Why Is Everyone Going To Maine?

Standing in line at the bus station in Portland, Maine, I overhear two native-Maine students but attending schools in Boston discussing the long lines. They’re surprised at the crowds of tourists, not just students, headed on buses southbound to Boston. What naturally came up was that even on their initial trips from Boston to Portland, the bus was completely full as well. The crowds weren’t just college students heading home for the weekend, but tourists visiting the area. “I’m surprised,” the student said. “Why would anyone want to come to Maine?”

I may as well have said those words myself. In fact, I am sure I have said those words myself. Having been born and raised in Maine, I have deep pride for my home state; however, I also counted down the days until I could move away for college. In so many ways, Maine didn’t offer a lot of options for young people. The weather is cold. The jobs are scarce. Entertainment and culture are often for the main demographic: white, retirees. Maine has the oldest median age in the country at 43.5 and is the second whitest state in the country with 95.5% of the population identifying as white non-hispanic according to the Census Bureau data.

Yet in a dramatic shift, I watched over social media as more people began to visit Maine. My peers in college along with influencer journalists from major media outlets like Bon Appetit were suddenly going in droves to my home state. On Instagram, my feed was filled with location tags from  ‘Portland, Maine’ and the restaurants my family frequented for as long as I could remember were points of attention.  There was plenty I found unrecognizable through the lens of social media. New restaurants were opening and garnering national attention faster than people could get a reservation to try it for themselves. The sudden surge meant that something was happening in the Portland food scene, and people were paying attention.

The culmination came in 2018 when Bon Appetit Magazine named Portland the 2018 Food City of the Year. It all began to make sense that what I was seeing from afar wasn’t coincidence. Portland had developed an undeniable draw that I had yet to tune into.