Listening session yields useful tourism feedback

By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
    PRESQUE ISLE — Officials with Aroostook County Tourism and the Northern Maine Development Commission (NMDC) recently solicited the thoughts and opinions of local business people as they prepare to update the organizations’ five-year strategic plan.
    According to Michael Eisensmith, economic development director at NMDC, a listening session was held March 4 in Presque Isle to facilitate tourism-related discussion.
    “Our goal was to try to get a fairly diverse group of businesses that were related to tourism together around the table and have them talk to us about what they saw were assets in the region,” said Eisensmith, “and to talk about some of the roadblocks or things that stood in the way of really taking advantage of those as much as possible.
    “There was also discussion about what we’re not seeing done in general … things around marketing and presence,” he said. “In general it was to try to provide a forum for us to hear directly from people what they saw as the high points and the frustrations.”
    The listening session — which was by invitation only — was attended by nearly 30 people.
    “The turnout was a very respectable one, and included a fairly broad spectrum of people,” Eisensmith said. “We had lodgers, dining representatives, commercial interests, state tourism-related interests, artists, crafts people, farming interests and outdoor recreation interests that were there.”
    Among the assets and strengths identified by attendees included the region’s scenic views and diversity of landscape, the kindness of people, established ethnic communities, the belief that Route 1 is one of the best drives around, wide variety of outdoor recreation, rich history, agriculture and opportunities for agri-tourism, the size and scale of the region, festivals — specifically the Crown of Maine Balloon Fest, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, access into Canada, the Amish community, the Prestile Stream, hunting and fishing, and the young people.
    Challenges noted included the distance between Bangor and Houlton, people in other states don’t know what we have or what we are, sharing of information is lacking, businesses need to work better together, territorial aspects of both communities and businesses, funding, a lack of high quality amenities, air transportation was seen as a detriment (not enough flights and destinations), a need for technical assistance, customer service information training, a lack of media outlets, and some confusion about how the area refers to itself.
    “Are we Aroostook, are we northern Maine, or are we the Crown of Maine,” said Eisensmith. “That is not a new question, but one that was raised. It also came up in a listening session in the St. John Valley.”
    Eisensmith said it was interesting that business representatives viewed “working together” as both a problem and a real opportunity.
    “We need to somehow create that framework for cooperating better,” he said.
    The original strategic plan was written in 2005, and was updated in-house in 2007.
    “Our plan is to have a new strategic plan created this year,” said Eisensmith. “It probably won’t be as robust as the 2005 plan, but I think it will be a lot more focused and we’ll have it done by the end of June.
    “Prior to it being finalized, there’s a smaller working group within Aroostook County Tourism that is helping with the analysis and the writing/review internally. At the very least, we will send out drafts to all of the participants in these listening sessions and say, ‘Here’s what we are proposing. Please give us feedback,’” Eisensmith said. “We would take that feedback into consideration in putting together the final version of the plan that will be endorsed by the Aroostook County Tourism committee.”
    Eisensmith said the previous plan included 17 work items that “should be initiated and indicated how those might be accomplished and why.”
    “The intent is to put something forward that’s both readable and that’s concise enough that it doesn’t feel like you’re being overwhelmed to try to get through it,” he said.
    Officials were pleased with the recent listening session and look forward to a yet-to-be-scheduled forum in southern Aroostook, as well.
    “In Presque Isle there was high energy,” said Eisensmith. “People were really engaged. It was a lively discussion and I’m happy people were willing to share their thoughts with us.”