Tourism Spending Up in 2005

from "Tourism spending rose in 2005, state reports" by Tux Terkel, Portland Press-Herald, August 18, 2006

Maine's tourism industry broke out of a four-year slump in 2005 and increased the total number of overnight trips to the state by 9 percent and the number of overnight vacationers by 12 percent, figures being released today show.

"2005 was a very good year," said Dann Lewis, the state's tourism director. "It reversed a trend that had been soft for four years."

Overall, Maine hosted 9.7 million overnight trips in 2005, a 9 percent increase. Overnight trips are a key barometer in the tourism industry because those visitors spend the most money for food, lodging and services.

Dann Lewis' Bio from Council of State Governments Eastern Regional Conference

Dann H. Lewis has been Director of the Office of Tourism in the State of Maine for the past seven years. In this role Mr. Lewis has been instrumental in moving the promotional budget from a $1.5 million general fund allocation to a $7.2 million dedicated revenue source. In turn tourism has become Maine’s largest industry with visitor expenditures exceeding $9.2 billion annually, amounting to 20% of tax revenues, supporting directly and indirectly over 180,000 jobs. Dann Lewis is also a member of the board and Treasurer of Discover New England, a six state international tourism marketing consortium.


Mr. Lewis was a founder and first board chairman of Bahamasair, the flag carrier of the Bahama Islands, and was president of Trans World Express carriers in California and in Pennsylvania. He later returned to the U.S. Virgin Islands as vice president and general manager of Virgin Islands Seaplane Shuttle in St. Croix. Mr. Lewis served as international marketing director and assistant director of tourism for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and later as Director of Tourism for the U.S. Virgin Islands in St. Thomas. He moved from St. Thomas to New York to become Deputy Commissioner of Commerce and Director of Tourism for New York State during the early days of the I Love New York campaign.