Beachgoers crowd Old Orchard Beach near the pier on Tuesday. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
From one perspective – let’s call it the 5,269-foot view, to match the height of Katahdin – Maine has had a successful summer of tourism, with millions of visitors once again spending billions of dollars.
But on the ground, the results have been mixed, with the businesses who found enough workers doing quite well and those who didn’t often struggling through another summer of stressful shifts and limited hours.
If the summer of 2022 showed us anything, it’s that the hospitality industry is forever changed, with the worker shortage, always serious but now more acute, likely the new way of things.
It’s a dynamic that makes workers, especially the dedicated and experienced kind, all the more valuable. They are the key to giving visitors the experience they are looking to have when they come to Maine – and which will get them to return again and again.
Businesses in Maine that depend on tourism – and which ones don’t? – would be wise not to undervalue them.
The hospitality industry, a stressful line of work even before the pandemic, lost an unprecedented number of workers when COVID-19 hit. There has been strong hiring in the field as of late, but the latest jobs report shows the industry still has 1.2 million fewer jobs than prior to the pandemic.
That’s left restaurants, hotels and other businesses struggling more than usual to find the workers necessary to handle the tourists who come across the Piscataqua River bridge in droves every summer looking for lobsters, lighthouses and everything else Maine has to offer.
And while the price of gas, and everything else, may have tempered tourism slightly at the beginning of summer, officials expect 2022 to be another banner year for Maine once everything is said and done. Certainly, there’s been no letup in traffic.
For the businesses who were able to hire enough staff, or who could depend on their staff to deliver the goods even in a pinch, the summer has looked a lot like the record summers pre-pandemic.
But among those who couldn’t, many have had to resort to limiting hours and services, leaving money on the table during the busiest time of the year.
More than any time before, businesses in the Maine tourism industry are competing for workers among a limited pool. Higher wages across the economy have drawn workers away from the industry and toward those with better hours and less stress.
At the same time, the state’s housing crisis has hit few industries harder than tourism, as workers struggle to afford rent, particularly near the coast.
The businesses that will thrive in this new environment are the ones who realize just how valuable it makes workers, particularly those with the skills to make a real difference in the customer experience.
Businesses can increase their pay and benefits. They can help workers find housing and support pro-housing policies. They can foster a positive and humane work environment. All of it will help attract and retain good workers.
However, businesses that treat seasonal workers as interchangeable, who underpay or otherwise underappreciate their staff, won’t have the same luck.
And eventually, more likely than not, they’ll watch as customers choose somewhere else to go.
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