Cashing in on Canadians

From this report on WMUR.com, it seems that Canada is now supplying at least an equal number of visitors to New Hampshire vacation spots as Americans (although technically, Canadias are Americans, in that they live on the same continent).

While the bad economy has kept many Americans at home, businesses said it helped bring more visitors from the north.

"Oh, yeah. More than half are from Canada," said Ruxandra Iomscu of T-Shirt City.

From Canadian flags on the hotels to Canadian license plates in the parking lot, it's hard to miss just how many people have come from north of the border. Olivier Fourier, of Quebec, said he drove down for the weekend for a cheap vacation.

"I thought it was really cheap, and there are no taxes here, and all is cheaper than where we come from," Fourier said.

One U.S. dollar is worth about $1.05 Canadian, up significantly over past summers.

So while people in the states are actually looking for the ultimate "staycation" adventure, Canadians are doing the same.

Interesting how these words get infused into our lexicon. Staycation is the new term for people taking vacations close to home due to high gas prices and other economic factors.

The Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce recently ported that 49% of visitors to the city were from Massachusetts, while 19% were from other nearby states, mostly New Hampshire.

Around 11% of the visitors logged at the Chamber's information booth were from foreign countries, and of that most were from Canada.

The message in all this? People are tripping down here for a weekend out in tax-free New Hampshire - and Canada has newspapers and other marketing venues.