Rescuers fear "Yuppie 911"

[Tim Seaver]

If NH is spending $6,000,000 annually to carefully cultivate an image of their state being a fun and safe place to bring your family, one would think they would realize that negative publicity is like shooting a big hole in that image.
Money which actually is coming out of taxpayer pockets, yet you don't hear many people screaming about how much of their tax dollar is being spent on making people come here in the first place. Why? Because it doesn't make for good headlines, unlike stories involving Stupid People and Scary Mountains and Shiny Expensive Helicopters. So the actual cost of promoting tourism vs. saving a few of those people gets buried in a pile of hype.

Anyone that thinks that media coverage doesn't affect tourism should read what happened to Mexico's tourist industry in the wake of the swine flu there, much of which was more about perception than anything else.

BarkingCat - That's a good question. I would think it's a pretty small percentage, but wouldn't know how to back that up. Yet.

 

[Chip]

The 911 yuppies are going to come anyways.

I can go LOTS of places for the 25k that scout was billed.
Not that we're Yuppies. Dick-Marupies maybe. Dick to those who know me.

(Duel Income and a couple kids-middle aged rural professionals)

 

[--M.]

NH has some of the best hiking on the east coast. So what does a person say from eastern Mass have for an alternative?

Drive 5 more hour into Maine?

Go to VT with limited timberline?

Drive even farther to the Ads?

The 911 yuppies are going to come anyways.

Some of the best hiking, yes.

There's tremendous hiking in Maine that's closer than New Hampshire. Same for Vermont.

I don't automatically expect you to believe it for New York, but consider:

==it takes me five hours to get to Evans Notch;
==it takes me four hours to get to Tahawus / Upper Works / Santanoni;
==it takes me four hours to get to North Conway;
==it takes me three hours to get to the Tongue Range;
==it takes me three hours to get to Lincoln Woods;
==it takes me two+ hours to get to the Berkshires.

I hike carefully wherever I am and don't want to risk others' lives finding and correcting my "learning experiences." But if I become convinced that New Hampshire is deliberately antagonistic, there are certainly other places with equally (or nearly) compelling spots.

It's unfortunate, but there's no shortage of SARs for the sample set each year. New Hampshire has an opportunity to learn and implement a rational approach. Antagonism ain't gonna cut it.

And labeling bad guys "yuppies" is too easy.

--Mike

 

[Mike P.]

Who see's the NH tourism ad's (I live in CT & the household income probably makes me a yu*&%*_e) Now the only tourism stuff I see for NH is when I'm already in NH. Most of the ski billboards in CT are for Okemo & Killington, some Stowe maybe too) Is all that $$$ spent at the State Liquor stores to entice flatlanders to do more than drive north for tax free booze?

BTW, I think the only place I've seen CT tourim ad's is on CT local TV. Wouldn't it be better to show commericals where the tourist live????? I think of CT as pretty & close to everything I like with none of the really good stuff, we have hiking but better in, NH, NY, ME, we have eaches but not Cape Cod or Jersey Shore, etc...

From my house, I can get to the Kanc in just under 3 3/4 hours, C-Notch in about four hours, I can get to the AuSable Club in four hours, some of the Catskill trailheads in approx 3.5 & White River Junction in just under 3 so Camel's Hump in just under four & Underhill just over. Greylock & Monadnock in about two.

I get to NH 9-12 X a year, the Catskills maybe 1X, the ADk's usually for a weekend, maybe an extra day if I'm lucky. VT & ME every other year, maybe. If I lived in Bangor, or even Brunswick & I'd be about equal time. Fear of paying for a rescue won't keep me out of NH, $4 or $5 a gallon gas will. Knowing I might not be rescue, if I needed it, would more likely keep me out of someplace.