Maine tourism numbers show rebound, and then some
File photo / Laurie Schreiber
With 10.1 million visitors to Maine from May to August, the current tourism trend is not only well up over 2020 but exceeding 2019.
It was probably obvious to anyone strolling downtown streets or waiting patiently in lines of traffic this summer, but tourist visitation in Maine is getting back to levels typically seen before the pandemic.
Now the numbers are in to support that observation.
From May to August, visitors to the state numbered 10.1 million. That compares with 2020’s May-August count of 6.7 million. And this summer's total is above the 2019 tally of nearly 9.9 million.
The data come from the Summer 2021 Visitor Tracking Report by Philip Downs, a senior partner at Downs & St. Germain Research, a travel market research firm in Tallahassee, Fla. The numbers were presented at the Maine Office of Tourism’s quarterly tourism stakeholder update this week.
“Maine started a little later than some places in terms of opening up,” said Downs. “Florida, for better or worse, has been open almost since day one of COVID, so they’re showing incredible, record-breaking numbers. Maine started later. We started to see a pick-up during the summer.”
He added, “Things are looking good. As more and more people learn that the state is open, things will just get better.”
Summer accounts for 60% to 65% of visitation and spending, he noted.
Of May-August 2021’s 10.1 million visitors, 16% were from Maine and the rest from out-of-state.
Of May-August 2020’s 6.7 million visitors, 35% were from Maine and the rest from out-of-state.
The decreased Maine ratio this year could mean that people are willing to travel further afield compared with 2020, Downs said.
Additional tourism numbers
• For May-August 2021, hotels and other lodging properties were 64.2% occupied.
• For the same period in 2020, lodgings were 36.4% occupied.
• 25% of visitors were traveling to Maine for the first time in 2021, compared with 14% in 2020, an indication of new interest in Maine, said Downs.
• Visitors who stayed overnight in paid accommodations in Maine spent $786 per day and $2,983 during their trip. That compares with 2020 spending of $604 per day and $3,564 per trip.
Interviews with visitors indicated that people are taking more time to plan their vacations, Downs said.
“What we found in the summer of 2021 was that visitors had a longer planning cycle,” he said. “We’re finding, not just in Maine but other destinations, that people are starting to return to their pre-COVID vacation habits.”
Overall visitation for 2021 — and how it will stack up next to 2019’s overall 37.3 million visitors — remains to be seen. But it’s clearly on track to exceed 2020’s 12 million visitors, Downs noted.
Cruise ships
In a separate presentation, Sarah Flink, executive director of CruiseMaine, said expectation for the 2022 cruise ship season is strong.
CruiseMaine is part of the Maine Office of Tourism.
In 2021, Maine saw the restart of a small domestic line, American Cruise Lines, which sent two vessels to eight Maine ports.
But Maine missed out on most of its cruise ship traffic due to strict federal regulations.
A federal conditional-sail order was set to expire Nov. 1 and was just extended to Jan. 15, 2022, at which point the order will become a recommendation, she said.
“The signs right now are for a very strong 2022 season,” she said.
Consumer confidence in the industry is building in part because of the success of protocols to prevent infection, with the infection rate aboard cruise ships currently nearly zero, she said.
“They’ve got it very well-controlled,” she said.
She added, “In Maine, we’re looking at a relatively normal cruise visitation schedule as of now, including large ships. It’s not clear if those vessels will be anywhere near full capacity. I don’t think we’ll know that for a while.”
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