BANGOR – With projects such as a gaming and hotel complex, three new hotels and a new arena in the works, Greater Bangor needs to be ready for an influx of visitors, the new executive director of the Greater Bangor Convention & Visitors Bureau – and Bangor’s City Council chairman – said Monday.

And then there’s the American Folk Festival, which continues to draw tens of thousands to the area each summer, a fledgling cruise boat industry, increasing numbers of leaf peepers, and a strong Canadian dollar, among other things.

With much of its traditional industrial and manufacturing base gone, the region now is looking for new ways to sustain itself, and, as Richard Greene sees it, tourism will be a large part of the answer.

“I think this area is perfectly poised for growth. What will drive Bangor is tourism,” Greene said Monday, his first day on the job. The Convention & Visitors Bureau is a nonprofit organization funded by several public and private entities, including the city of Bangor. Details of Greene’s salary were not available.

“I’ve lived in Bangor all my life. I’m firmly committed to Bangor and I love Bangor,” Greene said Monday when asked why he pursued the full-time position, vacated several months ago by Donna Fichtner, who now is consulting in the private sector.

“I hope I can use my years of experience to further the cause,” he said.

“Let’s face it, the tourism industry is going to be where it’s at,” he said. To that end, making sure that Bangor and surrounding towns put their best feet forward will be among Greene’s priorities in the months ahead, he said.

Greene, who will direct a staff of three, is still familiarizing himself with his new duties and new office, housed in the Eastern Maine Development Corp.’s headquarters at Norumbega Hall on Harlow Street.

He said, however, that he intends to build on the development momentum under way and hopes to grow into new areas, including wedding planning, an industry he is familiar with, having been in the photography business for decades.

Greene was selected from a field of about 40 candidates for the position, four of whom were interviewed by a three-member panel, said Bob Bangs, the organization’s board president and owner of Windswept Gardens, a Bangor garden center and landscaping business on Broadway.

“It was a unanimous choice,” Bangs said in an interview last week.

“The main thing was his vision for the direction of the CVB and the role that tourism plays in Greater Bangor’s economy and all the development that’s going on,” Bangs said, adding that Greene also could bring his strong communication and marketing skills to the position.

“Obviously, his good rapport with city hall and understanding of the inner workings of the city won’t hurt, so that was another plus,” Bangs said.

“As a lifelong resident, he was very familiar with the area. Before we could get the questions out, he was giving us the answers,” Bangs said.

Greene said he would continue operating his photography business, Klyne Studio, which largely involves working by appointment and on nights and weekends.