LACONIA – Attendance was off at the annual motorcycle week event that wrapped up Sunday.

"We're definitely down from last year," Charlie St. Clair, director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association said yesterday. St. Clair said he doesn't have exact figures, but there were fewer visitors this year than last, and last year's numbers had suffered because of rain.

Despite the decrease, St. Clair said, "We felt it was a very successful rally."

He said the reason for the reduced attendance is simple: "It's the economy. . . . People are hurting for money."

He said other motorcycle events, as well as vacation destinations, are also seeing a decline in numbers because of the economy. "We expected it," he said.

St. Clair also said the people who did come didn't spend as much as they have in past years. "The economy is really taking its toll," he said.

Laconia Police Capt. Mike Moyer, the operations division commander, said arrests were also down this year. The Laconia total for full custody arrests was 153, about 50 less than last year, although Moyer noted that didn't count State Police or Marine Patrol arrests.

He credited attendees' knowledge of Laconia laws for some of the decrease in arrests. "We have a very strict policy on alcohol consumption in public," he said.

There's also now an ordinance limiting signs. While some women don't need an invitation, bikers used to often hold up signs asking women to expose their breasts. "That really added to the carnival atmosphere," Moyer said.

Now, he said: "People know what they can do and what they can't do." Moyer also said a lot of the visitors are getting older, and presumably less inclined to get into trouble, but added: "Certainly, we had our moments."

He also credits the length of the event, 10 days instead of the original three-day weekend, with mitigating the rowdiness. He said it used to be that people had two days to party hard and they did. Now, the event is spread over 10 days and people have time to take side trips. Some come for the entire 10 days, while others come for a weekend or four or five days.

Moyer said it helps that the visitors aren't so concentrated when they do arrive. "Meredith is really involved," he said, and at any time there may be several thousand visitors in that community or others in the area.

"It's spread out and a longer event . . . which we like," he said. He said police used to laugh when the week was billed as a family event, but in recent years, he said: "It's certainly more like it."

St. Clair took issue with Moyer's characterization of the attendees as "older." He said: "There's no shift, no difference. . . . We're always getting new people across the board in age. . . . What we have here is a cross section of American society."

He said there were plenty of repeat visitors and they come from throughout this country and from a number of foreign countries, including Europe, Asia and North Africa.

"One guy shipped his bike over from Birmingham, England," said St. Clair.

Nonethless, he said, the effects of a depressed economy were felt. He said, "Not everybody has 'no vacancy' (signs)." he said.

Reduced numbers undoubtedly meant lounges and restaurants also felt the effects, and it's likely it was the lower price souvenirs that sold best, he said.

Al Almasy, the state turnpike bureau's manager of toll operations, said it's not possible to determine how many motorcycles pass through the tolls because they pay the same rate as cars.