PORTLAND — Even with a dreary, wet June, Maine’s summer tourist season may be a record breaker in terms of the number of visitors to the state, tourism officials said.
State parks and highways recorded more visitors and traffic than last year, which was the state’s best tourist year on record.
“I think it’s going to turn out to be a record-breaking year,” said Dann Lewis, the director of the Maine Office of Tourism. “Towns throughout the state have benefited.”
A strong economy combined with an increased effort by the state to market Maine produced the increase in tourists, Lewis said.
The state has not yet calculated the number of people who visited Maine this summer. But reports from around Maine show the numbers are high.
Attendance at state parks in July totaled 655,211 — 12 percent more than last July. More than 2 million people visited Maine’s parks and historic sites last year, and officials expect that number to increase this year.
Visitors to Acadia National Park totaled 624,937 in July, up from 622,847 in July 1997. However, the park had 9 percent fewer visitors in June, primarily because of extensive rains.
The York tollbooth on the Maine Turnpike counted 1.68 million cars in July, 5.8 percent more than last July. While figures weren’t available for August, turnpike officials said the first two weekends of August appeared to be the most crowded they’d ever seen.
All the visitors have kept Alden Grant busy at her three-room bed and breakfast, the Nicholson Inn in Freeport.
The inn had only three vacancies the entire month of August. “We had a great season,” Grant said. “It got off to a slow start because of all the rain, but August was tremendous.”
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