AUGUSTA - The Maine Office of Tourism has launched an expanded marketing campaign for Winter 2017-2018. The campaign will run through March 2018 with creative materials that extend themes and placements from the summer 2017 plan to build on the momentum of that campaign.

"Maine offers exceptional snowmobiling, skiing and other winter activities," said Steve Lyons, Director of the Maine Office of Tourism. "With this winter-focused campaign, we will keep Maine top of mind year-round, encouraging visitors to consider us in all seasons."

The winter marketing initiative will target Maine's core tourism markets in New England and the mid-Atlantic states, which together accounted for 85 percent of overnight visitation during the winter season in 2016-2017. Maine has experienced annual increases in winter visitation (December - April) over the past five years, with a more than 10 percent increase in winter visitation in 2016-2017 over the previous year.

The Office of Tourism will also continue the weekly Snow Reports introduced in winter 2017 in partnership with the Ski Association of Maine and the Maine Snowmobile Association. Similar to the Fall Foliage reports, the Snow Reports provide weekly updates during the winter months on snow conditions in the mountains and on snowmobile trails, with a calendar of events.

"We know from our research and anecdotally that Maine has great appeal as a winter get-away, both for its winter outdoor sports and its cozy indoor escapes," said Lyons. "The campaign and Snow Reports will actively remind people in areas with less snowfall that, although there may not be significant accumulation where they live, there's always snow in our mountains and in northern Maine."

Winter-focused content on the newly redesigned VisitMaine.com website will support the media and PR efforts; the site launched in late October of this year. The redesigned site translates more seamlessly to mobile platforms and provides improved searching of Maine travel information.

"In today's tourism market, Maine is competing with global destinations. With so many choices, we're striving to provide web content that piques the traveler's interest and improves their consideration of Maine as a top get-away," said Lyons.