evolve and what needs to be done to get there.”
(UPDATE modifies paragraph 8, and adds paragraph 9, to provide additional comments and information from R.I. Tourism Director Mark Brodeur, and adds paragraph 16 with information about the number of visitors to the Troll Trail at Ninigret Park in June and July of 2024.)
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
