Bike News to Share: Bike Week may see smaller turnout in LACONIA, NH

April 12, 2007LACONIA, NH -- A less-than-stellar economy and talk among some potential Bike Week visitors of waiting until next year when the rally celebrates its 85th anniversary may combine to keep attendance down this year, says Charlie St. Clair.
St. Clair, the executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association, on Wednesday said Bike Week, which this year takes place on June 9-17, is shaping up to be a good, but not necessarily great event.
"Last year was an eye-opener for a lot of our local businesses and residents because they saw that Motorcycle Week was not as busy as the previous year.
"What Bike Week observers also saw, St. Clair added, was that, while visitors still flocked to Lakeside Avenue the geographic heart of what is the oldest motorcycle rally in the nation they were not hanging around as long as in the past.Part of that, St. Clair believes, is due to a simple financial calculus: The Weirs is a great place to see and be during Bike Week, but there are other places that are as attractive, the White Mountains and the Seacoast among them.
"The economy is not good, despite what some people think. Our main market is middle-class Americans and the middle class has been harder-hit than anybody else by the economy. People need to make cutbacks and prices have been relatively high for hotels and motels."In the past, people would kind of grumble and pay, but now they don't have the money. They're sharpening their pencils and looking for other places to stay, even other places to go.
"The above scenario is being played out nationwide, said St. Clair, who recently attended Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Fla. where he was touting Laconia's rally as well as New Hampshire tourism in general."Daytona was down, if not flat, this year," St. Clair said, noting there were "a lot of vacancies" in what he called "ripe, prime spots."Meeting in the Sunshine State with some two dozen vendors following Daytona, St. Clair said the buzz among them was the 85th Laconia Bike Week anniversary and that, for this year, "they were looking to go to places like Conway to find less expensive places to rent and talking about the chances that they will do just as well there."Bike Week is all market-driven, said St. Clair. "I've been telling merchants and property owners this all winter, that you really need to be thinking about the effect" of charging high rents to vendors and "you're going to have to be more competitive.
I think Lakeside Avenue will still be able to do what it wants to do down there but, once you get away from Lakeside Avenue, maybe you won't be having as many people banging on the door." Local hoteliers and innkeepers and business and property owners who charge a premium to vendors and Bike Week visitors "could be hurting themselves, to a degree," said St. Clair."Let's be real. New Hampshire is not unique. We have a beautiful state and it's not like Weirs Beach, the Lakes Region, is the only attraction for these folks."The thing is, no matter where you go in New Hampshire, there's a lot of great things, and many people throw out the welcome mat. So if people are coming into The Weirs and they said, 'I came one day, do I really need to come back?' and last year the answer was, 'not necessarily.'"Despite the griping among vendors about Laconia's vending fees the city charges vendors $450 apiece to sell wares during Bike Week, $500 for food vendors St. Clair said the feesare fine.The real nut to crack, he said, is what property owners are charging vendors and exhibitors for rental space, as well as the fee for motorcycle parking.Of all the rallies and motorcycle events he has attended, St. Clair said the $10 that most property owners charge for bike parking in the latter half of Bike Week is "unheard of" elsewhere and double the usual going rate.For some bikers, that high parking fee is "the final insult," said St. Clair who cautioned that, as evidenced at other venues, "it doesn't take much" for the bikers to look for greener pastures.
Laconia, and the communities immediately around it, he said, have to realize that they are vying for a fixed amount of motorcycle-enthusiast dollars."When I started this job, there were about 50 major rallies or events; now there are over 430, and those people are all competing." In-state, Laconia has raised the stakes among competing Bike Week event hosts by striking an agreement, nearly finalized, that will bring Harley-Davidson to the downtown.H-D will take up all of the municipal parking lot north of City Hall from June 11 through 17, something that is hoped will bring thousands of visitors into the downtown. "This is not something where they just come in and throw up a few tents and stuff. They [Harley-Davidson] put a lot of money and effort into this. This will be a first-class show."St. Clair praised City Manager Eileen Cabanel for bringing the nation's premier motorcycle manufacturer to Laconia."I think that a big 'thank you' should be coming from everybody who does business in the downtown or for that matter on Union, Church or Court streets to Eileen Cabanel because there's no doubt in my mind that this has happened because of her persistence."Overall, St. Clair is looking forward to a 2007 Bike Week that is more up than down. "I'm always optimistic. I think we will do fine this year."