STATE TRAVEL BAROMETER
SUMMARY FOR 2008
Calendar Year 2008 was a slightly negativeyear for New Hampshire's travel and tourism industry in comparison with 2007. There were fewertravelers, but slightly higher spending per traveler. During the 2008 calendar year there were: threepositive months, two slightly positive months, one mixed month, two slightlynegative months and four negative months when the same months in 2007 and 2008 are compared. The winter season had the smallest decrease in the number of travelers over 2007 of the four seasons and also had the largest percentage increase in traveler spending. The fallseason had the largest percentage decrease in visitor spending due to the increased severity of the recession, which had begun in December 2007. The spring had the largest percentage decrease in the number of travelers of the four seasons, due to a large percentage increase in gasoline prices.
The total number of trips decreased by an estimated 2.6 % to 33.2 million trips. The number of traveler days decreased by an estimated 2.4 % to 51.9 million days. Rooms and meals spending by tourists and business travelers in 2008 was estimated to be 2.5 % higher than for 2007. Total spending by tourists and travelers is estimated to have increased to $4.412 billion, up by 0.6 % from 2007. This was adecrease of 3.6 % after inflation was considered. The estimated average spending per traveler day was up by 3.0 % over 2007 levels, or 1.2 % lower spending per traveler day after inflation.Overnight trips were a larger share of all trips during 2008 than for 2007. The share of day trips decreased slightly for the year as a whole due to much higher gasoline prices.
Receipts increased by 0.6 % at lodging establishments. Restaurant sales also increased by only 0.6 % over the year, reflecting a decline in meals purchases by New Hampshire residents. The hotel occupancy rate as measured by Smith Travel Research was down an average of 3.2 % for the year. Vehicle rental receipts decreased by 13.3 %, an indicator of less business travel during 2008. Retail sales are estimated to have decreased by 1.8 % between 2007 and 2008, despite higher gasoline prices.
Automobile travel on Saturdays was down by 6.2 % over the previous year at twelve traffic counters located near to tourist attractions or on major travel routes. All four seasonshad decreases in traffic counts when comparing 2007 with 2008. Eleven of the twelve months had lower traffic counts in 2008 than during 2007.
Gasoline sales were down by 3.0 % during the year, while gasoline prices averaged 17.4% higher during 2008 than during 2007. Airline passenger enplanements at Manchester and Lebanondecreased from 2007 levels by 4.7%. Employment of New Hampshire residents was 0.2%lower during 2008 than during 2007, the first annual decrease in over 16 years.
The number of requests for Guidebookswas 24.8 % lower for the year. Research indicates that increasingly travelers are obtaining the travel information they need over the internet, including the DTTD website.
Canadian travel appears to have beenslightly higherin 2008than during 2007. Travel from Great Britain appears to have been lower during 2008. During 2008, Canadian currency gained an average of 1.1 % in value relative to the U.S. dollar, while the British pound lost 6.9 % in value.
The winter and spring months of 2008 generated 0.2% more skiers and boarders than in 2007. Because ski seasons actually fall into two different calendar years, the 2007-8 season had 19.5% more alpine and Nordic skiers and boarders than did the 2006-7season. Out-of-state snowmobile registrations were 1.6 % higher during 2008 than for 2007. During 2008 the sale of Fish and Game Department out-of-state fishing and hunting licenses was 3.7 % lower than for 2007. Attendance at ten tourist attractions during the summer and fall months of 2008 was 5.6 % lower than for the same period in 2007.
Nine of the ten counties in the state had higher spending by travelers subject to the Rooms and Meals Tax in 2008 than during the previous year. The rank order and percentage change in estimated sales to travelers by the counties between 2007 and 2008 were: 1) Merrimack, 21.3 %; 2)Sullivan, 15.9 %; 3)Strafford, 6.1%; 4)Grafton, 5.1 %; 5)tie,Carroll and Cheshire,1.9 %;7) Rockingham, 1.7%; 8)Coos, 1.0 %; 9) Belknap, 0.0 %; and 10)Hillsborough, -2.6 %.
All seven travel regions had increases in spending by travelers subject to the Rooms and Meals Tax in 2008from the previous year. The rank order and percentage change in estimated sales to travelers by the travel regions between 2007 and 2008 were: 1)Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee, 8.4 %; 2)White Mountains, 3.3%; 3)Seacoast, 2.6%;4) Lakes, 2.4 %; 5)Merrimack Valley, 2.0 %; 6) Great North Woods, 1.0 %; and 7) Monadnock, 0.6 %.
New Hampshire receives about twice as many travelers as its share of the national population and ranks in the top ten states in the importance of tourism to the total state economy. Travelers in New Hampshire were far more likely to be: on a pleasure trip, on a trip with other household members and engaged in outdoor recreation than the typical traveler in most other states. Also, the average party size was larger and the average stay was longer in New Hampshire than nationally. However, New Hampshire was estimated to be at only 75 % of the national average for business trips during 2008.
As a result, spending per traveler day, the share of travelers staying at hotels and motels, and the use of air transportation on the business trip were below the national average. New Hampshireappears to have had a larger share of national business travelduring 2008 than for 2007as business travel decreased faster at the national levelthan at the state level. Part of this slower rate of decrease for New Hampshirewas due to the impact of the New Hampshire Primary which was held in January 2008.
Of the state's 2008 calendar year travelers, 39 % came during the summer, 23 % in the fall, 19 % for the winter and 19 % for the spring. The fall season’s share increased, the winter and summer seasons stayed the same and the spring season’s share of the number of travelers decreased in comparison with 2007.
Despite a slightly negative year in terms of the growth of tourism, New Hampshire out-performed Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont out of the other five New England states in terms of change in employment in the “leisure and hospitality” economic sector between 2007 and 2008 according to employment data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Connecticuthad the only increase in such employment with 1.25 % growth. Massachusetts was second, but had no change in employment, followed by New Hampshire with a decrease of 0.78 %. Mainewas fourth with a 1.33 % loss in employment. Rhode Islandwas fifth with a1.55 % decrease in employment, followed by Vermontwhich had a 2.73 % decrease in estimated leisure and hospitality employment.
Monthly and seasonal travel barometers are prepared for the Division of Travel and Tourism Development by the Institute for New Hampshire Studies at PlymouthStateUniversity. Twelve monthly and four seasonal (spring, summer and fall 2008 and winter 2008-9) barometers, a fiscal year 2008 barometer and this 2007 annual summary will be prepared during the fiscal year 2009 contract period.
Twenty-five different types of information are collected to prepare these barometers. Two airports, two federal agencies, seven state agencies, nine summer attractions, Smith Travel Research hotel data and seven ski areas provide information every month about their activities in New Hampshire. Due to reporting delays by state and federal agencies, there is a ten-week lag time in the publication of the barometer for a particular month or season. The barometer also includes three types of weather measurements, twelve locations for traffic counts, five federal economic indicators and four measures of State rooms and meals revenues. The rooms and meals tax data is shown at the county and travel region level and is estimated for recreational and/or business travel. Some data are published only seasonally in these barometers, even if collected year-around.