There are always leading indicators that owners and managers of destinations use to predict how well they are going to do this season. It’s an expensive guess to make. How much seasonal help to hire, how many special events to plan, how much food to order, and an unlimited number of other calls that need to be made each season can spell bottom line success or failure six months from now.

Economists will offer predictions based on leading economic indicators, or the price of gasoline, or the unemployment rate, or the disposable income levels.

If you could look into a crystal ball and see if there are lines forming at your admission gates in June, you would pay big money for a peek. If you could see half-empty parking lots for the fireworks show, it would be worth quite a bit to you.

Well, gaze here:

The Top 5 Reasons New England Tourism will Skyrocket This Year:

1. It snowed. It snowed so much that we broke records for things like total snowfall, most snow days, most consecutive weekends snowing, and the length of time the stuff covered the ground. Now, I like snow. I enjoy snow. Many of us do. But this was one for the books.
2. It was cold. We broke more records: coldest days, coldest weeks, coldest months, coldest winter.
3. It snowed a lot. Did I mention how much snow? Boston broke the all-time record with 108.6 inches of snow. That’s over 9 feet. Look up over your head by, say 3 or 4 feet. That’s what 9 feet is. Snow. 9 feet. Even if you could get out, imagine what the Boston streets looked like. It wasn’t just Boston. None of us could get anywhere. We stayed home. Netflix made gobs of money. The Chinese take-out guy is driving a Mercedes.
4. It snowed on the first day of Spring. And the second day. I can’t believe it. I looked out my
   

   From The Shining

   window this morning and it was still snowing.

5. Cabin Fever. From the snow. We need to get out. All of New England, New York, and New Jersey desperately want to get out of their houses, off of their streets, and out into the world. We all need a vacation.

Talk to your target audience now. Plant the seeds. Use social media. Give us hope. We will follow your invitation to salvation. We want to be saved from ourselves. We need a destination to dream about, to talk about, and to visit. We are ready.