Tourism experts give mixed outlook at NGA meeting; Mills, peers cite workforce housing concerns
Photo / Renee Cordes
Panelists at Thursday's National Governors Association plenary session on travel and tourism spoke of challenges and opportunities for the sector, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. The three-day meeting in Portland wraps up Friday.
Tourism and travel experts from around the country gave a mixed industry outlook at a meeting Thursday of the National Governors Association in Portland.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills and some of her peers, however, raised concerns about the lack of affordable housing for hospitality workers and the impact the shortage may have on the industry.
"The past couple of years have been a roller coaster for our tourism industry," said the NGA's chairman, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, at a plenary session of the meeting. "It's been tough."
Nineteen governors are attending the three-day event, which wraps up Friday morning, when New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy takes over the rotating chairmanship.
Hutchinson told Thursday's plenary that after national parks experienced record visitation during the pandemic, families are now being hit with high prices for transportation as service sectors struggle with staffing.
Ongoing economic headwinds make it all the more important that states are strategic about getting travel and tourism "back where they belong," he said.
Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods International, made a similar plea based on the latest data from the Columbus, Ohio-based market research organization.
"Just tell the story, don't stop telling the story,” he said.
A Longwoods study released earlier this week shows that while 92% of Americans have plans to travel somewhere in the next six months, four out of 10 say they are reducing the number of trips they are taking because of high prices at the gas pump.
A similar percentage is hitting destinations closer to home because of high gas prices, while only 12% of those surveyed said that the cost of filling up is not affecting their travel plans.
"COVID has been replaced by inflationary fears for travelers," Eylon said.
Keiko Matsudo Orrall, executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, underscored the need for robust support of marketing as rising prices prompt travelers to make "smarter" plans involving multiple stops on one journey.
"Tourism does matter," she said, "and we need the resources to do the marketing and to tell the stories of the great resources in our state."
Offering an upbeat outlook, Al Hutchinson, president and CEO of Visit Baltimore, said, "The best days of travel and tourism in America are in front of us." Tourism "is an engine that keeps going," he added, as long as states join forces with industry experts.
"If we in every state can create this great travel and tourism story for America," he said, "no one in this world can stop us ... I would just challenge you [as governors] to help us, because we definitely want to partner with you."
Chris Thompson, president and CEO of Brand USA, a public-private partnership that promotes the United States as a premier travel destination, spoke of travel and tourism as the "front door to economic development."
He said that while the United States has always been popular with international travelers, today's long wait times for visa application appointments pose a barrier.
Housing a 'major impediment'
During the discussion that followed, Mills said that while tourism visits and spending are up in Maine, "the problem we have is workforce housing," and that she's open to suggestions on how to support that.
"It seems to be a major impediment to supplying workforce housing for the industry," she said.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker also chimed in on the issue.
Noting that young people want to work in resorts "but there's no place for them to live," Sununu put much of the blame on VRBO, an online marketplace for short-term vacation rentals similar to Airbnb, for taking much needed housing off the market for restaurant and other workers.
"We're turning our hotels into housing, and our housing into hotels," he said, noting that there are entire towns in his state that want to ban VRBO because restaurants can't bring in workers.
Baker said that short-term rentals are also a "really big problem" in Massachusetts, especially in resort areas, but reported some progress of housing for workers being built.
The NGA summer meeting was due to wrap following sessions on Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, with the celebrity joining virtually, and the NGA chairmanship handover.
During the virtual discussion with Parton, Mills announced that Maine is launching a statewide expansion of Parton's Imagination Library that entails gifting free, age-appropriate books to children through age 5, regardless of their family income. Funding will be shared by Parton, the state of Maine and local community partners.
By the end of 2023, the plan is to have sent an initial 106,000 books to more than 14,000 children across Maine.
"We know the simple act of reading to a child stimulates brain development, reduces stress and anxiety, builds vocabulary and develops the literacy skills they'll need to succeed in school and beyond," Mills said.
"Today, we are taking another step forward to help make that happen by delivering books free of charge to Maine kids ... On behalf of all the Maine children who will be served by this program in the years to come, I thank the one-and-only Dolly Parton."
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