Hyde: No 'Disaster' Yet

For Vt. Ski Industry

By M. D. Drysdale

This winter's warm weather and lack of snow has been disastrous for snowmobileers but not yet for the ski economy, Bruce Hyde, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing, said this week in Randolph.

Neighboring New Hampshire is overreacting by considering application for disaster relief funds because of the impact of warm weather on the ski industry, Hyde said. "They've blown it way out of proportion."

In Vermont, "ski areas are not doing that badly," he told the Randolph Chamber of Commerce breakfast Tuesday morning. That's partly because people turn to other activities when they book rooms here, and partly because February and March are the most important skiing months, he said. He predicted the year could end up reasonably well for ski towns.

Snowmobiling, though, is another story, Hyde said. The towns and businesses, many of them in the Northeast Kingdom, have been badly hit by the third bad snow winter in a row.

Hyde, a former Waitsfield innkeeper who was appointed by Gov. Jim Douglas in his first term and has stuck around since, said that tourist revenues in general are up 6% as a whole for 2006 compared to the previous year—thanks especially to a very warm and successful foliage season. He released a new study of 2005, which indicated that eight million visitors spent $1.6 billion in Vermont that year—not counting the "multiplier effect" of those expenditures. Some 36,000 jobs are provided by the tourist industry and not, he emphasized, minimum-wage jobs.

A Powerful Brand

The Vermont "brand identity" continues to work tremendously well in Vermont's favor, he said, as people tend to want to come to Vermont just because it's Vermont and not for any particular activity, he said.

The department experimented with various "catch phrases" for a slogan, but discovered that the best one was simply "Vermont," he said.

One cloud on the horizon in the tourism business might be the planned requirement for passports at the Canadian border, Hyde cautioned. The Canadian tourist trade, he said, is "huge" and could be badly affected.

He noted that European governments are having good results by relaxing travel restrictions, not imposing new ones, and said he hoped the U.S. would change course.

"I would hope that we'd save billions of dollars (in transition costs) and forget about that kind of issue," he said.

As reason for optimism, Hyde cited an increase in foreign visitors, especially from Britain and Germany. Visits from the French may increase in 2009, he said, when the state is planning a big celebration of the "discovery" of Vermont by Frenchman Samuel de Champlain, who sailed down the lake that now bears his name.

Parade Appropriation

The breakfast meeting was introduced by Chamber President Joe Boyd, who urged members to sign a petition asking the Town of Randolph to chip in $2500 at Town Meeting time for the Fourth of July parade, which is becoming more expensive.

Duane Marsh, state president, brought greetings from the Vermont Chamber and outlined a legislative agenda that includes education finance reform, working to make the new Catamount Health Plan work, no additional taxes, and cheaper energy costs.

Mike Tierney of the Vermont Welcome Center Division urged municipalities to take advantage of the opportunity to display various materials, such as brochures and "story-boards" at the rest areas.

According to Tierney's literature, the Randolph southbound I-89 rest stop is the third most visited rest stop on the Interstate, receiving more than 300,000 visitors a year.

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