The state’s glowing tourism report released last week for 2005 has some scratching their heads and wondering where all those new visitors stayed and ate while they were here and how they got into the state in the first place.
Others, however, say a boost in the number of overnight trips made to Maine is something to celebrate after a stagnant period stretching back to 2001.
The latest report shows overnight trips to Maine were up to 9.7 million in 2005, or 9 percent over 2004, and marketable trips – those not including business or a visit to family and friends – were up 12 percent.
What’s missing, however, are day trips to the state, which have been at 34.7 million annually since 2002. Day-trippers account for more money spent in the state overall because of their sheer numbers, but overnight guests spend much more per trip.
Dann Lewis, head of the state’s Office of Tourism, said day trips were not measured in this year’s annual survey because the state’s ad campaign was focused on marketable overnight trips and his office was trying to save money on research.
“There’s relatively little change in who they are and where they come from,” Lewis said of the day travelers, so the decision was made to focus on overnight travel.
Day-trippers will be surveyed this year, but results won’t be known until next summer because the results of the state’s annual market survey are always a season behind.
Their absence could help explain other economic indicators that just don’t jibe with the glowing tourism report. The meals and lodging tax in 2005 was up only 3.6 percent over the previous year and trips on the Maine Turnpike were essentially flat.
“I’m looking at the same stuff and did not expect the marketable trips to be up that much,” said Charles Colgan, a professor at the Muskie School and an economic analyst for the state, who admits he was surprised by the report. “Turnpike traffic, as a whole, didn’t change all that much,” he said, and there was a “disconnect with the sales data.”
That data, which breaks sales down by sector, showed total sales increased by 2.6 statewide, while lodging went up 6 percent and restaurants went up 2.9 percent for an average of 3.6 percent in the category usually associated with tourism.
One possibility, Colgan said, is the difference between what the overnight visitors spent and what other tourists and residents did in 2005. As for the traffic on the pike, Colgan said perhaps commercial or commuter traffic was down, offsetting the increase in overnight visitors.
Colgan is doing a study to get a better handle on what Turnpike numbers actually mean, but said overall the latest tourism survey is very positive.
“We’re far better off having a solid 2005,” he said, given what high gas prices and general flattening of the economy nationally could do to the state this year.
According to the tourism survey, which is done each year by Longwoods International:
• Maine overnight trips in 2005 were up 9 percent.
• Of that total, visits to friends and family were up 11 percent; overnight marketable trips were up 12 percent; and business trips – the smallest chunk of the pie – were down 13 percent.
• Overnight trip expenditures were up 15 percent for all types of trips, with marketable trips leading the way.
Greg Dugal of the Maine Innkeepers Association was skeptical of the numbers.
“I don’t dispute what Longwoods said. They’re very credible,” he said, but, “I’m having a hard time making them add up.”
Dugal also pointed to the sales data and flat numbers on the highway – Turnpike statistics show trips through the York toll were up less than half a percentage point in 2005 – and said he can’t find evidence of a boom last summer.
“I guess I’m missing something,” he said.
Lewis said the overall sales and traffic figures were not as robust as one might have expected given the tourism survey results, but that shouldn’t discount the real gains made in attracting overnight visitors, who spend once they’re here.
Lewis said perhaps the best news was Maine’s share of trips from people living within the region, including New England, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. It grew nearly 15 percent and faster than any of its New England neighbors.
In New England, Massachusetts still gets most of the market at 8.8 percent of regional trips; followed by Maine at 6.1 percent; New Hampshire at 5.6 percent; Connecticut at 5.2 percent; Vermont at 3.5 percent; and Rhode Island at 1.7 percent.
“We came on very strong, stronger than any of the other states,” Lewis said, with Massachusetts only growing its share by 10 percent and the other New England states flat or down.
Lewis said the numbers vindicated him after his ad strategy was questioned earlier this year by a Midcoast blogger, who objected to his use of advertising on the Internet, specifically the purchasing of key words so Web visitors would be directed to the state’s tourism Web site.
Things got so bad at one point that the state’s New York ad agency actually sued the blogger, triggering national headlines.
“This is a little bit of a surprise to a few people who don’t think anything is happening,” as a result of the state’s marketing campaign, Lewis said.
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