Concord, N.H. – (January 11, 2022) – The New Hampshire Division of Travel and Tourism Development (DTTD) officially launched its winter advertising campaign in its core New England markets on the heels of a very strong start to the winter tourism season.
New Hampshire’s ski industry reported last week that despite the challenges faced at some areas, most resorts noted an increase in business for the period compared to last year, with the biggest successes coming midweek during the holiday break.
“New Hampshire has a long legacy of snow sports and offers world class skiing and snowmaking across the state,” said Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs. “The uniqueness of our natural assets provides visitors with a vast variety of opportunities to get outdoors. Outdoor recreation assets in New Hampshire, like our ski resorts and winter trail networks, are among the largest drivers of our state’s economy, and we are focused on sustaining those assets.”
Caswell continued: “New Hampshire’s popularity during winter is a reminder to us all – with resorts selling out due to capacity limits – to know before you go and Leave No Trace. Make advance reservations if necessary or purchase tickets for your activity in advance and help our industry assure a positive experience for everyone.”
DTTD is projecting a strong winter season with more than three million visitors expected to travel to the state, spending approximately $1.2 billion.
The winter advertising campaign will highlight all the winter activities on and off the slopes available in New Hampshire to its core New England markets and the Quebec and Ontario provinces. The campaign includes television spots, digital and social campaigns, and billboards. Similar to summer and fall, this winter New Hampshire will continue to target distant drive markets – states within a 600-mile radius of New Hampshire.
Quotes from tourism industry members around New Hampshire about the holiday week:
Ben VanCamp, Chief Collaborator and President, Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth
“I think the holidays were good, strong sales, good visitation, the return of community events like First Night, Tree Lightings, and parades helped out considerably.”
Jarvis & Marcia Coffin, Innkeepers, Hancock Inn
“This year, the Monadnock Region’s Hancock Inn and Fox Tavern, had a strong, triple-digit holiday season rebound over 2020. More gratifying was that the 2021 holiday season also surpassed the prior three years in number of guests, number of reservations and overall occupancy."
Amy Landers, Executive Director, Lakes Region Tourism Association
“The Lakes Region was very busy over the holiday break. Occupancy was high, and activities busy. Many ski areas were sold out for skiing and tubing. Interestingly, we’re already starting to get calls for summer rentals.”
Rob Arey, Marketing Director, Mount Washington Cog Railway
“Turns out roasting marshmallows on the side of Mount Washington in the winter is a big hit.We ran five departures daily to Waumbek Station during the vacation week. Many departure times sold out the first train, so we added a second.”
Kasia Scontsas, Northeast Snowmobile and ATV Rentals
“Although we were not able to run our normal snowmobiling season during Christmas/New Year’s Holiday week (due to lack of snow), we were able to offer UTV rentals instead. Customers had a lot of fun and turns out, riding those in what snow we had is a great adventure! We are hoping for more snow to come soon!”
Jen Kovach, Owner, Snowvillage Inn
“Our numbers were up almost 50% during the holiday period. We had guests from as far away as North Carolina join us. We found our guests were looking for a small place to enjoy their vacation and holiday and liked that we only had 17 rooms. Our restaurant, Max’s, was sold out each night we were open for dinner. We even opened an extra day to accommodate all our houseguests since they were staying so long.”
Veronica Lester, Director of Marketing, Strawbery Banke Museum
“Labrie Family Skate at Puddle Dock Pond, the outdoor seasonal skating rink at Strawbery Banke Museum is an extremely popular place for families to visit during the holiday vacation week. Between Thursday, December 23, and Sunday, January 2, 2022, the rink had almost 6,000 skaters with the majority or all of the public skating sessions selling out at full capacity.”
Carol Sullivan, Owner, White Mountain Hotel & Resort
“The 2021 Christmas Vacation Week was much more successful than last year, we did double the business from 2020. Our team has done a tremendous job despite the challenges we have all faced.”
Molly Rice, General Manager, Woodstock Inn Brewery
“We had the busiest Christmas Vacation Week we’ve ever had. Customers were coming in from mainly New England and staying longer than the normal 2 days. We had a lot of extended 4, 5, 6 day stays through the week. Busiest week with the shortest amount of staff we’ve ever had going into that week.”
Explore www.visitnh.gov for New Hampshire winter road trip inspiration. Stay connected with New Hampshire tourism on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube, and be sure to follow #LiveFreeNH to see what other people are saying about winter in New Hampshire.
ABOUT THE DIVISION OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
The Division of Travel and Tourism Development, as part of the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs, works with the state’s seven travel regions to increase visitation, travel and visitor expenditures in order to expand business activity and employment throughout the state. The division is responsible for domestic and international advertising and public relations, literature publication and distribution, www.visitnh.gov administration, grant administration and research to monitor and measure the impact of travel and tourism to the state.
For more information about New Hampshire tourism, call 603-271-2665 or visit www.visitnh.gov.