Study: Bridgeport is the worst city for summer travel

Scroll through for a look at the 10 worst places for summer travel, followed by the 10 best. 13 factors, including airfare costs, number of attractions and leisure opportunities. Click here for more information about the list. A new analysis from WalletHub ranks the best and worst places for summer travel. The study looked at five categories broken down into less 13 factors, including airfare costs, number of attractions and leisure A new analysis from WalletHub ranks the best and worst places for summer travel. The study looked at five categories broken down into ... more Photo: David McNew, . Photo: David McNew, . Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close Study: Bridgeport is the worst city for summer travel 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

Bridgeport is the absolute worst destination for a summer vacation out of 80 cities ranked by a leading personal finance and lifestyle site, due mostly to the high cost of accomodations, food, gas and other expenses.

Stamford and Norwalk are lumped together with Bridgeport in last place, and New Haven and Milford combined for 79th place. The analysis of 13 factors, including airfare costs, number of attractions and leisure opportunities, was released Wednesday morning by WalletHub.com

"The survey isn't Bridgeport-specific and clearly has flawed methodology," said Brett Broesder, spokesman for Mayor Bill Finch. "But I also doubt the authors of this unfortunate study bothered to visit Bridgeport. As a city, we're not competing with West Palm Beach or Las Vegas for tourism dollars right now. Instead, we're competing and committed to making Bridgeport a city that works for everyone."

The analysis included the country's largest metropolitan statistical areas, groupings used by the U.S. Census Bureau.

No Connecticut location fared well.

Neither did Albany, N.Y., or many other Northeast destinations, mainly because of high costs. The Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford MSA ranked 73rd out of 80 destinations.

But Bridgeport and lower Fairfield County scored the worst on "the highest costs and hassles of getting there," and next to last for its attractions, despite having the state's only zoo, the nationally known Barnum Museum and the newly reopened Pleasure Beach and boardwalk.

Even Baltimore, the scene of recent riots and soaring crime, ranked higher, 33rd in the country as a vacation destimation. Las Vegas was the top-ranked city with Orlando, Fla., second. Raleigh, N.C. was statistically in the middle, 40 out of 80.

Our summer weather didn't help the rankings of area cities, either. Bridgeport was ranked 75th for mildness of climate and, somewhat inexplicably, Stamford is 88th out of 100 cities ranked on climate.

"In order to identify the best and most budget-friendly summer travel destinations, WalletHub ranked the 80 most populated MSAs based on five equally weighted dimensions, including `Costs & Hassles of Getting There,' `Local Costs,' `Attractions,' `Weather Conditions' and `Parks & Recreation,' " said spokesman John S. Kiernan. "We then identified 13 key metrics that are relevant to those dimensions."

Fran Mayko, spokeswoman for AAA of Southern New England, questioned the methodology used. Factoring in the weather seems "arbitrary," she said, and grouping cities together is "comparing apples and oranges." For example, Mayko said, using airport hubs as a measure of accessibility works against many Connecticut cities.

Bridgeport residents interviewed downtown Wednesday agreed the city's bottom ranking is unfair. Shavonne Davis, who lives in the East End, said she feels very safe living and working here. Downtown resident Conrad Percheson believes the poor rating might come from the "intimidating image" Bridgeport has for some people.

But Davis and Percheson said the city has many attractions outsiders may not even be aware of. Davis said she has brought her children to plays and live music downtown, and Percheson cited the emerging downtown arts scene.

Americans of all ages -- but baby boomers and traditionalists especially -- plan to travel and increase their travel spending this summer compared with the same time in 2014, according to travel and tourism research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates.

Millennials will spend an average of $2,300 on their summer vacations, about $500 less than the $2,788 budget of the average American traveler, according to the Shifflet study.

Connecticut's tourism effort is focused on drawing visitors from New York, New Jersey and the rest of New England, as well as in-state "staycations." The "Still Revolutionary" ad campaign relaunched for the season in May with a $2.3 million budget. This year's campaign will place a greater emphasis on Connecticut's casinos as resort and entertainment destinations, according to the website, ctvisit.com