There are plenty of fun things to do in New Hampshire all year long. And when you do them, you not only entertain yourself and your friends and family, but also help the New Hampshire economy. Tourism is one of the biggest economic drivers in New Hampshire, with an estimated $1.5 billion impact on the New Hampshire economy every winter. Here to discuss that is Commissioner Taylor Caswell, who heads the Department of Business and Economic Affairs.
By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
Melanie Plenda:
How busy is the winter season for tourism in New Hampshire? How does it stack up to the other seasons in the state?
Taylor Caswell:
It's always pretty busy. We sort of have a legacy of winter tourism here in New Hampshire — it definitely has a strong following in terms of how it compares in numbers to summer and fall.
I would say of the three, it's probably the smallest in terms of the amount of dollars that we see in the amount of visits. But, it's really relevant to the fact that at that time of year, the season is a little bit shorter. Particularly as we see changes in the climate, the fall season is fast and furious. We have about four to six weeks of really vivid colors that people all over the world have on their bucket list to come see. So that's a quick one, but summer really is a long season, and in fact, it's a season that may be feeling a little bit longer. We all know that September is starting to feel like the fourth summer month. But winter is small but mighty, and it is very much, as I said, part of the legacy of New Hampshire tourism.
Melanie Plenda:
Where do most of these tourists come from?
Taylor Caswell:
Typically, within New England, we have obviously a very strong market out of the Boston and eastern Massachusetts region. But we also get into Hartford and down into New York for winter. We also see a lot of people from Maine and Canada and Vermont also checking out their fellow ski areas or their communities nearby. So we don't have a huge fly-in market. People don't generally come from Colorado to New Hampshire, but as far as the East Coast, we really, really see that as our major market.
Melanie Plenda:
Do you have any sense of why they pick New Hampshire as a destination?
Taylor Caswell:
Well, because we're so awesome, obviously. But beyond that, I think the Boston market has very easy access into New Hampshire. Obviously, we have I-93 that comes right up into the heart of our ski country, and, particularly in winter, there's a lot of family traditions and people that have been coming here for a long time.
Since COVID, we've definitely seen an increase in the number of people who have second homes, and then there's that whole Airbnb issue that exists out there. That activity, I think, has increased the number of people who are returning visitors to New Hampshire. But for the most part, I think our geography is a big reason why we see a lot of that activity from southern New England.
Melanie Plenda:
What are some of the most popular activities here in winter, and how does the state promote them?
Taylor Caswell:
The number one activity in terms of numbers for us, pretty much every season, is snowmobiling. But, of course, that is highly dependent on the weather. Last year was not a good snowmobiling season. Skiing is right in there behind them. Skiing has the added advantage of being able to make snow, so as long as it's generally cold, they can provide a product, and people will certainly take advantage of that. Winter hiking is becoming really, really popular, and a lot of people like to do that.
I think there's a good deal of effort to try to diversify the type of activities that people have. And of course, you’ve always got the shopping and the people going into our cool downtowns, like up in Littleton and North Conway to spend an afternoon, maybe getting something to eat, a couple of good craft beers, and picking up something nice at a small Main Street store.
Melanie Plenda:
As you mentioned, skiing is one of the most popular winter activities in the state. What’s being done to grow tourism in that sector?
Taylor Caswell:
We work closely with the ski areas, particularly with Ski NH, which is their main organization. We partner with them for big events in Boston, and we support the work that they do through marketing and through joint advertising.
One of the things that we really harp on as doing quickly and very nimbly is, as you know, if it’s raining on any sort of random day in Boston, but it’s snowing in the mountains, we have to convince everybody that there’s snow up here and what they’re seeing in their backyard isn’t necessarily the reality in the ski areas. So we have done a lot of advertising, even showing live shots of snowmaking being done so people in our key markets can see that there is snow and there is winter activity happening just a few hours north.
Melanie Plenda:
As you mentioned, weather can play a role in the failure and success of so many activities. Though you can’t control Mother Nature, what can be done to foster adaptability for activities that are weather dependent?
Taylor Caswell:
Adaptation is really the name of the game — being able to provide different types of activities, being able to understand the value and the technology of snowmaking equipment, and we've seen almost all of our ski areas in New Hampshire have made some pretty big investments in that, and they're getting quite good at using it. So as long as it stays somewhere around 35 degrees and below, they can make that snow, and they're quite good at that. That provides a really, really quality product.
Melanie Plenda:
What sort of an impact does tourism have on the New Hampshire economy, as a whole? And what are some of the key drivers of that impact?
Taylor Caswell:
Tourism is huge. I refer to it all the time as sort of the tip of the spear for economic development in New Hampshire, and it's kind of been in that role for a long time. It's our second largest industry by the number of employees and the amount of income that's generated for participants in that economy. But it also is our best advertisement.
I mean, we talk a lot about New Hampshire, generally about access to the workforce, having enough people to fill the jobs that employers have in New Hampshire. We talk a lot about being able to recruit businesses into New Hampshire to make investments and take advantage of, obviously, our business climate here. In almost all of those cases, what we are hearing and what we see and what we know is successful is the experience that people have as a tourist at one point or another here in New Hampshire, and the great quality product that our tourism industry puts forward.
Melanie Plenda:
As you noted, when we talk about the economy, we tend to think of it as separate sectors, but in truth, so many areas are related to each other. For example, affordable housing can have an impact on the job market and, therefore, tourism. What’s being done to address some of those connected issues like affordable housing or preserving natural resources?
Taylor Caswell:
That's a really, really important point, and it really speaks to the whole reason why this department exists. We were established in 2017 with the goal of doing exactly what you're describing — a holistic approach to our economy in New Hampshire that takes advantage of all the things that I was talking about, with tourism leading the way for a lot of the recruitment we do of not just tourists, but workforce and businesses and even students to our universities.
But the housing piece is another issue that we deal with here at the department, and the interconnectedness that that has even to tourism. You talk about people that like to come out here and work as a seasonal employee in some of our high tourist areas —those are also some of our highest-cost areas as far as housing goes. How do we address that?
I mentioned earlier the Airbnb issue. That's a significant issue in a lot of our sort of tourism economy communities up in the Mount Washington Valley, for example. That's an issue that they've really been struggling with — a lot of people in in more urban areas find it quite affordable to buy a nice little home in North Conway and then maybe just Airbnb that when they're not there — perfectly legitimate business, but at the same time, that takes away a housing unit that might typically be used for someone who's working at one of those ski areas during the winter. So it is an ongoing challenge. It's one of those things where you squeeze the balloon in one place and it pops up on another, but we continue to use the sort of resources we have here at the Department of Business and Economic Affairs to understand how those pieces go together and try to help do something about it for our communities.
Melanie Plenda:
What else is being done to grow tourism in New Hampshire? What are the challenges there and what are the opportunities?
Taylor Caswell:
Challenges are always obviously the broader economy, and how much disposable income people have for travel — cost of gas is something that always comes up in that in that consideration, inflation, all the general costs that go into planning a trip. We are, in some respects, slaves to those types of economics. A couple of years ago during COVID and the border to Canada was closed, we definitely saw a decrease in the numbers, particularly obviously coming out of Canada, but our overall numbers were affected by that.
When we look into the crystal ball here of what's going to happen over the next couple of years, those are the types of things that we really need to be paying attention to and trying to accommodate. Those costs, again, are something that the state government is not going to necessarily have control over, but we can work with our industry to make sure that they're pricing themselves in a way that's highly competitive for the market that we're in.
Melanie Plenda:
What’s your prediction for the outlook for tourism in New Hampshire this winter? How do you think things will go?
Taylor Caswell:
We see each year the ability for our tourism industry to take advantage of a very close market, still with some disposable income to come up and really experience the state. The only thing that really holds us back, ultimately, is the weather. But I always try to be very optimistic — particularly when I’m in a format like this.
Melanie Plenda:
Business and Economic Affairs Commissioner Taylor Caswell — thank you for joining us today.
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