Nov. 16--It's fun. It's affordable. And it's not that far away.

That's the message this fall from the region's two tourism groups as they promote eastern Connecticut as the perfect fall getaway.

The special promotion, first launched in September by the Mystic Coast & Country Travel Industry Association and the Eastern Regional Tourism District, has received good results, says Chris Jennings, who heads the Mystic Coast & Country organization.

"We're happy with it," says Jennings, "considering everything that's been going on since September."

"We were able to break through all the bad news (with the economy) with a strong message to basically 'take a break' here," he added. "And the response has been pretty positive."

The special initiative, dubbed the Fall 2008 Joint Marketing Campaign, included direct-mail appeals, an email campaign and online banner advertising pushing Mystic Country as a "fun and affordable escape" this fall.

Over the past several years, this region's multibillion-dollar tourism industry has been boosting its marketing efforts to lure more tourists here during the fall, or "shoulder," season, which is increasingly popular with older couples, retirees and those with more leisure time.

Both tourism organizations say that nearly 80,000 direct mail pieces were sent in early September, targeted to households in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The pieces were sent mostly to those who had already requested information about this area over the past four years.

The email campaign included more than 56,000 consumers, encouraging the recipients to consider Mystic Country as their fall getaway destination.

The online banner ads began running in September on popular tourism Web sites VisitNewEngland.com and TripAdvisor.com.

Jennings says the tourism groups are continuing a "pay-per-click" tourism promotion through the popular Google and Yahoo Web sites.

He also says that Web site activity on the tourism groups' joint Web site at MysticCountry.com has increased since the special fall promotion began. Visitors to the MysticCountry site are coming from a number of popular other Web sites, ranging from Google to MSN and AOL.

Tourism officials say they're happy with the targeted fall campaign and have been impressed with the interest generated through the use of direct mail and online resources to attract visitors to eastern Connecticut's tourism and travel attractions.

"The challenge now," explains Jennings, "will be the conversion of those folks we reach." Conversion refers to successfully turning a Web site query, for instance, into a visit to the Mystic Country region.

Jennings says the fall promotion was a much more focused campaign and reflected increased cooperation between his privately funded tourism organization and the public-funded regional tourism district headquartered in New London.

"That's going to be the key going forward," says Jennings. "We've done special spring and fall (promotions) over the last three years, but now we're talking about how to expand that out for a more consistent message."

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