Extending The Tourist Season

by Brendan Smith
Weirs Times Editor

Now that Columbus Day Weekend is over, the summer tourist season comes to an official end here in the Lakes Region and around the state.
It is a prosperous time for many businesses and really is an important part of the local economy.
Of course, there are the year-round folks who like to grumble a bit at the increased traffic and the crowds from Memorial Day to this past weekend.
Once those crowds are gone, some breathe a sigh of relief that things are now quiet and life around town gets slower again.
It won’t be until after Christmas when things pick up again on the weekends with skiers and winter sports enthusiasts start to trickle back.
I know some business owners get a little nervous in the months between now and the end of December. But I think that the state is missing out on some great opportunities to keep those tourist dollars flowing year-round.
We should really be developing some programs, contests and advertising campaigns for mid- October though late December.
I have a few ideas.
We could promote New Hampshire on TV and print ads (of course) as the place where you can catch up on your sleep October through December. The NH Dept of Travel and Tourism might spend a few hundred thousand promoting “Live Free and Nap” as a new late fall campaign. Perhaps a photo of a family sleeping peacefully. This would help some innkeepers keep the doors open a while longer and create some income.
Now that the tourist season is over and many of the year-rounders are once again coming out of their shells and going to restaurants that were too busy during the summer, we could promote that as well. Sort of like a nature adventure tour. Restaurants could advertise to tourists who are curious about seeing the year-rounders in their truly natural habitat.
Perhaps they could get someone like Morgan Freeman or a sound alike to record a few radio ads that could be played in the Boston area.
“Watch them gather together, many types that you have never seen before but only heard of. Watch their strange mating rituals at local pubs. Listen to their unique forms of communication as they say things to each other such as: ‘I hear it’s going to be a cold winter’, ‘What about them Patriots’, ‘Sure was a quick summer’ and at least six other unique year-rounder expressions that help them survive and multiply during the bleak winter months.”
Even some of our local gyms, who lose the business of their summer members, could benefit by a program I developed. We could be the first state with a brand new exercise craze. I call it “Rakercize”.
For a hefty fee, Rakercize participants will be provided with a rake and will be bussed from home to home, along with a Rakercize instructor, and vigorously rake and bag leaves, while being yelled at by the instructor to “RAKE, BAG, RAKE, BAG”, barely taking a break, building up a good sweat and raising their heart rates. The gyms would pull in extra income from the homeowners who would pay a fee to have the Rakercize activities happen at their place.
If marketed correctly, Rackersize could bring in people from all over New England in the off season.
Another event centered around the health angle for tourists could be similar to the polar bear fundraisers we see in the colder months where people run into (and then quickly out of) the cold lakes in their bathing suits to raise money for charity.
Lakefront resorts, which usually close up right after Columbus Day or sooner, could promote the polar bear idea to people who will believe and try any new health idea no matter how ridiculous it seems.
They could charge high rates for the “Stay and Freeze” package with brochures that read something like:
“Ninety-five percent of health professionals we asked agree that a plunge into the icy waters of Lake Winnipesaukee will improve your cardiovascular performance as well as stimulate the neurons in your brain and rejuvenate the cells in your skin to reverse the aging process.”
Sure, it’s not true, but someone might be able to squeeze a couple of good years and some early winter dollars out of the program until people caught on and went on to the next crazy idea. (Selling gift certificates leading up to Christmas would be a good money maker for this as well as most folks will never cash them in.)
So, as you see, with a little imagination we can keep the tourists coming and the dollars flowing all year round.