Tourism remains Conway's biggest economic engine, with numerous lodging and rental properties serving visitors to the eastern White Mountains and the Mount Washington Valley, while the technology sector makes up the second largest source of employment.

Along the Saco River they fished, hunted or farmed, and lived in wigwams sheltered within stockades.

In 1642, explorer Darby Field of Exeter paddled up the Saco in a canoe, and reported seeing "Pigwacket," an Indian community stretching from present-day Conway to Fryeburg, Maine.

In May 1725, during Dummer's War, 36 men from Dunstable, Massachusetts led by John Lovewell skirmished with the Pequawket.

King Edward VII of the United Kingdom bought twelve White Mountain paintings to hang in Windsor Castle.

Among the artists to work here were Asher B. Durand and Benjamin Champney, the latter known to paint Mount Washington while sitting in the middle of Main Street.

Numerous inns and taverns were built in the 19th and 20th centuries, and tourism remains today a principal business.

The first ski trail began operating in 1936 at Mount Cranmore, where Hannes Schneider of Austria provided instruction starting in 1939.

It travels through Kancamagus Pass, named for a Pennacook chief, and at 2,850 feet (870 m) above sea level is the highest paved through-road in New Hampshire.

The villages of Conway include: As of the census of 2010, there were 10,115 people, 4,479 households, and 2,638 families residing in the town.

[8] Tourism plays a major role in Conway's economy, with the town providing access to the White Mountains.

[9] The largest technology employer in the region is The Echo Group, an electronic health record software developer.

[10] With nearly 20% of Carroll County's population residing in Conway, the town is the commercial center for the county as well as a large area of rural western Maine, with heavy development along the portion of U.S. Route 302 and New Hampshire Route 16 that are co-signed through town.

[11] The Town Hall is located on East Main Street in the village of Center Conway.

Located in the center of the popular White Mountain National Forest, Conway is the major commercial center for Bartlett, Jackson, Madison, Chatham, Eaton, Hart's Location, and Albany, New Hampshire as well as Fryeburg, Brownfield, Lovell, and Stow, Maine.

There are a number of restaurants, two breweries, the year-round Cranmore Mountain Resort, over a hundred local and national stores, and several museums and theatres.

The Mount Washington Observatory's Weather Discovery Center, located in downtown North Conway, provides information and interactive exhibits on Mount Washington and the weather that surrounds it, and affords visitors the opportunity to video-conference with observers on the summit.

The Karmic Konnection Koach, operated by cab service Fast Taxi, is available 7 days a week on a "pay what you can" system.

Several radio stations are based in or have outlets in Conway, including WHOM, WMWV, WOKQ, and WVMJ.