SEDCO attended 2017 Maine Governor’s Conference on Tourism held in Augusta on March 14-15. Here are a couple of 2016 highlights on tourism from the conference.

• Total Visitations:  2015 – 33, 853,851 people; 2016 – 35,810,568 people
• Total direct expenditures for tourism in 2016 equaled nearly $6 billion, which equates to $16 million per day, $683,731 per hour, $11,396 per minute, and $190 per second.
• Tourism is one of Maine’s largest industries, supporting a total of 105, 957 jobs, about 16% of employment in the state (1 out of every 6 jobs).
• If traveler spending in Maine dropped by 15%, the average household would see an increase of approximately $160 in taxes to maintain government services at current levels.
• Nearly 19 million visitors spent one or more nights in Maine on tourism-related trips in 2016.
• Maine hosted nearly 17 million non-resident day visitors in 2016.
• Canadian day and overnight visitation to Maine in 2016 accounted for nearly 4.5 million visitors.
• Direct spending on tourism–related trips by overnight visitors to Maine totaled over $4.5 billion in 2016.
• Overnight first-time visitors spend, on average, nearly $165 more on their trips to Maine than do repeat overnight visitors.

Source: Maine Office of Tourism