Poll: Should Connecticut still be a part of New England?

By Rob Anderson

Connecticut has been wiped off the map. Well, not the map, but one fairly important map. Discover New England, which touts itself as New England’s official tourism group, has removed all mentions of the Nutmeg State from its website. The purge, the editorial board explained over the weekend, "followed Connecticut’s decision to cut its tourism marketing budget from $4.3 million to a symbolic $1, which meant it wouldn’t pay the annual $100,000 fee Discover New England charges states to promote a state’s attractions."

As this segment from Radio Boston shows, the story straddles that fine line between very funny and very serious. On the one hand, it's hard not to laugh at the group's extreme hubris. Do the folks at Discover New England really think their annual fee trumps things like, say, a shared geography, culture, and history? In their defense, however, Connecticut's relationship with the rest of New England has always been a tenuous one. By carving Connecticut out of the region, maybe Discover New England just did what we all know has needed to happen for quite some time now.

On a more serious note, Connecticut's decision to eliminate its tourism marketing budget — the reason why Discover New England took such a drastic measure in the first place — really isn't anything to laugh at. As the editorial board noted, Connecticut's tourism industry helps keep around 170,000 people employed, so any measure that hurts that industry could have a real impact on people's lives in the state.

So here's a question: What are Connecticut's best tourist spots? I'm not sure if the answers will help or hurt the argument that Connecticut is a valuable part of the region. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.