Michelle Cruz, director of the NH Division of Travel and Tourism Development, speaks at the Tourism Summit 2025 held in Portsmouth. (Photo by Paul Briand)
During New Hampshire’s three major seasons for tourism — summer, fall and winter — an estimated 11.5 million people generated about $6 billion last year into the state economy.
How to attract even more people and more money to New Hampshire going forward was the subject of a conference held Jan. 28 at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.
Titled “Tourism Summit 2025,” the conference subtitle was the “Power of Collaboration” and a lot of the discussion by presenters to about 75 participants included a variety of ways those involved in tourism can help each other.
Michelle Cruz, the state’s tourism director, talked about their Joint Promotion Program, which provides funding for promotional initiatives developed by groups and organizations, such as local chambers of commerce, to attract visitors to events and venues from in state and out of state.
“We’re making a broader reach. We want to be able to support the chambers and the DMOs (destination marketing organizations) that are also doing the same thing that we’re trying to do on a grander scale,” said Cruz.
She was the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce executive director for some seven years before becoming director of the Travel and Tourism Department in December 2024.
Cruz noted that it’s not just the sites — Hampton Beach, Lake Winnipesaukee, the White Mountains, to name a few — that attract tourism but events as well. She encouraged businesses and organizations that are sponsoring events such as festivals to register them at visitnh.gov.
“This is where we rely on you. So we have a list of our industry members, but we can’t update it on our own. We need your help to keep this information updated. So if you’re going on our website, if you don’t have a listing, we love for you to create one,” she said.
“If you’re a dining or a lodging property, thinking of Valentine’s Day coming up, anything unique or special that you have going on, we share this out, and we highlight the businesses that are in there. But if you’re not in there, you’re not a part of that,” she added.
One point of interest involved social media influencers and what impact they can have on tourist visits. Ben VanCamp, president of the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth, noted that he is frequently pitched by influencers who want to come to Portsmouth, then post about their visit.
“I don’t really know what the future of that looks like, but we do bring influencers to town, primarily around Restaurant Week, Vintage Christmas and some of those kind of marquee events that we have in the community throughout the year,” said VanCamp.
Cruz said a new marketing campaign targeting the summer 2025 tourism season is in the works. She also noted that her division is working on a brand for the state along the principle of “leave no trace.”
Leave no trace is a set of ethical standards that respects the outdoors by minimizing human impact by essentially leaving an area as you found it by properly disposing of waste, respecting wildlife, staying on designated trails and avoiding unnecessary disturbances to the landscape.
“It’s going to be something that’s going to help us brand the state of New Hampshire, to really support the visitors that are coming here, to be aware of who we are and why we love to live, work, play here, the quality of life, what we want them to be able to enjoy while they’re here, but also being able to recreate responsibly and really making it something that’s fun for them as well,” said Cruz.
The summit took place in the departure terminal of the airport located at the Pease International Tradeport.
Discussion included information from Pease authorities — executive director Paul Brean and director of operations Chasen Congreves — about contributions to the local economy and tourism made by the Tradeport and the airport.
Brean cited statistics that some 10,000 people are employed on the Tradeport among 250 companies, including some of the biggest employers, Lonza Biologics and weapons manufacturer Sig Sauer.
“We like to say on the Seacoast, one out of every seven people are touched by a job at Pease,” said Brean.
As the sixth busiest airport in New England, according to Congreves, Portsmouth International had 99,747 enplanements (passengers boarding outbound flights) in 2024. They included passengers on the two commercial airlines that fly out of Pease — Allegiant and Breeze — as well as military personnel who fly out to deployments on government-chartered flights.
Allegiant and Breeze offer discount flights to and from a variety of Florida locations. While there is significant traffic from New Hampshire to Florida, Congreves noted that the reverse is also true — that people are coming up from Florida for ski trips, to escape Florida’s summer heat and see the fall foliage. He noted that the rental car concession at the airport is especially busy during the summer.
Janel Lawton, state director of the Office of Outdoor Recreation, said outdoor recreation in the Granite State is a year-round asset that’s important both to tourism and to workforce recruitment for local businesses.
Outdoor recreation contributes about $3.9 billion to the state’s economy, according to Lawton, who noted, “That’s a huge contribution.”
“Outdoor recreation is already a major economic driver,” said Lawton. “It’s one of New Hampshire’s largest industries, and it’s a sector that appeals to almost everyone, every demographic. Outdoor recreation is a powerful recruitment tool … it is a tool not just for the outdoor rec industry, but for non outdoor rec businesses.”
One way to connect businesses and communities with outdoor recreation, according to Lawton, is a rail trail.
She noted that businesses along a rail trail can make themselves more bike-friendly by having bike racks, bike storage, air pumps and trail-related signage.
Seacoast Greenway, a multi-use trail proposed for about 17 miles between Portsmouth and Seabrook, was discussed at the summit not only as an attraction for locals and tourists but also as an opportunity for business people.
Shannon Rogers, a University of New Hampshire Extension educator and ecological economist, showed data of the positive impact a rail trail has on the economy.
She said her study of rail trails in the state shows an economic impact of $19 million, with $1.14 million in tax revenue for the state.
Revenue from the state’s Meals/Rental Tax is heavily dependent on tourism.
According to a December 2024 revenue report (December being the halfway point in the state’s current fiscal year 2025), the meals and rooms tax revenue was $5.9 million ahead of plan and $7.1 million ahead of the previous year.
“However,” said Phil Sletten, research director for the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, for the year, this tax has generated a relatively limited $5.9 million (3.2%) revenue surplus so far relative to planned amounts.”
