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Tourism is New Hampshire’s second-largest industry–if you combine the state’s smart manufacturing and high technology sectors (SMHT). It’s also a clear point of intersection between government and industry, with the state maintaining a number of parks, campgrounds, and historical sites, and nearby businesses in turn catering to visitors’ needs. Given this close relationship, the state provides funding to market New Hampshire to potential tourists. Some of the heaviest marketing efforts are concentrated in Boston, Philadelphia and New York City. Canadian tourists, especially Quebeçois, also make up a sizable number of New Hampshire’s visitors. From the business perspective, “tourism” is a broad term. It encompasses hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail, and arts and entertainment, among other things. So while statewide reports may indicate overall restaurant or retail sales are up or down, the story might be very different in New Hampshire’s main tourism communities. For these places, weather, gas prices, currency exchange rates, and whether they draw visitors for outdoor activities, site-seeing, or shopping could all be factors.Summary provided by StateImpact NH

N.H. Tourism Officials Predict 6.7M Visitors Will Spend $860M This Winter

After a rough winter season last year, New Hampshire tourism officials predict nearly seven million people will visit the state between now and the end of February.

The state Division of Travel and Tourism Development says those tourists are expected to spend $860 million, which would be up by 9 percent over last year.

Those figures come from the Institute for New Hampshire Studies.

With historically low snow numbers last season, the ski and winter tourism industries took a financial hit. But Tourism spokesman Tai Freligh says it’s still early in the season and there’s no reason to think the same thing will happen again.

“A lot of the ski resorts are already open, a lot of them opened over the Thanksgiving holiday, and we’ve had some more open up. One of the things that’s great about the Northeast and New Hampshire specially is we have man-made snow and some of the best in the Northeast so I think we’re covered.”

Freligh says his office is working to get the word out earlier this year about snow on the slopes.

Michael serves as NHPR's Program Director. Michael came to NHPR in 2012, working as the station's newscast producer/reporter. In 2015, he took on the role of Morning Edition producer. Michael worked for eight years at The Telegraph of Nashua, covering education and working as the metro editor.
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