New Tourism Director Focused on Partnerships

Lori Harnois, who succeeded Alice DeSouza as the new head of the state's Division of Travel and Tourism Development in November, takes the reins at a challenging time within state government as the leaders in the Legislature call for deep budget cuts.

The Division of Travel and Tourism plays a critical role in promoting the state's second biggest industry, and it's a responsibility Harnois takes seriously. She has spent more than 10 years working for the division, including the last six as international and domestic marketing manager.

Harnois, a 1998 graduate of the University of NH with a degree in science, tourism planning and development, says partnerships will be key to maximizing the state's and industry's promotional dollars, especially in light of likely budget cuts.

Among those partnerships is promoting Farm to Table restaurant initiatives within the state with the NH Department of Agriculture and working with the Department of Transportation to enhance visitor services at the state's Welcome Centers. That effort includes potential capital improvements at Welcome Centers as well as providing customer service training to the frontline personnel at the centers.

The Division kicked off its winter promotional campaign in January with Ski NH, targeting Boston, Providence and Southern NH with radio, mobile and online advertising to drive people to winternh.com.

In addition to continuing to promote the state in important domestic markets, including New England, New York and Philadelphia, the Division will continue to cultivate the important international market.

New Hampshire is hosting the Discover New England Summit and Marketplace in April at the Omni Mount Washington-a joint annual conference held by the New England states for international tour operators and travel writers.

"It's for them to come and meet one on one with New England's tourism industry," Harnois says. "It's to encourage them to create vacation packages to be sold to consumers overseas and in Canada."

Harnois says the Division is trying to encourage the development of more statewide events and working with the NH Travel Council to provide educational seminars at the Governor's Conference on Travel and Tourism in May on how the industry can package and promote these events.

Harnois says she will work to maintain the state's crucial Joint Promotional Program that gives grants to help tourism nonprofits market themselves out of state.

"We're looking for opportunities to do cooperative advertisements," Harnois says. Such marketing efforts are critical to the state's hospitality industry. In Fiscal Year 2010, there were 34.02 million visitor trips to NH. Direct spending by visitors in NH amounted to $4.3 billion and supported 60,500 full- and part-time direct jobs.