Live Free....

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by Descant

There are so many second homes and STR's that it is hard to say what is tourism. How many hotel rooms now vs. 25 years ago? I expect there are a lot of STR's that are friendly exchanges and don't show up on the books.

kudos to Bob Lawton who sponsored the legislation to change "Scenic" to "Live Free or Die"-I think internationally this is better known than "The Granite State". Other variations on LFOD have been used for years, and this only enhances our image. I chuckle at "Live Free and Prosper" a twist on the Vulcan benediction and LFOD. Well done to the T & T Bureau who squeezes a lot out of a not so great budget.

According to the DRA... many more than you would expect.
The change has been what tourists engage in while here.

Division of T&T, on the nheconomy.com site, states that tourism return on investment last year was strongest in autumn; even though the y-over-y numbers planted winter as the highest percentage of growth.

Since we know that summer has, and is the strongest, the room to grow tourism in the autumn made perfectly good sense. Some of that would be to boating not just ending after Labor Day; that has been trending now for a while, but seems to be getting stronger.

Winter on the other hand didn't seem to make sense - at least at first. The movement from snowmobiling - one of the most dominant activities 25 years ago - to ski resort related activities meant that a haphazard winter played less of an effect; and may have actually improved the resort outcomes.
My understanding is Gunstock did very well.

And I would presume this also added to room and meal expenditures.