Tourism up again

Working Waterfront - An estimated 36 million visited the state [in 2017], up 2.5 percent over 2016. It marked the fifth-consecutive year of visitation increases, which have averaged 5.7 percent.

One number of particular significance to tourism officials is the first-time visitor count. Research has shown that once people visit Maine, they are highly likely to return Last year, 5.3 million visitors came to Maine for the first time.

Direct tourism spending was $6 billion in 2017, supporting about 106,000 jobs. Spending on tourism-related recreation grew by 8.5 percent last year, and overnight visitation increased by about 7 percent.