AUGUSTA — The state’s 2017 tourism marketing campaign unveiled Wednesday at the Maine Governor’s Conference on Tourism includes an innkeeper, a lobsterman and the Lewiston High School boys’ soccer team.

The ads are softly shot, showing off some part of Maine and ending with someone saying to the camera, “This is me.”

Maine Office of Tourism Acting Director Steve Lyons told more than 100 attendees at the Augusta Civic Center that he hopes they “resonate with people on an emotional level.”

“People seem to think Maine residents have figured out life, that we have a good work/life balance and people want to aspire to that in their own lives,” Lyons said. “They’ll hopefully aspire to come to Maine itself.”

According to new figures also unveiled, they are.

Visitor numbers were up 5.8 percent to 35.8 million people in 2016, and direct tourism expenditures — costs like gas, transportation and lodging — were up 6.1 percent to almost $6 billion last year.

That’s $190 spent each second, according to an Office of Tourism handout.

“Maine’s tourism industry, as everyone in this room knows, is a critical economic driver for our state and it continues to grow,” said George Gervais, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Tourism employed 106,000 people — one in six jobs in the state — in 2016.

Greg Dugal, director of government affairs for the Maine Innkeepers Association, said projections look good for 2017, though they may not reach 2016 growth when restaurant sales were up 6 percent and lodging 10 percent.

“The start of our season is really the ski season and how the large hills deal with that,” Dugal said.

This year, resorts saw strong numbers for Christmas, Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend and February vacation.

“They hit the big three,” he said. “(With more snow forecast for the weekend), they could ride this into April.”

Tourism consultant and guest speaker Berkeley Young from Young Strategies urged businesses to ask themselves if they’re hospitable and if employees are having fun — if they’re not, guests won’t.

“Travel — it’s a form of therapy that we all need — we need to get away, so I would challenge you, Maine: You’re all in the therapy business,” Young said. “I think today should be a revival for all of you, to revive your spirit and enthusiasm and energy for Maine and Maine tourism. You have to make it happen. There’s intense competition out there.”

Audience participants talked about frustration over finding enough help, affordable housing and reliable transportation, and with the increasing minimum wage.

“There are a number of bills in this session to address the training wage issue for youth employment,” said Julie Rabinowitz, director of policy, operations and communication at the Department of Labor, addressing the latter. “I think it will be a hot issue in the Legislature in April.”

As for finding workers, “this is an employees market — you need to sell your business to them,” she said.

Lyons said marketing Maine to the mid-Atlantic states has shown the highest return on investment, with those visitors spending an average $960 on their first trip and $798 on repeat visits.

To keep that up, the 2017 campaign will air on 646 movie screens in New York and, for the first time, on train cars reaching a “more upscale commuter audience in Baltimore and along the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. corridor,” Lyons said. “We’ll (also) be advertising on delivery trucks in Hartford, Philadelphia, D.C., Baltimore and Charlotte.”

Lewiston High School soccer coach Mike McGraw said his players’ ad was shot last fall, after a practice. In 2015, his team won the state championships and made national headlines.

His 2016 team enjoyed getting a little bit of publicity and the teens were happy to do it, he said.

“They also thought it would be pretty cool they would be in a Maine (campaign) for tourism,” McGraw said. “They enjoyed the photographer, even though they said the photographer couldn’t play soccer.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

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