The number of tourists visiting Maine this past summer dipped by about 9 percent compared to the previous year.
Recent data from the Maine Office of Tourism show that direct spending between May and August barely dipped by 0.4 percent.
In addition, fewer visitors stayed with friends or family or in second homes this past summer and stayed fewer days in Maine, according to the report.
Becky Jacobson, executive director of Hospitality Maine, said visitation appears to be settling back down to 2019 levels from before the pandemic.
“It wasn’t 2022 when you couldn’t get a room in the entire state of Maine,” she said. “It’s normal to have some open space, and so I think people are sort of readjusting to the normal ebb and flow of traffic.”
Though visitation in Maine dropped this past, Jacobson said the tourism season is now consistently running through to the fall.
“The season definitely lasts through mid to late October now,” she said. “And there’s a much stronger visitation rate, according to my members, in those months. Businesses that might have previously closed earlier, especially hotels and lodging properties, are finding that they’re booked into October.”
Tourist satisfaction remains high, the Maine Office of Tourism said, with 94 percent of visitors saying they will return for a future visit.
“The high percentage of repeat visitation is an indication of a strong and diverse tourism industry that provides a high-quality experience for our visitors,” Carolann Ouellette, the office’s director, said in a statement by email. “We also saw that even while summer visitation softened slightly this year, direct spend remained steady, which was good news for Maine’s tourism industry businesses.”
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
