Welcome to Maine, we hope you like it here.
As Mainers gear up for another summer, the relationship between tourists and Mainers comes back into mind. Walking down Commercial Street in June, you’re likely to see fishermen weaving through a sea of tourists as they back down the wharves with trucks full of gear. Yes, it’s crowded, yet we Mainers share a sense of gratitude extending beyond economics for our summer visitors.
But of course, when Portland, Bar Harbor, Baxter and beyond become populated with people “from away,” Mainers’ grumblings about tourists grow. I wonder if Maine’s identity evolves for the better because of tourism. Tourist season is more than a glorified charity drive for Maine – it’s a time when Maine’s culture is magnified in harmony with a growing summer population.
Last summer, 2023, Maine tourism generated $9.1 billion in revenue for the state. This helped support tens of thousands of jobs for Mainers like myself. Growing up in the Portland area, the money I have saved over the summers for school came from bussing tables and working on lobster boats, both jobs that rely on a commodity export and money spent by people, yes, from away.
Maine is beautiful and quaint, but a large reason why people from away return to our state is the hospitable character of the people here. The camaraderie that Mainers share for each other is palpable, and tourists want to experience it. Tourists and visitors not only stimulate our economy but contribute socially, too. These people may start out as tourists but often become friends, wives, husbands, maybe even future Mainers. Tourist season in Maine is not only a time to generate money and gainfully employ the people of our state; it is a season in which we are reminded who we really are.
Maine is home to just over 1.3 million residents, a number that grows tenfold when adding the total number of summer visitors. And us of the 1.3 million find ourselves wandering through our home in the summer months, wondering where everyone is as we try to pick out a familiar face.
The disorientation some Mainers feel in their home state during the summer months is not a product of intolerance to tourists, rather a projection of Maine culture onto a tourism backdrop. In a 2018 video titled “12 Little Wharves” produced by the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, the recurring phrase is: “Don’t push us out.” This is the voice of a Maine demanding to be heard over the industries that support tourism and the 15 million people who enter our state every summer.
As fishermen and local business owners articulate in the MCFA video, Maine culture and the people we all are contribute to the very allure that draws people from across America and beyond to Maine every summer. As tourism continues to grow, industrious entrepreneurs continue to develop more infrastructure to feed, house and support the tourists. The concern for MCFA and all Mainers in the summer months is: What happens when tourism is valued over Maine itself? Are we looking at an imbalance in Maine life? And are the people and industries that define us being “pushed out” because of this very allure?
This point of view can be interpreted as a call to action for Mainers, and it may be.
But I prefer to see it as a cohesive Maine voice that engages in a larger conversation about what it means to be a local, with a knowledge of past tradition and an abiding love for the place you call home. Tourist season in Maine brings other people closer to Maine. In that way, it brings Mainers closer together. We all sweat, complain and laugh our way through the traffic and long working hours as we uphold this tourist industry, occasionally wishing September would come sooner. But in a backwards sort of way, tourists remind us of who we are and why we love our home state. This is why people keep coming.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story