Mainebiz

V O L . X X I V N O. V I I I A P R I L 1 6 , 2 0 1 8 6 LePage signs $3M-a-year tax break for BIW Gov. Paul LePage signed into law on April the bill granting Bath Iron Works a $5 million tax break over the next 15 years, with the full benefi t being tied to employment of at least 5,500 workers and the shipyard making $200 million in infrastructure invest- ments. Sponsored by state Rep. Jennifer DeChant, D-Bath, the bill replaces the $60 million, 20-year package of tax cred- its set to expire at year's end. BIW has an annual payroll of $350 million and pays out another $5 million a year to Maine companies for goods and services. In the past two decades, since being acquired by General Dynamics, BIW has invested $500 million in the Bath site. Report: Maine's tax burden in top 5 nationally A report by the personal-fi nance website WalletHub shows Maine as having the third highest overall tax burden of the 50 states. WalletHub's "201 Tax Burden by State" report takes into account property taxes, individual taxes and sales and excise taxes as a share of total personal income. Tax burden measures the proportion of total per- sonal income that residents pay toward state and local taxes. Maine ranked No. 3 in overall tax burden (11.02%), No. in property tax burden (.0%), No. 15 in individual income tax burden (2.6%) and No. 2 in total sales and excise tax burden (3.53%). New York has the high- est overall tax burden at 13.0%, while Alaska, at .%, has the lowest. New director at MaineHousing Dan Brennan, a member of Maine- Housing's leadership team, is the new B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E Progressi essive ve ve v • Creati tive ve ve v • Forwa wa wa w rd Thinking • g • Reso esourc rc rc r e ce ce c fu ful Progressive • Creative • Forward Thinking • Resourceful BREWERMAINE.GOV/BIZ Contact D'arcy Main-Boyington Economic Development Director dmain-boyington@brewermaine.gov | 207-989-7500 Visitor numbers hit fi ve-year high in 2017, but spending fl at The Maine Offi ce of Tourism's annual report on the economic impact of Maine's tourism industry shows a 2.5% increase in visitation in 2017 over the previous year, with an estimated 36.7 million visitors. It was the fi fth-consecutive year of visitation increases, which have shown an average annual increase of 5.7% since 2012. Of the total number of visitors, 5.3 million were making their fi rst visit to Maine. Direct tourism spending on shopping, restaurants and food, lodging, recreation, transportation and gasoline totaled $6 billion, up a slightly from $5.99 billion in 2016. The overall economic impact of tourism was estimated at nearly $9 billion. Some 106,806 jobs were supported by tourism in 2017, the Maine Offi ce of Tourism said. The fi ndings were presented at the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism, which was held in Portland. Other fi ndings: ¡ Overnight stays increased by 7% in 2017. ¡ Canadian day and overnight visitation accounted for 4.1 million visitors. ¡ Spending on tourism-related recreation increased by 8.5% in 2017. ¡ Tourism spending generated almost $600 million in tax revenue for the state. ¡ Travel contributed $2.5 billion to Maine households. Conference highlights The conference, which was held April 3–4 at the Holiday Inn By the Bay, featured workshops and breakout sessions designed to help attendees develop creative marketing plans for this year's tourism season. Among the presentations: ¡ Video storytelling and livestreaming, presented by Rory Strunk, president of O'Maine Studios, and Yury Nabokov, digital strategist at Machias Savings Bank. ¡ Tips on adding interactive experiences to provide deeper and more meaningful engagement with visitors while also adding to the bottom line, presented by Abbe Levin and Donna Moreland of the Maine Offi ce of Tourism. ¡ Tapping into the wellness travel market, moderated by Heather Chandler, publisher of Green & Healthy Maine. ¡ Update on 2018 Cruise Maine operations and market- ing, presented by Patrick Arnold, owner of Soli DG, the company that manages the International Marine Terminal. Positive results of its 2017 marketing program include: ¡ 3 million VisitMaine.com website sessions in 2017, an increase of 21.6% over 2016 ¡ 72,000 "Maine Invites you" travel guidebook orders from VisitMaine.com, up 9.7% ¡ 9.300 e-newsletter sign-ups, up 202.4% over 2016 ¡ 5.4 billion editorial impressions ¡ 53 million Facebook impressions ¡ 896,500 Twitter impressions ¡ 18,000 new Instagram followers. B R I E F C OV E R / C O U R T E S Y M A I N E O F F I C E O F T O U R I S M In 2017 Maine had 36.7 million visitors.

• Cover