🔒With summer tourism season coming up, the industry is hunkering down

As Maine hotels, restaurants and attractions gear up for what is expected to be a busy tourism season, managers are facing a host of challenges — including the labor shortage, supply chain disruptions and higher gas prices. But the show goes on. With COVID restrictions lifted, travelers are expected to flock to Maine this summer in numbers never seen before.

Help is on the way

As the all-important summer surge of tourists approaches, Maine’s hospitality industry got a shot in the arm as the federal government announced that it would issue 35,000 more temporary visas nationwide for seasonal workers — long a linchpin for Maine’s summer hospitality and tourism industries.

H-2B visas help small businesses fill temporary, seasonal positions when there are not enough able and willing American workers for them.

The allocation, announced March 31 by the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security, includes 23,500 visas for returning workers, who received an H-2B visa or were granted H-2B status in the past three years. The remaining 11,500 visas are reserved for nationals of Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

The visas are set aside for employers who want to employ these workers between April 1 and Sept. 30. In a joint statement, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, applauded the move, but stressed the need to improve the H-2B program to ensure Maine small businesses do not continue to suffer from a lack of workers.

“Although these additional visas will help provide relief to many Maine small businesses, there is still an overwhelming need given the current tight labor market and record low unemployment,” the senators said in a joint statement. “We must improve the H-2B program to ensure Maine small businesses do not continue to suffer from a lack of workers.”

Destination management

As record numbers of visitors flock to Maine, the state Office of Tourism is developing a destination management plan to determine how to grow tourism in ways that don’t compromise quality of life for residents, or the quality of visitors’ experience.

The Office of Tourism has hired Coraggio Group, a Portland, Ore.-based consultant, to develop the plan that balances tourism growth, while also monitoring the impact of visitors, enhancing visitor impact at the most-visited sites, addressing overuse of certain destinations, decreasing seasonality, and adapting to the environmental and social impacts of visitation.

The plan would also address job creation and how tourism supports local farms, fishermen and makers — in addition to hotels, restaurants and attractions. It would identify impact issues at hot spots like Acadia National Park, and explore how to encourage visitors to travel outside of peak season, and go to less well-known destinations.

The state will conduct an online survey to get input from residents, business owners, visitors, economic development officials, and local officials, and host a series of in-person and remote town hall-style sessions throughout April and May in each of Maine’s eight tourism regions to get feedback.

Ultimately the Office of Tourism will have a visitor management strategy that provides a framework for measuring the economic, social, and environmental impacts of tourism, recommend ways to enhance management at the most popular sites, address locations that don’t want or need promotion because of current traffic, recommend strategies to expand visits on the shoulder season, and identify strategies to adapt to environmental impacts and encourage socially-responsible travel.

The final plan will be completed by November of 2022.

The new plan comes as visitation to Maine rebounds from the pandemic. Some 15.6 million visitors in 2021 spent an estimated $7.8 billion. Hotel occupancy, daily rates and revenue per available room (Revpar) approached pre-pandemic levels. Maine is expected to see a surge in first-time visitors this summer.

Island time

The team behind the Chebeague Island Inn, EVO Kitchen + Bar, and the redevelopment of the former Portland Co. site has bought the northern half of House Island in Portland Harbor for $5.35 million.

The 12-acre parcel has 3,980 feet of usable ocean frontage, five beaches, three renovated homes, a barn with caretaker’s quarters and a 375-foot deep water commercial-grade pier.

The property is already being marketed for weddings, corporate retreats, family reunions and other special events.

The deal was made by House Island Holdings LLC, an affiliate of PF Capital Fund, whose managing partners are Casey Prentice and Kevin Costello. Prentice, president of the Prentice Hospitality Group, also owns Fore Points Marina and 58 Culinary in Portland and the Maine Classic Car Museum in Arundel. A restaurant, Twelve, is expected to open this summer in Portland.

House Island is designated as a historic district, which means that Portland’s Preservation Board must review any improvements before they go forward.

Drive-in revival

The Aquaboggan Water Park in Saco plans to relocate and reopen the Saco Drive-In at the water park this summer, saving the theater and giving it a new home after more than 80 years in operation. The water park announced on its Facebook page that it’s working on securing city permits that would allow it to soon open the Saco Drive-In at Aquaboggan.

The water park and drive-in are located across from one another on U.S. Route 1. The hope is to have it up and open this summer, the general manager of the Aquaboggan Water Park told Mainebiz.

Plans call for the drive-in screen to take over a field that is now used for overflow parking. The screen is expected face the water park and the parking area and there will be space for up to 250 cars.

Hale Trailer Brake & Wheel, a truck and trailer dealership in Portland, acquired the Saco Drive-In property from Biddeford-based Roberge Construction Inc. Hale Trailer is giving the drive-in’s iconic sign and the fountain to the Aquaboggan.

The Saco Drive-in opened in 1939. The other drive-ins in Maine are located in Westbrook, Bridgton, Skowhegan, Farmington, Hermon and Madawaska.

In 2013, the Saco Drive-In along with drive-in theaters nationwide faced closure with the conversion to digital projection systems. Saco and the surrounding community helped raise money for the drive-in and it also won a national contest to get a new digital projection system.

Moving into the fast lane

Sunday River resort will begin installing an 8-person chairlift touted as the fastest of its kind in North America to be ready for the 2022-23 ski season.

The investment in the lift, a Doppelmayr D Lift with heated seats and bubble covers, is part of Sunday River 2030, a 10-year growth initiative focused on building new infrastructure, year-round business, and reaching a net-zero carbon impact.

Other improvements include the implementation of radio frequency identification technology; snowmaking, real estate development; renovation of its conference center, and new attractions designed to attract visitors in the summer. Sunday River is owned by Michigan-based Boyne Resorts, which also owns Sugarloaf and Shawnee Peak.

Cocktails-to-go are a ‘go’ through 2025

Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation that allows restaurants and bars to offer alcoholic beverages-to-go until at least March 30, 2025.

The legislation, originally allowed by an executive order in the early days of the pandemic to help bars and restaurants, extends provisions that were previously set to expire this year. Jay Hibbard, vice president of state government relations for the Distilled Spirits Council, said that the extension would provide much-needed stability as local restaurants, bars and distilleries.

So far, 18 states have passed legislation to make cocktails-to-go permanent.