|
|
 Sheehan script |
|
|
| Sheehan script |
| Sheehan script Return to index of stories... |
XXXXX I always look forward to the Governor's Conference on Tourism, so I'm sorry I couldn't be with you today. But I'm on a trade mission to Mexico, working to help find new customers for New Hampshire businesses. Tourism is our state's second largest industry, employing thousands of people and bringing billions of dollars into our economy. That's why as Governor, I've worked hard to bring more visitors to New Hampshire. This is the last time I will address you as governor, and I want to tell you how much I enjoy working with you. Both the travel and tourism industry and the economy of New Hampshire have benefited from our partnership. Let's look at a few of the things we have done together to boost tourism: In May 1997, I created the Governor's Task Force on Travel and Tourism, which many of you served on. We followed up the next year with the Tourism Summit. I am proud to say that we are already implementing more than 80 percent of the Summit's recommendations. We have: Elevated travel and tourism to a full division of the Department of Resources and Economic Development. Launched a "Buy New Hampshire" campaign with New Hampshire Stories Redesigned welcome centers Helped fund the Granite State Ambassador Program Created the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program to preserve the open spaces and historical places that bring so many visitors to New Hampshire And we will complete by December 2002 a research study of what visitors consider New Hampshire's 'image." This study will help us decide how to best target our advertising in the future. Most significantly, in the past five years, we have more than tripled New Hampshire's tourism promotion budget. We've seen the value of that investment in the past few months. We were able to respond immediately after September 11th, redirecting advertising dollars to places within driving distance of New Hampshire - and ended up with one of the best Columbus Day weekends on record. We are also one of the few states expecting an increase in visitors this spring and summer. Our increased tourism promotion budget is allowing us to begin a number of other initiatives, which will pay dividends for your businesses and the state's economy, including: · We have launched an innovative new campaign, based on the 1938 book, "Let Me Show You New Hampshire." With this campaign, we are not only introducing visitors to the places of New Hampshire, but the feeling of being in New Hampshire: The spirit of rejuvenation that comes from hiking in our mountains, swimming in our lakes and rivers, and driving down our country roads. · We are advertising in French for the first time in Quebec · We have started production of two television commercials · We are fully funding the film office These efforts will help bring to New Hampshire people who will stay longer and spend more money while they are here. And not just during your busy seasons, but also when tourism is traditionally slow. We believe New Hampshire is a great place to visit 365 days a year. All of you in the tourism industry are working hard to ensure that our visitors have a special experience while they are here. I am proud of the strong partnership we have built over the past five years. We've seen it pay off in increased visitors, increased international visitors, and in increased revenues. I look forward to continuing to work closely with you in the future. - -Statistics: Visitors - increased by 5% from 26.2 million to 27.5 million. However the number of visitor days decreased by 2%, with the entire decrease occurring after 9/11. Direct spending remained the same level as 2000 - $3.73 billion, which is good considering many of the country's destinations saw a big decrease. There were fewer overnight trips during 2001 than 2000 due to a decrease in business travelers, which started in the spring with the downturn in the economy, and fell off completely in the last quarter, after 9/11. Automobile travel counts were up by an average of 4.5%over the previous year. Most of this increase occurred during the winter of 2001, which was rated as one of the best in many years for skiing and snowmobiling. The number of inquiries received by the Division of Tourism was 6.1% higher for the year. The number of visitors to the state's website was up over 8.5% over last year. New initiatives undertaken as a result of the $2,000,000 increase in budget: - Emergency advertising plan in Boston, Hartford and Providence right after 9/11, done in cooperation with Chambers around the state, to fill room vacancies which resulted from long distance cancellations - the result was record-breaking traffic counts on Columbus Day weekend. - A new winter 8-page insert, placed in NY Times, Hartford and Providence in early December gave New Hampshire its biggest presence ever in these markets. - Spring campaign now running is largest push for summer we have ever made. New items include another 8-page insert focusing on summer - placed in NY, CT, RI as well as eastern Canadian provinces - in French and in English. Over 1 million copies inserted in total. In addition a four-page insert was placed in four Canadian magazines, a new 2-page co-op was placed in the NYTimes Magazine, a series of four ads are running along with special events in the Boston Globe to promote early summer stay-overs, and 85 transit posters are in commuter rail stations all around the metropolitan NY area. - The new money has also allowed us to fully fund the NH Film Office and hire a full-time Director. We have also contracted with a Media relations firm to increase our editorial coverage and have substantially improved our web presence in many ways. - Our new advertising campaign is very special this year and since we have new dollars, we are able to increase the size of our ads to full-page in ten major travel and family magazines. Our inquiries are already ahead of last year with the biggest return expected in May. - Starting production of two TV commercials. |