New Hampshire’s tourism industry didn’t just rebound from the disruption of the pandemic in 2020, it set new record highs for both the number of visitors and the amount of money they left behind in 2021 and 2022. Visitor spending in NH plummeted from $5.9 billion in 2019 to $4.6 billion in 2020. However, by 2021, visitor spending skyrocketed to $6.3 billion.

And while state and industry officials expect that influx of tourists to continue this year, the big question is whether there will be enough workers to serve them drinks, turn down their beds and take their tickets.

Lori Harnois, NH Travel and Tourism director, says finding enough labor is a huge struggle for NH’s tourism industry, and that the high cost of housing is exacerbating the problem. The state hopes to alleviate some of that pressure through the InvestNH program, a $100 million initiative funded with federal COVID relief money and designed to spur the creation of affordable housing. Harnois says her division is also working to help develop “creative assets,” such as images and videos, which can be used by small businesses in their recruiting efforts.

Higher and hire

For attractions in the White Mountains, such as theme parks Santa’s Village and Story Land, the doors can’t open without scores of employees. Story Land, located in Glen, requires about 300 employees to operate, according to Director of Marketing Lauren Hawkins. The company is looking to hire a total of 350 this year, so that it can also staff its new project, Living Shores Aquarium.

Hawkins says business was largely back to pre-pandemic patterns last year, and the same is expected for 2023. However, it will only get harder to hire staff. As the White Mountains expands its tourism market, more lodging establishments, restaurants and retail businesses are opening. She notes four new hotels are under construction in the area, with a new major grocery retailer opening this summer.

“Development continues to be a challenge for seasonal businesses in the area—really all businesses in the area,” Hawkins says. “This development is amazing for our area in terms of tourism, but there is a dire need for workforce and affordable housing. We are all pulling from the same pool of full-time residents.”

Story Land has raised wages, improved benefits and even adjusted dress codes, all to make the jobs more attractive, Hawkins says. Yet there are only so many residents they could attract, so the Story Land staffing strategy includes hiring about 75 international students through the J1 visa program. Story Land also hopes to fill up to 45 positions through “workampers,” people who travel the country via RVs and look for seasonal jobs wherever they park their camper.

“Many of our team members are in high school as we hire starting at 14, and we make a fantastic first job, with many areas and skills to learn,” Hawkins says. “We also hire retired individuals who are only looking for a few days a week, and every age in between.”

It’s a similar story in Jefferson, where Santa’s Village has to find more than 300 people to work each year. “We are fortunate that 70% or more of our staff are coming back for another year, but you’re still hiring 25% to 30% new hires each year,” says Jim Miller, a spokesperson for the company. “We got back to full staff in 2022, but it’s a challenge every year to hire enough.”

Santa’s Village took a hit in 2020, when restrictions made it impossible for the company to gain enough revenue, Miller says. But, that year also brought an innovation which has made life at the park better, both for guests and employees. That innovation is pre-paid tickets, with daily capacity limits.

In 2019, and all the years prior, anyone who showed up at Santa’s Village would be admitted, Miller says. That policy made for some problematic days, particularly when there was perfect weather and everyone, it seemed, decided it would be a good day to spend in the White Mountains. They set attendance records but, Miller says, a good number of those admitted wouldn’t have much fun, as they would spend their visit waiting in one line after another.

Then came 2020, when the park had to impose capacity limits in order to operate under pandemic rules, and the park’s leadership decided to keep limits in place even after restrictions were lifted. “We’ve had many people say, I’d gladly pay more if there were fewer people here,” Miller says. “As a business, you have to figure out, how much more for how much fewer?”

In the end, the limits they’ve imposed seem to strike the right balance. They haven’t experienced the single-day attendance highs they might have otherwise seen, but selling the tickets in advance has meant that they’ve had more guests on cloudy and rainy days, when the park might have been empty under the previous ticketing policies. At the end of 2022, Miller says Santa’s Village didn’t quite sell as many tickets as it did in 2019 – but it was close. He says his guests likely had a better time without the crowding, and they definitely spent more money on concessions and gifts.

“We had a very good year last year, that’s what helps me be so optimistic about 2023,” Miller says. “We’re very pleased to come through the pandemic and find that people still like to come out and spend time with us.”

Battling rising costs

Santa’s Village isn’t alone in finding a way to strike a balance in this new market reality. Jerod Blanchette, co-owner of the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company, says he and his partner used a careful hand in adjusting their prices at the start of last season in anticipation of cost increases.

The steamship company, which employs 35, gave workers an across-the-board raise so that they could retain experienced employees. Diesel fuel, a significant cost driver for the company, nearly doubled in price. And then there’s the rising cost for the food and drinks they need to keep guests happy. “We basically nailed it,” Blanchette says. “By our net income, we went up by what our costs went up.”

And that comes as a relief after the rocky season the company experienced last year. Based in Portsmouth, the cruise company offers private parties and weddings, corporate retreats and public tours that include historic points of interest in Portsmouth Harbor and the Isles of Shoals. They also have a contract to serve as the ferry and supply ship for the hotel on Star Island, located seven miles off the coast.

Blanchette says that mid-winter is usually when much of the coming season’s charter business is booked. That wasn’t the case in January and February of 2022, when their phones were silent. “Last year there wasn’t much coming in; it was very slow,” Blanchette says. Their private parties and corporate clients eventually called, but not until a month prior to their cruise, which he says was “very unusual.... They were waiting to see; they didn’t want to book these things until they knew what was going to happen with COVID, I’m guessing. We booked some big charters two weeks out.”

This winter, his bookings were coming in briskly, seeming to indicate that whatever was bothering his clients last year has since been forgotten. “Right now, we’re getting a lot of private charters early, a lot of bus groups early, it seems to be a back-to-normal year,” Blanchette says.

Strong season expected

There are plenty of customers coming through the front doors of the state’s tourism-related businesses, says Mike Somers, president of the NH Lodging and Restaurant Association. The challenges for those business owners relate to back door issues, in the form of costs and staffing.

“It’s not about high labor costs, it’s a lack of labor. The demand for labor is incredibly high,” Somers says. Add in rising costs of electricity and other necessary expenses, and business owners are “working harder than they ever have, and they’re making less money,” he says.

There are signs this will be a strong season. Somers says the supply chain issues that bedeviled so many businesses in 2021 seem to have resolved, and there’s hope that energy prices will moderate.

New Hampshire primarily attracts visitors from the Northeast, and Harnois says marketing efforts are underway to attract additional visitors from within a six-hour drive, such as New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. And the state is also focused on drawing more international visitors, a segment that has yet to return at pre-pandemic rates. “We are working to build back visitation from eastern Canada and the international market,” Harnois says.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.

]]>