Just As Many Tourists in Maine, But They’re Spending Less $$$

Road trippin' this summer? Traveling by car can be such a joy, and sometimes such a pain.

We all know about tourism in our state. How important it is to Maine’s economy, but it can also lead to ‘so much traffic.”

Play the license plate game. New York. New Jersey. Massachusetts. North Carolina. South Carolina. Florida. They are everywhere.

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Maybe with the higher than last summer gas prices this season one might think that fewer would come from away.

Not true.

Maine State Chamber President and CEO Dana Connors told Maine Public

I think that travel demand will continue to be high. I do think that with gas prices…we will continue to see the effects of people taking a few less trips or how they spend money once they are here.

So basically just as many tourists, but they probably won’t be spending as much money as they usually do. That doesn't sound like it should.

But they will still come.

A Wallethub study on 2022’s Best States for Summer Road Trips has Maine at #5 in the country.

Who can blame them? When I was a kid we traveled by car every summer through Maine on Route 2. A great memory throwback happened last summer -- or was it the summer before? -- when I recreated those trips as an adult.

It has been a beautiful summer so far. And it’s always much more beautiful just a few miles away from work, isn’t it?

The only question is which way should we go? North. East. West. South. Hey, that spells news.

Forget the news and go the other way from the tourists and enjoy your road trip this summer. Maine sure has some beauty when you just go 'get lost.'