The "Stay to Stay Weekends," program will come out this summer and aims to convince tourists to make Vermont home. Visitors staying at hotels in the towns of Bennington, Rutland or Battleboro will be offered access to networking events, company visits and realtor-led walking tours.
The state's tourism and economic development teams came up with the program, which will include tour guides telling tourists stopping at wineries and maple syrup tastings about affordable housing and small public school class sizes.
While the national unemployment rate sits at 4.1% and employers contend with more vacancies than job applicants, Vermont's unemployment rate is at 2.8% and the state is struggling to fill jobs.
"We have an 11,000-person gap in what the state needs to add to its workforce every year in order to remain stable," says Casey Mock, executive director of the Vermont Economic Progress Council, a state agency. Mock also noted that "our workforce is only getting older."