{"id":885322,"date":"2026-10-17T08:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885322\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T08:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:44:13","slug":"high-inflation-isnt-stopping-nh-tourists-from-spending-their-cash-this-foliage-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/885322\/","title":{"rendered":"High inflation isn\u2019t stopping NH tourists from spending their cash this foliage season"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Hampshire’s North Country foliage may be past peak in many spots, and inflation may be high. But Rene Bajger says that isn\u2019t slowing down tourists this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some people are putting off plane rides,\u201d said Bajger, who owns
Beggars Pouch Leather<\/a> in North Conway. \u201cThey’re not going to Europe as much, and we\u2019re, as they say, a tank full of gas from Boston. So you can come here and be away from your life in a whole different atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bajger\u2019s shop sells leather jackets, handbags, belts, and other leather goods. She said she\u2019s seen tourists turn out in droves this fall, and the recent Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day holiday weekend crowds didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not alone: 94% of businesses surveyed by the Mt Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce reported the weekend met or exceeded their expectations. Tourism brings in a significant amount<\/a> of revenue to the state, so the weekend\u2019s success is welcome news.<\/p>\n

Many of the tourists at Bajger\u2019s store came from southern states like Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia, but they also get international customers, she said. Just this week alone, she\u2019s had customers from Scotland, Canada, India, Italy and France.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes in here, it sounds like the United Nations \u2014 there are so many different languages being spoken,\u201d Bajger said.<\/p>\n

The Beggars Pouch is aided by prime location for tourists: They\u2019re right next to the Conway Scenic Railroad station. Some of these travelers are on package bus tours driving from Portland, New York City, or Boston, and they can visit iconic New England places without paying to fill the tank up themselves.<\/p>\n

Bajger also saw a new demographic come through the shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of first time people [who\u2019ve] never been in,\u201d Bajger said. \u201cA younger crowd [with] a little more disposable income, shall I say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Customers are already shopping at the leather goods store for Christmas gifts, she said, and crowds usually surge again the weekend after Thanksgiving. Bajger expects tourists to come in steadily through the end of March as snow melts.<\/p>\n

When Bajger walks in her store, she doesn\u2019t see tourists spending less despite a tough economy. The local residents may have a different experience, though. One of her employees, for instance, commutes an hour to the store because they can\u2019t afford to live in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people can’t afford homes right in the North Conway area,\u201d Bajger said. \u201cThey live on the outskirts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Hampshire’s North Country foliage may be past peak in many spots, and inflation may be high. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-885322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}