Report: Maine’s tourism recovery leads nation
(The Center Square) – Maine’s tourism industry is leading the nation in recovery from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an industry report, with visitors returning to the “Vacationland” state in record numbers.
A report from the U.S. Travel Association found that tourism in Maine was up 25% in the first five months of 2022 over the same period in 2019, with visitor spending up 18% in May 2022 over May 2019. Only Montana and Vemont came close to Maine, with 16% and 12% spending increases, respectively.
Greg Dugal, of Hospitality Maine, said the rising numbers of visitors bode well for the state’s hospitality industry, which is expecting a record year.
“The numbers are off the charts,” said Dugal, whose group represents restaurants, hotels and other lodgings. “Everybody is extremely busy, with the height of the tourism season just getting underway.”
Dugal said hotels and other lodgings are reporting bookings for the summer that are at or above 2019, which was a profitable year for tourism.
Nationwide, travel spending hit a new pandemic high of $101 billion in May, slightly above April’s $100 billion, according to the Travel Association’s report.
The report found that despite record high inflation, travel demand remains strong as consumers shift spending from goods to services. Six in 10 Americans plan to travel this summer, up from five in 10 last summer, the group said.
The steadily rebounding numbers are welcome news for Maine’s tourism industry, which was hammered by the pandemic, with collective losses estimated at billions of dollars.
The state saw visitors decline by about 27% in 2020, attracting only a fraction of the 37 million who visited in 2019, according to the Maine Office of Tourism.
Overall spending by visitors was about $9 billion, down from $12 billion in 2019, the agency said.
But the visitors were back in droves the following year, even amid surges in COVID-19 infections and lingering public health restrictions.
In 2021, there were more than 15.6 million visitors to Maine, an increase of 29% over the previous year, according to the state Office of Tourism. First-time visitors to the state were up by 32% over 2020, the agency said.
Total travel expenditures reached more than $7.8 million in 2021, the agency said, which was a nearly 64% increase over the previous year.
Dugal said tempering the tourism industry’s rebound is a hiring crunch that has many hospitality businesses still struggling to find workers to fill vacancies.
The labor crunch has caused somewhat of an imbalance between the restaurant and hotel and lodging industries with the latter seeing slightly more growth.
“Like everywhere else there’s an extreme labor shortage, which makes for challenging times,” he said. “So that’s putting a little bit of a damper on it for the restaurant industry. But people are adapting. Most businesses are dealing with it by reducing their hours, or not being open as many days.”
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