Sen. Shaheen Promotes Portsmouth as Tourist Destination

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and several Portsmouth area tourism officials are on a mission to bring more international travelers to New Hampshire and now they have a national partner who can put them on a bigger stage.

Shaheen, D-NH, and Mike Fullerton, director of public affairs for Brand USA, a public-private partnership that Shaheen helped launch which is responsible for the country’s first-ever nationally coordinated tourism marketing effort.

"One thing about international visitors is when they do come here they stay longer and spend more money," Shaheen said.

Shaheen's roundtable at the Common Man restaurant on State Street featured many of the Portsmouth's region's top tourism leaders who included Stephanie Seacord, director of marketing at Strawbery Banke Museum. Valerie Rochon, director of tourism for the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, Jeff Rose, commission of the state Department of Resources and Economic Development, and JT Thompson, minister of propaganda for Smuttynose Brewing Co.

When she served as New Hampshire Governor from 1996 to 2000, Shaheen recalled how she first discovered the country did not have a national entity that promoted the United States as a tourist destination in other countries. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Shaheen said international visitors who traveled to the U.S. declined considerably and led to what Fullerton said people in the travel and tourism industry called the "lost decade."

Meanwhile, other nations such as the United Kingdom, Japan, and Dubai have stepped up their tourism marketing efforts to the tune of millions of dollars to lure international visitors to their countries, Fullerton said.

Now that Brand USA has been created, Shaheen said it is important for state and regional tourism groups to partner with them so they can market their unique tourism opportunities to a greater audience of potential international travelers around the world.

"The more we can coordinate our efforts, the more we can all benefit," Shaheen said.

Fullerton pointed out that international travelers represent a huge economic boost to the U.S. economy as a whole. He said the average international traveler spends $4,500 per person during their stay, which is enough to create one U.S. job.

This type of statistic is especially relevant to New Hampshire where tourism is the state's second largest industry that employs 60,000 people, he said.

Within the past year, Fullerton said Brand USA has launched an aggressive marketing campaign in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan and he said they will soon reach out to Brazil, China, Australia, Germany and Mexico.
Seacord noted that Portsmouth already sees a lot of Japanese visitors because of the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Treaty and she would like to see the city attract even more Japanese visitors.

Fullerton also told Thompson that Brand USA could help Portsmouth area breweries promote specialized brewery tours for international visitors that could begin in Boston, take them to Portsmouth and to Portland, Maine where they could tour breweries such as Sam Adams, Smuttynose and Gritty McDuff's.
Rochon acknowledged how beneficial it would be for the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce to be able to work with a group like Brand USA because she said individual tourism groups like the chamber are "little guys" who have limited resources when it comes to marketing what they have to offer on a bigger international tourism market stage.

Following their Portsmouth roundtable, Shaheen and Fullerton were scheduled to travel to Weirs Beach on Lake Winnipesaukee to hold a second roundtable with Lakes Region tourism officials.