As the Summer season winds down and we gear up for Fall, we’d like to acknowledge the enormous effort all of you put into making the Maine vacation a great experience for visitors. 

MOT's most recent annual survey results show almost 80% of first-time visitors to our state said their overall experience exceeded their expectations, with a whopping 94-98% of visitors saying they would recommend the region they visited to others. Thanks for all you do to build a thriving tourism industry in Maine!

• An article on Measuring the Economic Benefits of Tourism published in in Hotel News Now demonstrates how investments from state governments into tourism more than pay for themselves when compared to the travel and tourism revenue they generate. The USTA's recently released  U.S. Travel and Tourism Overview for 2015 reports business and tourism travel had a $2.1 trillion economic impact in the U.S. in 2015.

• A Facing Waves - Maine episode premiered on Outside Television on July 29th, with segments on Paddling Maine's Kennebec Valley and Aroostook County, Whitewater SUP on Maine's Kennebec River, Canoeing Maine's Allagash Wilderness Waterway Part 1 and Canoeing Maine's Allagash Wilderness Part 2.  The full program may be viewed online on the Maine Woods Discovery website. Future episodes will feature paddling in the Katahdin and Downeast Lakes area.

• Google Maps has a new look that now calls out areas of interest and attractions. If your business doesn’t appear, check out these 10 Steps to Get Your Business Listed on Google Maps.

• Pokemon Go is altering the travel landscape. Do you know where your local Maine Pokestops are?

• The latest edition of The Maine Thing Quarterly launched in late July. "Chasing the Sun" follows the outdoor adventures of 6 friends over 6 days on their first visit to Maine. The Chasing the Sun quarterly was a unique and innovative marketing partnership with L. L. Bean, which was a natural fit to collaborate on this issue focused on the Maine Outdoor Experience, and introduced the MOT's quarterly online magazine to an extensive network of new viewers.

• The results of the 2015 Canadian Visitation Report are now available online at MOTPartners.com. Some key findings – 

- Touring/sightseeing and shopping rank highest among Canadian visitors for both interest and importance in deciding to visit.
- Two in five Canadian overnight visitors are from Ontario, which contributes a larger share than any other province; while New Brunswick continues to supply the highest proportion of Canadian day visitors to Maine, followed closely by Quebec.

• The National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) recently published its latest estimates for international travel to the U.S. in 2015, which reports that the nation as a whole saw a 10% decline in Canadian visitation in 2015. The negative impact on Maine was not as large, with Canadian visitation to Maine estimated at 4.2 million visitors in 2014 and 4.1 million visitors in 2015, less than 2.4%.

• PR RESULTS - Recent results include 12 published travel articles and 7 Maine listings in travel blogs. Topics ranged from a story in Game & Fish Magazine on family fishing vacations; a story about Maine lodging discounts for Canadians in 5 Canadian publications; a story about Maine’s stylish boutique hotels in Bloomberg.com; Bar Harbor/Acadia features in Food & Travel Magazine and Planet Ware; an Ogunquit feature on Miles Geek; and 3 articles covering 4 coastal Maine tourism regions in the Huffington Post  - 14 Great Things to do in the Kennebunks; Top 6 Coastal Destinations Far from the Tourist Trail; and Lesser Known Attractions in Top 5 Maine Coast Tourist Towns.

• SOCIAL MEDIA - Travel blogger Sherry Ott from Ottsworld Travel and Life Experiences is doing a weeklong social “takeover” for the Maine Office of Tourism beginning August 24, posting on Instagram and Facebook and inviting people to follow along as she experiences Maine. You can see Sherry’s posts on Facebook and Instagram @VisitMaine.

• GROUP SALES  – The Maine Office of Tourism welcomes Hannah Collins to our staff. Hannah comes to the MOT with a background in marketing and events to take the Group Sales position previously filled by Donna Moreland. As one of her first duties, Hannah joined the Maine Motorcoach Network Familiarization Tour for tour operators on August 25-31, to help guide the 24 registered participants. Hannah can be reached at Hannah.Collins@Maine.gov.

• INTERNATIONAL SALES - Maine joined an East Coast USA delegation last month in a sales mission to Auckland, New Zealand, and Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, Australia. The trip included four travel expos with more than 400 travel agents, tour operators, and media, and more than 55 scheduled B2B/media appointments.  The purpose of the mission was to brand the East Coast USA (New England, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC) as an alternative travel destination to the west coast for the Aussies and Kiwis.   

• The new Maine Film Office website won 3rd place for Web Design in the 2016 Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) Creativity Awards highlighting the best marketing campaigns from film commissions around the globe.
   

• "9/11 INSIDE THE PENTAGON” will premiere on PBS, September 6, 2016, 8pm. The one hour documentary special is a production of the South Portland production company, Lone Wolf Media and executive produced by Kirk Wolfinger. Maine residents, Sharon Petzold produced, Lisa Bowe was Associate Producer and David Wright was Director of Photography. The program will also be available for digital download and DVD purchase from PBS.