InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/series/nh-travel-guru/page/3)
Mark Okrant is the author of nine books, numerous journal articles, more than 100 monographs on tourism, marketing and planning, and is a frequent contributor to El Coqui, a popular west coast Puerto Rico tourism magazine.
He has received several lifetime achievement awards, including the 2016 Dick Hamilton Award from the New Hampshire Travel Council, and two New Hampshire governors’ commendations for his work as a tourism researcher, educator, and author.
Okrant’s Kary Turnell tourism mystery series places his lead character in crime scenes at historic resorts and communities; several of these are set in New Hampshire. Visit www.markokrant.com to learn more.
NH Travel Guru: Years ago, I boarded a Greyhound Bus in New Orleans, bound for Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The young child seated behind me had a terrible cold, which manifested itself in the form of a loud, moist cough. And then …
Others post signs such as, “Welcome to New Hampshire (tourists); now go home!”
Closer to home, the Heritage Farm Pancake House, in Sanbornton, has a policy that states, “ . . . our servers receive a non-tip dependent, predictable hourly wage . . . (and) are not permitted to receive any tips or additional wages.”
Truth be told, state travel slogans—unlike state mottos—are rarely in place longer than half a decade. The “I Love New York” and “Virginia is for Lovers” campaigns are the exceptions, not the rule. And who is the lucky winner?
At this time, I ask you readers to vote for the slogan that would best serve the Granite State to attract visitors.
What would you use as a slogan for attracting visitors to New Hampshire?
Given the significant presence of black people in New Hampshire during the last three hundred years, it is truly disappointing that today’s public school children (and their parents and grandparents) are unaware that black children and young adults were once sold on the wharf in Portsmouth, that Governor Langdon supported the efforts of George Washington to recover his “runaway property,” that Richard Potter was one of the most popular entertainers in America two hundred years ago, or that Harriet Wilson was the first African-American woman in North America to publish a book.
In total, wildlife tourism accounts for an estimated twenty to forty percent of the total one trillion dollars expended annually by travelers and the services that
accommodate them.
Have you ever considered where leisure or business travelers would be without a simple
innovation—the suitcase? One might presume that such carriers have been around
for as long as humankind itself.
We soon learned that the Villa Brasil Motel is owned and managed by two Brazilian immigrants, Fatima Donvito and her husband Marcelino.