🔒Greg Dugal takes reins of two hospitality industry associations

Maine's top hospitality industry groups will work under shared management in 2014, bringing the organizations closer together but not merging them. Greg Dugal, current head of the Maine Innkeepers Association and future leader of the jointly managed hotel and restaurant industry groups, says the move will give both groups a larger voice in Augusta.

Leisure and hospitality employment in Maine is up over recent years and new hotels are cropping up in Lewiston, Bangor, Portland and elsewhere. Dugal says those are reasons for optimism about Maine's tourism industry, but adds those efforts need to be accompanied by events and attractions that can keep hotels and restaurants full throughout the year. Mainebiz spoke with Dugal recently about the state of the industry and the changes coming to two of its top business associations, which will share offices in Augusta and count around 1,200 members between them next year.

Mainebiz: Why join management of the Maine Innkeepers Association and the Maine Restaurant Association?

Greg Dugal: The driving factor was having a larger voice for the hospitality industry in Augusta. If there are economies of scale and money saved, so be it. Although [directors] were interested in the economies of scale, that was not a driving factor for them. If there are savings that — instead of being put toward operational pursuits — could be put toward some member benefits such as upgrading websites, acquiring better technology and increasing lobbying efforts [those are drivers] rather than savings from [consolidating] two phone bills, two Internet access bills and all the stuff that goes with occupying two buildings.

MB: You're creating a new management company to oversee the two groups. When does it take over?

GD: Dick Grotton, president and CEO of the Maine Restaurant Association, retires Dec. 31, so the whole process begins Jan. 1, 2014. The Freeport office (of the Maine Innkeepers Association) will be sold sometime within one year — we hope to be out of here by next June. [Grotton] was actually planning on retiring back in 2008, but the economy wasn't favorable, so he decided he would hold on. We went through the process [then] of developing a company that could run both associations and we actually went through the process with our boards and executive committees. We decided to wait, but we had already done most of the legwork.

MB: How does the management arrangement work?

GD: [The management company] is jointly owned 50/50 between the restaurant and innkeepers association. The only thing that changes is that the innkeepers association is not going to be in Freeport eventually and there will be two people to run both organizations. The staff remains the same, governance remains the same, bylaws remain the same, so really nothing changes other than those two things. For all intents and purposes, the boards are hiring me and I'm hiring the person that's helping me [a COO], with some assistance from them. That individual would come on board Oct. 15.

MB: Hotels are cropping up in all of the state's major cities. How do you think that might affect the market?

GD: The number of hotel rooms that are available and projected to be completed within the next two years are probably more than enough for the market. Because we've had a slow start to the season in 2013, it just shows that if we can't fill the rooms we have now, what are we going to do when we have 500-600 more? We'll find a way — we always do — and having concerts and events going on are the way to do it. But they're not happening all the time, and there's no entity to make sure that kind of stuff is happening all the time. The convention and visitors bureaus have limited staff. When the economy gets better and people are traveling just for the sake of traveling — like we saw around 2007 and the latter half of the '90s — if we get back there, then all bets are off. But we're not there yet.