Dann Lewis Honored by Top Industry Group

Dann H. Lewis, director of the office of tourism, has been selected as one of the most extraordinary sales and marketing minds in hospitality, travel and tourism by senior executives in those industries from around the world.

Dann Lewis, who has served as tourism director in Maine since 1995, was named in January to the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International "Hot List of Top 25 for 2005." Lewis and the 24 others were selected because of their ability to develop marketing strategies that are truly innovative and clever and that get results. In asking for their picks, senior executives from around the globe were told to submit nominees who best exemplified the set criteria: Whose marketing strategies are truly innovative and clever? Whose companies represent a sales-focused organization? Who gets results? Whose work do you wish were your own?

Submitted nominations were reviewed and scored the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association Internationals executive committee, resulting in the third annual "Top 25" list.

Dann Lewis has been tourism director for such notable destinations as the Bahamas, the U. S. Virgin Islands, New York (where he originated the famous "I Love New York" marketing campaign) and most recently, the State of Maine.

Congratulations to Dann Lewis!

From: Hospitality Net Industy News - January 2006

Dann Lewis - Maine's Top Tourist

The man who now runs the state's tourism office does not pull any punches - but he's getting results.

Nothing annoys Dann Lewis more than the phone calls he gets around Labor Day each year from television and newspaper reporters asking how the tourism season went. The Season, he delights in telling them, hasn't gone anywhere. "The assumption that it's over is crazy'" declares Lewis, director of the Maine Office of Tourism.

The Labor day deadline is a prime example of Old Tourism. Dann Lewis is New Tourism, and he is bound and determined to shake up traditional ideas and attitudes toward the industry that in 1997 had a $5.4-billion impact on Maine. The blunt-spoken Dann Lewis came to the Maine tourism shop in 1995 after a career that included building a resort in the Bahamas, running serveral regional airlines in the Caribbean, serving as chief of tourism in the U. S. Virgin Islands and directing the famous "I Love New York" campaign. In other words, he's a pro, and he doesn't hesitate to rain on the parade of tourist-trade optimism that has largely characterized the business in Maine for most of this century.

Dann Lewis says thing out loud that most Vacationland booster wouldn't whisper in their sleep. Maine has actually been losing ground in the vacation sector for years and probably decades, Lewis says. The industry in Maine has been marked by complacency both public and private. Business owners have by and large been reluctant to reinvest in their businesses, to the point where Dann Lewis says there are motels in Maine's premier tourist towns that he wouldn't check his dog into. With candor like this, it's hard to believe that Lewis is a state government employee - and one who seems to be succeeding.

Not that Maine tourist businesses have gotten a lot of support from the state in the past. Dann Lewis saves some of his most stinging criticism for state government's past leadership, or lack of it, in promoting tourism. "It really was not done on a very consistent or professional basis up until just a few years ago," Lewis says. "There was no plan, no overall vision, and very little funding. Maine consistently ranked nearly dead-last for promotional activity."

It would be easy to dismiss Dann Lewis's comments as self-serving if they weren't so undeniable. The King administration first approached Lewis about comint to Maine shortly after the 1994 gubernatorial election. He turned down the offer only to accept it a few months later after learning that the Office of Tourism job would not be business as usual. With King's support, Dann Lewis says the legislature tripled his budget to $4.5 million - and generated four and five times that investment in new tax revenues from additional tourism. For the first time, the office has set up a professionally managed research-based marketing program with one of the major tourism research firms in North America, Longwoods International. Longwoods has made some surprising discoveries about Maine.

"People in Maine tend to think everyone knows about Maine, and that just is not the case," Dann Lewis says. "If you compare the perceptions of people who have been to Maine and those who have not, and the differences are night and day. Perceptions of those that have never visited are in some cases really bizarre. They think Maine is very cold, very remote, on the Arctic Circle, with nothing to do, and nothing of historical or cultural interest."

Dann Lewis has also learned -and can show- that tourism contributes more than $300 million in taxes to the state's coffers and support the equivalent of 101,000 full-time jobs.

But he also has figures that show "Maine has been steadily losing market share," Lewis disclosed. "If tourism goes up 10 percent in the Northeast and only 3 percent in Maine, we're losing ground." The research indicates that the state has failed to keep up with its neighbors since at least 1994, "although we figure the decline goes back decades," Lewis notes.

If Dann Lewis has done nothing else, he has shown that it pays to market Maine, with a return on investment renging up to eleven dollars back for every dollar spent on tourism promotion. "Before he arrived, there hadn't been a good professional report done by an experienced independent market research firm that difinitively showed those kinds of returns," notes Bob Smith, whose Northeast Hospitality, Inc. bought the old Sebasco Harbor Resort in Phippsburg two years ago. "Once people saw that first report, they were amazed."

With many of Maine's bedrock industries, such as forest products steadily losing ground, Dann Lewis seems to be positioning tourism to pick up some of the slack and move up to the top of Maine's economic ladder.

Given the new candor and new professionalism in Maine tourism, just how successful do Mainers want Dann Lewis to be? Is there such a thing as saturation, too many tourists? How does the state protect the Maine that vacationers come here to see?

Dann Lewis believes that the key to handling more tourists lies in expanding the season rather than expanding facilities. He also has a vision of luring more visitors into interior and northern Maine. "One of our goals is to steer tourism into areas that need economic development." he explaines. In recent years, tourism growth rates have actually increased in interior Maine, although not always without complaints from coastal communities. "In Bar Harbor where business is flat, the people there wanted me to burn in effigy for promoting inland Maine."

Dann Lewis appreciates the issues that rising visitor numbers bring, but he expresses confidence that Maine can handle them. "Frankly, we don't have the infrastructure to allow all those people to come to Maine," Lewis points out, referring to everything from limited highway capacity to limited arrivals by air.

"Dann has really done a wonderful job with bringing Maine up to speed in the tourism business," notes Sebasco Harbor Resort's Bob Smith. "We're making progress and that has helped." In the end, Lewis's willingness to tell the tough truth may be the best thing that has happened to Maine since Mr. Moody built his diner.

from: Down East Magazine - April 1999 by Jeff Clark

Dann Lewis - Aiming for the Top

Goal: To make tourism Maine's leading industry

Augusta - Maine's director of tourism, Dann H. Lewis has left a string of success stories in his wake over the years, but now he faces another challenge - making tourism the number-one industry in the state within five years.

Dann Lewis was appointed to head up the state's tourism office by Governor Angus King, who has made no secret of his desire to promote tourism in Maine.

"It's a major element in the economic strategy for the state, " Dann Lewis said in a recent interview. "When I arrived the governor asked me to to prepare a five-year strategy for tourism. One of the major problems, I think, with tourism promotion and development in the past here in Maine is that there's been no consistent effort. There's never been a blueprint around which the industry could rally."

It's hoped the five-year strategy will remedy that. Dann Lewis said "The bottom line is to see tourism grow geographically, on a year-round basis" - and through tax revenue and job creation, "generally increase it's contribution to the ecomony."

Dann Lewis grew up in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire, where he attended Dartmouth College and majored in English literature and mechanical engineering. "After school I went down to the Bahamas and built and operated a small resort, and later wound up as director of marketing for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism," Lewis said.

From the Bahamas, Dann Lewis went to the U. S. Virgin Islands where he became director of tourism and oversaw double-digit increases in visitor arrivals. Tha job led him to director of tourism for New York state. After leaving New York, Dann Lewis worked as president of several regional airlines from the West Coast to the Northeast. Though he's not a commercial pilot, he piloted seaplanes in the Caribbean islands.

The husband of a respected airline consultant and father of two, now resides in South China, Maine.

Dann Lewis said some areas of Maine, particularly the coastline already enjoy status as successful tourist markets. The new challenge is to market the Eastern and inland areas to visitors, and to stretch the season beyond just the summer months.

Similar efforts have paid off in other states, most notably in New York in the late 1970's when Lewis oversaw the creation of the heart-stopping "I Love New York" campaign. Before the campaign was implemented and promoted on the world stage, there were many areas of upstate New York that did not enjoy a flourishing tourism base and were very much like inland areas of Maine today. Dann Lewis went on to say" I Love New York changed all that, and the prospects here are just as good."

The most recent economic impact studies done in Maine show tourism account for more than 75,000 jobs and roughly $2.75 billion in expenditures, so its importance to the state cannot be understated, Lewis said.

"I would hazard a guess that at the end of the five-year strategy, you'll probably see tourism as the number-one industry in the state," Dann Lewis said.

by: Jonathan Humphrey

Dann Lewis - Personality Profile - Maine Tour Magazine

Dann Lewis is Maine's (relatively) new Director of Tourism, appointed by Governor Angus King, Jr.

Dann Lewis has been president and vice president of airline industry companies, and has served as Director of Tourism in New York State (overseeing the blockbuster I Love New York tourism campaign), the United States Virgin Islands and also in the Bahamas. He has certainly earned his spurs in all aspects of the tourism industry.

Maine Tour Magazine caught up with him at a meeting at the Holiday Inn By The Bay between another commitment that would bring him to Southern Maine on the same day. In response to a question about Maine's commitment to the motorcoach industry, Dann Lewis said that it was not defined as yet. Dann Lewis said that the Tourism Department was in the process of developing action plans to go along with a five-year tourism strategy.

When asked what he might have learned about other places that would apply to Maine, Dann Lewis smiled, saying "there's little new under the sun. A lot of the problems that the industry is facing in Maine today, are the same types of problems that they are facing in the Islands and New York State. Dann Lewis went on the say, "Maine in fact has an outstanding product and a much more varied product than a lot of other areas. There's an enormous potential here that remains to be tapped."

Another synergistic effort is Dann Lewis' participation in Discover New England, a regional consortium formed by the six New England states three years ago specifically to promote New England in international markets.

Dann Lewis and his wife Sherry, have two grown children, both born in the Bahamas. Since Sherry is an airline consultant currently working with American Trans Air in Indianapolis and must travel often, they are hoping to make both commutes easier by settling in the Brunswick area sometime later this year.

Maine winters, says Dann Lewis, are "exhilarating". He grew up in New Hampshire and Massachusetts so "I adapt fairly well." Adapting to his new position made this year "very busy," but for next year he's "really looking forward to getting into some skiing and snowmobiling."

This reminds Dann Lewis of times when he used to have ski gear with him when he returned to the Bahamas from promotion tours in Austria. Tourists would see him in the Bahamas airport with his gear and give him looks, thinking maybe "there was something about the Bahamas Islands they weren't aware of."

If it's up to Dann Lewis, there won't be much about Maine that tourists aren't aware of!

from: Maine Tour Magazine, 1995

Lewis Named for Bahamas Fledgling Airline

TOP MAN in the Bahamasair organization, the new Government backed airline which starts flying on July 1 is Dann Lewis, assistant director of tourism, carrier relations at the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism.

He has been appointed Chairman of Bahamian Air Carrier Holdings, Ltd., parent company for the fledgling airline. His title will be Chairman of the Board for BahamasAir.

Also named is a board comprising Ellison Thompson (permanent secretay to the minister of tourism); William Allen (director of research, Bahamas Monetary Authority); Walter Johnson, Jr. (an aviation marketing consultant); and G. Jack Miller (of R. Dixon Speas Associates, the US based consultants).

from: Travel News, London, England, May 1973

Time Machine to Eleuthera, Bahamas

Our Time Machine has us one hour east of the South Florida coast at 7,500 feet, traveling at almost 200 m.p.h. when the island of Eleuthera rose up from the sea. I throttled back and pushed the nose of the single engine aircraft into a gentle descent. The windshield of the Bellanca gradually filled with a view of the lush green island rimmed with it's famous pink sands and wearing necklaces of white, then pale green and finally, dark blue water.

This is the way to arrive in the Out Islands of the Bahamas, in a time machine that lets you overfly the clink of the dice and the noisy crowds of Nassau and Freeport, and land at the quiet, serene island of Eleuthera which, like most Out Islands is still dominated by sea, sun and yester-year; an ambience of warmth and contentment that has long since disappeared from most spots on this earth.

The Out Islands are for people who know how to enjoy doing nothing. Take the Current Club. It is hard by the village of Current on the northern tip of Eleuthera. People who travel the Out Islands say the Current Club typifies the better of the small resorts. One reason is that it is owned by Dann H. Lewis, assistant director of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism.

His manager, Peter Smith greets guests warmly. Doors to the cottages are never locked. The cottages are nestled in a grove of Casuarina trees and surrounded by coconut palms, sea grapes and hibiscus bushes.

Days usually begin with a bounteous breakfast followed by a dip along a three mile stretch of sandy shores that is perfect for skinny-dipping, and is only five minutes away by fast golf-cart. Two side-trips that should be musts for guests at the Current Club are Spanish Wells and Harbour Island. Both of these trips are close enought to get you back to Current Club for the al fresco lunch served on the patio a few feet from the edge of the ocean. Meals here are above average and are certainly "Bahamian fare" - such as lobster or grouper.

So if you're a bum at heart, or want to learn how to become an expert at doing nothing, the Current Club is for you. And, if you are a qualified pilot (as is the multi-faceted Dann Lewis) you can leap Georgia and Florida in a single bound and touch down in paradise. The owner of Current Club, Dann Lewis, is now running the Ministry of Tourism for all the Bahamas Islands, and is embroiled in starting a new airline that will serve Eleuthera and other Out Islands from Nassau and Freeport.

from: Atlanta Magazine, August 1972

The next chapter in Dann's remarkable career will be the birth of Bahamasair, the national flag carrier of the Bahamas.

Boxford Realty Investor, 23, Building Resort in the Bahamas

ELEUTHERA, Bahamas - The northern tip of this Caribbean Isle has blossomed overnight into a resort because of a young Boxford, Mass., man who can't wait to get back to college.

When Dann H. Lewis first gazed on Northern Eleuthera's rough coral land and heavy brush 18 months ago, he was awaiting graduation from Dartmouth and acceptance from M. I. T. But the sight of this untouched real estate in the Caribbean pushed Tech out of his mind - temporarily.

Since receiving his degree in English from Dartmouth, Dann Lewis has become president of two companies connected with the Current Club, which opens on once wild terrain, on December 27th.

The Current Club is five duplex cottage units in a coconut grove, a clubhouse, and a dock equipped for all types of boating. The Bahamas' best fishing areas, four hours travelling time (by water) from Nassau, at 10 minutes away.

The 23 year old Lewis, a graduate of Winchester, Mass., High School is now president of two firms: The Current Club Ltd., composed of family members and personal friends from the Boston area; and the Current Development Co., solely a family organization with plans to build a dozen exclusive winter homes in the area for outright sale.

The two firms were organized by young Lewis, who saw possibilities in North Eleuthera because of a nearby airstrip served by two flight daily from Nassau via Bahamas Airways, and a north-south highway to open by the end of December.

The blond, boyish looking Lewis proposed his idea to a willling investor, his father, Robert C. Lewis, president of Calidyne Co., Winchester, a division of Ling-Temco Electronics.

Dann, postponing acceptance to the electrical engineering school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began construction of his resort in March, 1960.

from: The Boston Sunday Herald, 1960

"Everything from Climate to Cocktails"

Eleuthera, an out island in the Bahama archipelago, is the proverbial conglomerate of sea grape, coral reefs and sun.

There is an unwritten law that permeates the thinking of the people of this 110-mile long "escape hatch" from mainland ulcer production. Simply: "you needn't fear anything 'organized' here!"

A half-hour trip by plane from Nassau, Eleuthera (from the Greek word "eleutheros" meaning "free") is the mecca of shallow flats, the epitome of Bahamian villages and settlements, and a retreat from the rush rush rush of the business world. Eleuthera and neighborly residents have everything from comfort and excitement to climate and cocktails.

"Sir, you'll just have to be able to entertain yourself here. We don't dress for dinner, we don't plan a day's activities, and we don't try to force a good time on you," Dann Lewis welcomes a guest.

Dann Lewis is a 23 year-old Dartmouth graduate who planned and developed his little club hard by the northwest sector of Eleuthera.

"We believe people want a vacation, not a swap in timetables, so that's what they get," Lewis continues. "That's why we keep Current open in all four seasons. We want something for everyone.

Current serves as a typical example of the local modus operandi of Eleuthera. Current was begun, using only local help in August of 1960.

Accommodations for 24 and solid bookings through April was achieved by November. And the plans did not end there. "We're starting construction to accommodate at least 150 before we're through," Lewis said. "After we're finished dredging to dock boats with no more than a six feet draw, we will use the club house for a yacht club and build a new and bigger dining room and lounge area.

So what is the attraction of the more undeveloped out islands of the Bahama chain?

"You have to see this place to know" recalls Dann Lewis, who hails from Boston. "This particular spot where I built the Current Club was no more than an overgrowth of coral and sea grape. It is just breathtakingly beautiful and unspoiled."

from: Palm Beach Life, August 1961

Building Current, Eleuthera, Bahamas

Good progress on a big new development at the Current, Eleuthera, was reported Friday by a young American Businessman, Dann H. Lewis, of Hanover, New Hampshire.

Dann Lewis, who at 22 must be one of the youngest overseas investors ever to come to the Bahamas, is President of the Current Development Ltd., a family owned company. The firm will be spending the next two years on the construction of some 20 duplex-type beach homes on the south side of Current Island. A Club, to be known as the Current Club will also be built on the south side together with a marina with a fueling dock, and water and power facilities for visiting yachtsman. Dann Lewis said Friday that already two private homes and one duplex had been completed at the Current, and five more buildings are under construction. The main clubhouse is scheduled for completion by mid-December, in time for the winter season.

Current Development Ltd. has bought 25 acres of land with magnificent beach frontages on the north and south sides of the island. There are good anchorages for yachts and swimming conditions that are ideal.

When the main club house is completed, Lewis said boats will be available for water skiing and fishing. The development is near the Current villages and near to the airstrip and main road.

Dann Lewis first came to the Bahamas during his vacations from Dartmouth College. He and his family were so impressed with the beauty of the islands that they formed the Current Development Ltd. to invest here. Lewis, as chief shareholder and President, came down on the eve of his graduation from Dartmouth to start operations in March of this year. He is enrolled as an electrical engineering student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but has taken leave of absence in order to undertake the project. Local Bahamians will both build and staff the new resort property.

from: Nassau Guardian, August, 1960