A UMaine study of last year's snowmobile season revealed that $582 million was generated by the industry, but it was $128 million less than the year before.
Jessica Leahy, study author and professor in the School of Forest Resources at UMaine, said stakeholders like power sports companies and chambers of commerce reported the 2023-2024 winter season was not good for snowmobilers.
"I think snowmobilers need to adapt to how they are approaching that sport. Maybe they don't go the same week as they always did. They need to change it to when snow is reliably on the ground or maybe when they get to their location, they can think of other activities to do," Leahy said.
Snowmobile registrations were the basis for the study, Leahy said, and they went down last year.
She said a comprehensive study will be done closer to 2030 to capture trends.
"But every ten years we want to do a complete spending profile. The reason we want to do this is because people are adapting their recreation. If they change the way they spend when they come to Maine or when they travel within Maine, we want to pick that up so we're more accurate with our numbers," she said.
Some towns in western Maine are getting creative and building movie theaters and bowling alleys for visitors when the snowpack is lacking.
Leahy said the snowmobile industry supports about 2000 jobs in Maine.
Maine's 10-year Outdoor Recreation Roadmap estimates the state's outdoor recreation economy will grow to $3.7 billion by 2035.