County’s tourism message is unique

    This last week Pat Altman, director for the Maine Office of Tourism, brought a contingent of eight contractors with her to visit tourism interested folks in Aroostook, to review the State’s newest strategic plans, Web site revamp, and new tourism campaign. Touted as an opportunity to dialog together, and make sure our interests are represented in the state’s overall strategy to attract those folks with some disposal income (ie. “tourists”) to come and spend time with all of us, the meeting had been scheduled back at the first of December. Pesky snow, they rescheduled, and the group came to The County to visit last week.     No lighthouses, no five-star restaurants, and no lobster really so much. I do not believe we should be trying to market ourselves as southern Maine does. I also don’t believe we’re going to have people from away represent us as effectively as we can do ourselves. I am all for finding out trends, seeing what other folks are doing, what works, what doesn’t, that kind of thing.
    As mentioned previously in this column, I do not eat meat, I do not snowmobile or ski, and I do not hunt. I do eat more than my quota of potatoes, and I believe to represent ourselves to the outside, I do not (nor does anyone else in our offices) tell folks I was for not baiting the bears a few years back. I also don’t watch birds, geo-cache or until most recently tweet or blog. I don’t own a cell phone and I firmly believe our jobs are not about ourselves: we must work together to represent and market our members, our small businesses, our communities and the people who do want to come here to hunt, snowmobile, ski, etc. I may begin watching more birds than just the ones on Collins Pond, or the pigeons at the Superintendent’s office. We have many Maine guides who are members of our chamber. We have members who cater to the snowmobilers, the ATVers, the bikers, and the skiers. We look forward to snow, and we know there’s a contingent of people outside the area who are watching us all as a region for snowfall. Hallelujah!
    Why doesn’t the Maine Tourism Web site have snow conditions on it, at least seasonally? Why doesn’t the Maine Tourism Association’s Web site link with the Maine Office of Tourism’s? Why if I as a chamber person take the time to enter my events, cultural happenings etc. into the Maine Tourism’s site, why do I have to then duplicate that time and typing energy into entering it again into the Maine Office of Tourism’s site? Now, the NMDC’s visitaroostook.com site is now linked in such a way that if you enter your events into their site, it is supposed to automatically download or upload into the Maine Office of Tourism’s site.
    Here’s an odd little tidbit. When you first stumble into a Chamber job, no one tells you these things. No one tells you have to send your events someplace (twice) to have them appear by a certain deadline almost a year previous to be in the state’s publications. There are really very few folks who tell you much of anything related to tourism as a concern, except for your own members. I believe it is fair to say, most chamber folks who care about their members, and want to help them, have no idea how to go about doing anything about their members’ concerns regarding tourism. What after many years I’ve come to see with a somewhat jaundiced point of view, is there seem to be very few discussions at regional or state levels which involve our small members, solicit their input, or seem to be geared toward problem solving their concerns. Everyone has their own agendas, and somehow our small businesses seem to not have faces or representation.
    We need to do it ourselves, is my latest theory. We need to work together, and come up with our own marketing solutions. We probably need to not wait for the folks in Augusta or farther south to market on our behalf. We need to celebrate hunting, hunters, camouflage, ATV mud that doesn’t wash out, the smell of snowmobilers straight off the trail, thin fit skiers, and meat- and potato-eating common folks, who do want to come here to have a good time! We don’t need lighthouses to attract people, we don’t need lobster dinners, and we don’t have to have blueberry pies for desert. We have poutine! We have ployes, and jo-jo potatoes, baked potatoes, and gravy. We are our own best advertisements!
    We also need to work together to make sure our events and programs are on the various Web sites for Maine. We need to participate in their programs, and bring our own things with us when we go. We need to not sit back, and say, well they didn’t even have anything representing The County. We need to get over thinking, we can’t bring it with us, or we can’t compete. We don’t need to “compete.” We need to market ourselves, and not worry that we might not be attracting the same folks who are coming to see the lighthouses, shop at the outlets, and eat lobster and blueberries.
    When I lived with my parents, one of the more famous statements my father owned when I was a teenager was “Don’t worry about what the other kids are doing; you worry about what you’re supposed to do!” I said it to my 5-year-old last week, and it’s been rolling around in my head in relation to tourism, loan clients, and various other things since then.
    Finally, take care, think snow and don’t forget to stop in the office to get your tickets for the fresh Buffalo Dinner on Saturday, Feb. 27th — a fundraiser for the NMVCC Avenue of Flags. Whewhua!
    Wendy Landes, MPA, is the executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce & Industry. She can be reached in person at 24 Sweden Street, Suite 101; by telephone at 498-6156 or via e-mail at wlandes@cariboumaine.net.