PORTLAND, Maine — Maine business owners eagerly await the summer months, hoping to produce a successful tourist season.
Thursday's 2024 Governor's Conference on Tourism served as both a reflection on the successes of the 2023 tourist season and a platform for discussions about future strategies to bolster Maine's tourism industry.
"Maine had a really great year in 2023, we had an economic impact of 16 billion dollars," Steve Lyons, director of the Maine Office of Tourism, said.
Lyons emphasized the significant contribution of visitors, noting that they spent over 12 million nights in hotels and other lodging establishments across the state.
"Maine's largest money maker is the hotels. We have so many hotels, our lodging sales are high," he said.
Local restaurant owners, such as Daniel Talmatch of The North Point in Portland, were enthusiastic about the upcoming tourist rush.
Talmatch said increased foot traffic means more opportunities for businesses like his. Stating, "More events, more concerts, the more people in town, the better for all of us."
He suggested that adverse weather conditions, which negatively impacted some tourism businesses last summer, actually benefited his establishment.
"The more rain there is the fewer people that are out. We lost our outdoor seating, so for us, it was great every time there's less outdoor seating, people come to see us," he explained.
The Maine tourism industry is hopeful for a positive trend of visitors staying longer and spending more money every year.
"Each year we have been successful in getting [visitors] staying longer and spending more money," Lyons concluded.