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Tourism Businesses Hope Leaf-Peepers Make Up for Slow Summer

October 08, 2008 - PORTLAND -- Jeanne McGurn is happy to see beautiful fall colors and full motor coaches this leaf-peeping season.

Her tour-operator business, The Maine Tour Connection, is doing well at a time when other players in the state's tourism sector worry about the effects of economic jitters, high fuel prices, rising operating costs and wet weather.

"It's going great," she said. "We have many coaches coming in, the color is beautiful, everybody's very happy."

Others in the tourism industry are hoping for a strong fall foliage season after a less-than-stellar summer.

October looks like a promising month for the state's lodging industry, and it appears rooms will fill up for the Columbus Day weekend, the busiest of the year, said Greg Dugal, executive director of the Maine Innkeepers Association. Innkeepers who are inland and farther from Boston seem to have the weakest bookings.

Lodging business through July was up 2.8 percent from the year before, Dugal said. The month of July was up 1 percent from the previous year, a "stinky" showing at a time when expenses are rising at a faster pace, he said.

Figures for August and September are not yet available.

Tourists are still visiting Maine, but they may have adjusted their spending patterns, perhaps cutting a day off their visit or foregoing a bottle of wine with dinner, Dugal said. "That doesn't seem like much, but all those decisions add up to decreased economic activity," he said.

Demographic trends are helping to extend Maine's tourism season into the fall.

Harold Daniel, director of the Center for Tourism Research and Outreach, said research shows that a foliage season day can have as much tourism activity as a summer day.

Fall visitors tend to be empty nesters whose travel isn't limited by a child's school schedule, and that population is growing, he said.

Seniors made up a good portion of the motor coach passengers at Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth on Sunday.

"Everybody came to see the fall leaves, and they were beautiful," said Dorothy Bowlby of Shelbyville, Ind.

She and her husband, Charlie, were nearing the end of a foliage bus tour that took them around New England.

A couple of friends were boarding another bus for a tour that had recently gotten under way.

Ellen Landen of Montrose, Colo., and JoAnn Rud of Longmont, Colo., were looking forward to seeing peak color as they travel farther north.

"We've heard so much about New England – the beauty in the fall," Landen said.

Meanwhile, members of the Maine Campground Owners Association report seeing fewer of the large motor homes from far away this fall, said Rick Abare, the organization's executive director.

"They're not traveling as far, therefore they are not coming to Maine in the numbers they were," he said.

But the foliage season is considered a bonus time for the campgrounds that remain open after September, so the absence of the large motor homes will not be painful, Abare said.

Association members generally fared well this summer, thanks to Canadians and Mainers vacationing along the southern coast and the midcoast, he said.

The peak season for Destination New England, a company that arranges shore excursions for cruise ships, starts to wind down this week, said Greg Gordon, the operations manager. Gordon thinks it will end up being a good season.

He said the company's business is less vulnerable to consumer thriftiness tied to economic worries.

The cost of a cruise is largely fixed and passengers don't have to worry about variables such as the price of fuel, Gordon said.

"The economy question isn't as much of a factor in this part of the industry as for the drive market," he said.

The fall season will be important to restaurants, especially after a spotty summer, said Dick Grotton, president and chief executive officer of the Maine Restaurant Association.

"Everything that gets them out and causes them to move around is helpful," he said.

July restaurant business was up 0.7 percent from the year before. Grotton guesses industry activity will be off 4 percent to 5 percent for the year.

Restaurant success this fall will depend, in part, on the motor coach business, which has its boom time in the fall.

McGurn said her South Portland tour business is insulated from some factors that can hurt others in tourism.

High gasoline prices may have even helped bookings as people weighed the cost of a tour against that of driving their personal cars, McGurn said. And bookings are done three to six months in advance, so business isn't subject to the whims of drive-in travelers who will make their decisions based on the latest weather forecast.

"They come rain or shine," she said. "That's one of the advantages of this particular market segment, whereas those who drive in hear on Tuesday that it's going to be a wet weekend."

By ANN S. KIM, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, October 6, 2008


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