“If Trump’s response to the virus was a fiasco, his reaction to the economic recession that has occurred might be even worse.”

In a new op-ed in the Mount Desert Islander, Bar Harbor small business owners Julie and Greg Veilleux explain how Trump's failed response to COVID-19 has taken a toll on Maine’s tourism industry, one of the state’s largest industries and sources of revenue.

Maine’s normally vibrant tourism industry employed 70,000 Mainers before the pandemic hit, but by April, fewer than 29,000 were. While some of those jobs have returned, “more than a third of those 70,000 jobs are still gone.” Julie and Greg place the blame squarely on President Trump, who “downplayed the virus for months, even though he knew it was lethal.” Despite Trump’s assurances that the “economy is surging back,” tens of thousands of Mainers who used to be employed in the state’s tourist industry aren’t feeling a surge.

Mount Desert Islander: Amid a global pandemic, Vacationland is on hold

By Julie and Greg Veilleux
September 24, 2020

Key Points:

  • In 2018 alone, 37 million people visited Maine, spending $6.2 billion. Altogether, our tourism industry employs tens of thousands of Mainers.
     
  • There are few things that encourage folks to travel less than a global pandemic. And while Maine might be doing better than most states when it comes to dealing with the coronavirus, our state’s economy certainly hasn’t been immune to the effects. The tourism industry, dependent on visitors coming from those other, COVID-hit states, has taken it on the chin.
     
  • The facts aren’t pretty. At the start of the year, before the pandemic hit, 70,000 Mainers were employed in the leisure and hospitality industry. In April, at the depths of the first wave, fewer than 29,000 were. And while that number has rebounded somewhat, more than a third of those 70,000 jobs are still gone. Not only has no other industry been hit as hard by the coronavirus as our tourism industry, but it isn’t even particularly close.
     
  • Here in Maine, Governor Mills and our state legislature have done what they can, but this is a national problem and it requires a national response. After all, we’re in this mess because of the failed response of President Trump, who downplayed the virus for months even though he knew it was lethal, praised China’s disastrous response in an attempt to escape some of the harm he caused Americans through his reckless trade war and told his supporters to drink bleach and not wear masks instead of listening to experts.
     
  • But if Trump’s response to the virus was a fiasco, his reaction to the economic recession that has occurred might be even worse. When he ran for president, he promised us he’d be the “dealmaker-in-chief,” but it’s been nearly two months since expanded unemployment benefits for tens of millions of Americans expired, and he’s spent more time on the golf course than at the negotiating table.

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