If internet searches are an indication, Maine will have a busy summer
Courtesy / Maine Office of Tourism
Last summer's Maine Office of Tourism campaign touted the state as a safe place to visit, and if travel search engines are any indication, potential vacationers across the U.S. are listening.
If internet searches are any measure, Maine businesses that cater to tourists should buckle up and get ready. Predictions that pent-up demand will drive a busy 2021 tourist season are now backed up by data from travel-related businesses that track searches on their websites.
The airline search engine Hopper lists Portland as the top-searched destination in the country, and Bangor as the 10th, in an April 5 report.
Short-term rental company Airbnb said in a news release Thursday that searches for accommodations in rural areas of Maine have increased by 63% in the last month. In March, Airbnb reported that southern Maine was the top search destination on its site.
The internet search data, while not a measure of actual visits, may be an indication that the Maine Office of Tourism and Maine Tourism Association's aggressive push to market the state to out-of-state visitors is being heeded. The trends also mirror one of more out-of-staters buying homes in Maine over the past year.
Airline searches for flights to Portland were up 157% over six weeks, Hopper's report said, and the city was the top-searched vacation destination. Portland was followed by Kalispell, Mont.; Orlando, Fla.; Long Beach, Calif.; Hilton Head, S.C.; Hilo, Hawaii; Lihue, Hawaii; Chicago; Seattle; and Bangor.
Maine fits the bill for several top travel trends, Hopper said — beaches, outdoors destinations, national parks. It also follows a trend of Americans favoring domestic vacations, rather than traveling overseas.
"Americans typically plan big bucket list vacations and trips to Europe over the summer months," the report said. But 66% of searches for summer trips are domestic, compared to 52% pre-pandemic.
Airbnb estimates that rural Maine hosts have earned nearly $5,800 each since the pandemic was declared 13 months ago, with a total of more than $66.5 million over that same time period. The company doesn't say how many Airbnb sites there are in the state.
Like Hopper, Airbnb said beaches and access to national parks seem to be driving many of the searches.
Airbnb, too, said it anticipates most trips to be domestic this summer, with remote stays in the U.S. between 50 to 300 miles away from home making up nearly 70% of searches for Memorial Day weekend. Stays between 1,000 and 3,000 miles from home are making up the second largest share of searches for Memorial Day weekend trips.
Given all of this, it may come as no surprise that Maine is sixth among the states where residents plan to "staycation" this year, according to insuremytrip.com.
Mainers who planned to vacation at home were joined by residents of Hawaii, Alaska, Montana, Vermont and Arkansas, respectively.
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