The first service to offer regular helicopter tours of Casco Bay is expected to launch at the Portland International Jetport this month. “We were looking for ways to grow the business and Portland came to mind,” said Bruce Cultrera, president and CEO of Portsmouth-based Seacoast Helicopters. “It’s beautiful, it’s gorgeous, it is a population center […]
tourism
Posted inBusiness
Long-touted economic benefits of cruise ships far overstated
Second of three parts When the Maasdam, Grandeur of the Seas and Victory I docked nearly simultaneously in Portland on Mother’s Day morning, eastern Commercial Street was a hive of activity. Together the cruise ships had nearly 2,700 passengers aboard. By standard accounting, they supposedly spent a total of nearly $300,000 that day eating, drinking, […]
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Posted inBusiness, sj-web
Maine gets $5.3 million as its cut of 284,500 Airbnb guest stays
Online lodging service Airbnb counted 4,500 host properties in Maine and 284,500 guest stays in 2017. But the largest number released by the vacation rental giant on Tuesday: $5.3 million paid in state sales tax in the past year. Airbnb reached an agreement with Maine on April 1, 2017, to start collecting lodging taxes on […]
Posted inLocal & State, sj-web
Visa woes have summer businesses looking to Puerto Ricans
PHIPPSBURG — Frustrated by red tape and visa limits on foreign workers, tourism businesses from Maine to Missouri are turning to Puerto Ricans who are fleeing a shattered economy and devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. Bob Smith, owner of Sebasco Harbor Resort in Phippsburg, hired a half-dozen Puerto Ricans last summer for housekeeping, landscaping and […]
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
Maine tourism industry has a sunny outlook as critical summer season kicks off
Visitors started flooding into Maine on Thursday to enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start to the state’s tourism season. The next few months are critical for Maine’s tourism industry and state officials are optimistic more people will visit the state in 2018, continuing a five-year growth trend. “Two-thirds of our business does come during […]
Posted inBusiness
Bud-and-breakfasts? Maine’s hospitality industry sees opportunity in marijuana
Could Maine’s famous tourism attractions include cannabis social clubs in hotels, or “bud-and-breakfast” inns complete with in-room vaporizers and cannabis gift bags? What about farm-to-table dinners with marijuana-infused ingredients? Possibly, said attorneys who offered opinions about the potential business opportunities ahead for Maine’s hospitality industry. Maine legalized marijuana in a referendum question last November, but […]
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
New law expands job possibilities for 14- and 15-year-olds
A new Maine law aiming to get 14- and 15-year-olds to fill hospitality jobs in a tight market went into effect on Sunday. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Brian Langley, R-Ellsworth, was partially aimed at loosening Maine’s tight hospitality job market in a tourist season where the state is seeing record low unemployment levels. It […]
Posted inLocal & State
Facebook leader Mark Zuckerberg vacationing in Maine
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is celebrating his fifth wedding anniversary somewhere in rural Maine. The billionaire social media giant posted a notice Friday afternoon that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are taking their annual anniversary trip to the Pine Tree State. He said that his original honeymoon got cut short so he promised Chan […]
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Tourism office's 'This is Me' campaign includes LHS boys soccer team
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 […]
