June 12, 2006
Ship to shore | A new program to entice cruise passengers to return to Maine could help the tourism industry gather data on travel habits
By Jeffrey Bouley
Passengers preparing to re-board their cruise ships after visits to places like Bar Harbor and Portland this summer are getting a little something extra: a business-card-sized voucher for a new program called FreeStayMaine. On the front of the card, an image of a coastal sunset and a Maine license plate. On the back, a welcome mat, an identification number and an offer to enjoy a free night's lodging on a future visit to Maine.
The not-uncommon response so far from passengers has been, "What's the catch?," according to Amy Powers, the director of the CruiseMaine Coalition who initially suggested FreeStayMaine based on a similar program called Freestay Caribbean offered by The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association. But Powers says it only takes a moment to assure puzzled tourists there are no sign-up requirements, no fees and no other catches ˆ just a desire to have them come back for a longer visit in the future. "We want people to understand that all of Maine is Vacationland and is available to them ˆ not just the coast," Powers says. "It's about bringing them back for a non-cruise vacation to see what they couldn't while stepping briefly off a ship."
The program's catch may be on the other side of the exchange, for the organizations behind the program, the hotel and inn owners who've agreed to give up a free night's lodging, and, more generally, the state's entire tourism industry. That catch is whether the money and time spent to develop the voucher program will translate into return visits and an expansion of Maine tourist traffic.
A number of groups involved in the program are eager for the answer to that question. The CruiseMaine Coalition, Maine Port Authority, Maine Office of Tourism, Maine Tourism Association, Maine Innkeeper's Association, University of Maine Center for Tourism Research and Outreach (CenTRO), and regional tourism associations are all behind the program that will hand out vouchers in 11 Maine ports of call this summer (with a 12th port to come in 2007 in Eastport). What's more, those groups are hoping the program will generate additional data on who's coming to Maine, where they're staying and how long those visits last, which could help target new promotions or other marketing programs for Maine's tourism industry.
Those groups focused on cruise passengers in large part because they tend to be more affluent than other tourists. Also, they are easier to track and target than many other tourists because they disembark at a limited number of ports. In addition, unlike land-based tourists, they are probably less likely to have seen the interior of Maine and thus may need more enticement to come back and venture beyond the coast.
With the cruise season only having just begun, however, there is no way to know whether a flood of return visitors and valuable market research will happen. Powers says the plan is to support the program for three years, and that 100,000 vouchers have been printed up to get things rolling. But there is a process in place to figure out if the program is working, which hinges on the unique ID number that adorns each voucher.
Tracking the tourists
To take advantage of the free night's stay, the holder of a FreeStayMaine voucher must visit the program's website (www.freestaymaine.com) and enter in the voucher number and their zip code or postal code to access the list of participating inns, hotels and other lodging establishments. By collecting that information, the FreeStayMaine program keeps track of visitors to the site, which port they previously visited and where they hail from. That way, the organizations behind the program can see if former cruise passengers' vouchers actually come back, and where they're coming from.
CenTRO, the year-old University of Maine initiative to study the state's biggest industry (see "Center of attention," page 24), is responsible for crunching the numbers. Currently, the voucher numbers and postal codes are only being used to track the FreeStayMaine program's success at getting cruise passengers to come back to Maine, but that process could lead to much deeper and broader data in the future. "For these first few months, at least, we're just sitting back and seeing how the program is working, but our involvement will evolve over time," says Todd Gabe, an associate professor in the Department of Resource Economics and Policy at the University of Maine and a research fellow at CenTRO.
"We are talking about doing additional research work to look at people's preferences, tastes, tourism needs and ways we can improve the effectiveness of the program."
Those research efforts could include paper-based surveys and questionnaires handed out with the FreeStayMaine vouchers, pop-up surveys on the website or additional required information fields in the website's sign-in area to collect more information. In addition, voucher numbers could be used for more extensive marketing and research purposes as the program moves beyond lodging to include ecotourism packages, car rentals and other free or reduced-price offers.
But all that is still a ways in the future, notes Mark Turek, product development manager for the Maine Office of Tourism. As of late May, seven lodging establishments were listed officially on the FreeStayMaine site, which resembles the Maine Getaways travel package program area of the Maine Office of Tourism website. A handful of others were awaiting approval of their listings, but the slow start doesn't concern Turek. "We ran into a similar situation with the Maine Getaways program where we started with just 15 listings and now have more than 300," he says. "Part of it is just getting them used to the idea and what they can gain from it. Some inns initially think 'I can sell my rooms, so why give a night away for free?'"
Convincing the innkeepers
Because a free night's stay is the hook to get people back to Maine, the local lodging industry must be on board to make the program work. But convincing owners to give a free night's stay isn't so hard, Turek says, once they realize they have a great deal of control over how customers earn that free night.
Participating establishments are required to offer a minimum of one free night to participate in FreeStayMaine, but that night can be offered anytime the inn or hotel desires, and can be part of a package such as "three nights for the price of two," or even a larger travel-adventure package. "It can be a challenge if a business operates at 100% capacity in July and August to convince them this is worth it," Turek admits. "But if they are open at times other than just the peak tourist season, it can be a way to offer deals during their off-seasons."
That opportunity sold James Haught, the owner of the Galen C. Moses House in Bath, who was intrigued by the idea of attracting cruise passengers back to Maine. Although he says Bath is not as "hidden away" as more remote inland locations, it still isn't a destination spot in the same way that Bar Harbor or Boothbay Harbor are. "In our high season, I wouldn't consider offering this," Haught says. "But in our low season, when we are less full and we have the potential to get people in ˆ well, that sounds like fairly solid business sense to me."
Even inns located far from the coast have already begun to join the FreeStayMaine program, such as the Moosehead Lake region's Greenville Inn, co-owned by husband-and-wife team Terry and Jeffrey Johannemann. "We're trying to attract more people to Moosehead Lake because a lot of people who come to Maine don't even know it exists," Terry Johannemann says. "We'd love for people on cruise ships to realize that there is tourism well beyond the coastline and that they can come to the woods and not have to 'rough it' unless they want to."
Although interest is picking up among innkeepers across the state, a key challenge remains: Simply giving them a chance to see the site. Because a voucher number is needed to sign in, innkeepers cannot view the listings themselves. Allowing extra visitors to the site, Turek points out, can throw off the tracking process that is so crucial to the program. FreeStayMaine has yet to find a solution to that problem, but ideas such as providing PDF "snapshots" of the lodging search pages have been circulated.
In the end, supporters of the program say it's more important to launch the program now and give it time to grow while working out those details. That's because research by the University of Maine on cruise passengers' intentions to return to the state, Powers and Gabe note, has shown that roughly a third said they'd come back within two years. Moreover, they add, cruise ship passengers spend more, on average, than do tourists in general.
"That is what really inspired us to do this, but ultimately, people's intentions to come back are just intentions. You have to put it to the test and you may have to give them incentives," Powers says. "If it is really true, then we have already lost a lot of opportunities to reach out to cruise passengers in years past ˆ and we've potentially lost ground on the ability to benefit tourism across the state."
The not-uncommon response so far from passengers has been, "What's the catch?," according to Amy Powers, the director of the CruiseMaine Coalition who initially suggested FreeStayMaine based on a similar program called Freestay Caribbean offered by The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association. But Powers says it only takes a moment to assure puzzled tourists there are no sign-up requirements, no fees and no other catches ˆ just a desire to have them come back for a longer visit in the future. "We want people to understand that all of Maine is Vacationland and is available to them ˆ not just the coast," Powers says. "It's about bringing them back for a non-cruise vacation to see what they couldn't while stepping briefly off a ship."
The program's catch may be on the other side of the exchange, for the organizations behind the program, the hotel and inn owners who've agreed to give up a free night's lodging, and, more generally, the state's entire tourism industry. That catch is whether the money and time spent to develop the voucher program will translate into return visits and an expansion of Maine tourist traffic.
A number of groups involved in the program are eager for the answer to that question. The CruiseMaine Coalition, Maine Port Authority, Maine Office of Tourism, Maine Tourism Association, Maine Innkeeper's Association, University of Maine Center for Tourism Research and Outreach (CenTRO), and regional tourism associations are all behind the program that will hand out vouchers in 11 Maine ports of call this summer (with a 12th port to come in 2007 in Eastport). What's more, those groups are hoping the program will generate additional data on who's coming to Maine, where they're staying and how long those visits last, which could help target new promotions or other marketing programs for Maine's tourism industry.
Those groups focused on cruise passengers in large part because they tend to be more affluent than other tourists. Also, they are easier to track and target than many other tourists because they disembark at a limited number of ports. In addition, unlike land-based tourists, they are probably less likely to have seen the interior of Maine and thus may need more enticement to come back and venture beyond the coast.
With the cruise season only having just begun, however, there is no way to know whether a flood of return visitors and valuable market research will happen. Powers says the plan is to support the program for three years, and that 100,000 vouchers have been printed up to get things rolling. But there is a process in place to figure out if the program is working, which hinges on the unique ID number that adorns each voucher.
Tracking the tourists
To take advantage of the free night's stay, the holder of a FreeStayMaine voucher must visit the program's website (www.freestaymaine.com) and enter in the voucher number and their zip code or postal code to access the list of participating inns, hotels and other lodging establishments. By collecting that information, the FreeStayMaine program keeps track of visitors to the site, which port they previously visited and where they hail from. That way, the organizations behind the program can see if former cruise passengers' vouchers actually come back, and where they're coming from.
CenTRO, the year-old University of Maine initiative to study the state's biggest industry (see "Center of attention," page 24), is responsible for crunching the numbers. Currently, the voucher numbers and postal codes are only being used to track the FreeStayMaine program's success at getting cruise passengers to come back to Maine, but that process could lead to much deeper and broader data in the future. "For these first few months, at least, we're just sitting back and seeing how the program is working, but our involvement will evolve over time," says Todd Gabe, an associate professor in the Department of Resource Economics and Policy at the University of Maine and a research fellow at CenTRO.
"We are talking about doing additional research work to look at people's preferences, tastes, tourism needs and ways we can improve the effectiveness of the program."
Those research efforts could include paper-based surveys and questionnaires handed out with the FreeStayMaine vouchers, pop-up surveys on the website or additional required information fields in the website's sign-in area to collect more information. In addition, voucher numbers could be used for more extensive marketing and research purposes as the program moves beyond lodging to include ecotourism packages, car rentals and other free or reduced-price offers.
But all that is still a ways in the future, notes Mark Turek, product development manager for the Maine Office of Tourism. As of late May, seven lodging establishments were listed officially on the FreeStayMaine site, which resembles the Maine Getaways travel package program area of the Maine Office of Tourism website. A handful of others were awaiting approval of their listings, but the slow start doesn't concern Turek. "We ran into a similar situation with the Maine Getaways program where we started with just 15 listings and now have more than 300," he says. "Part of it is just getting them used to the idea and what they can gain from it. Some inns initially think 'I can sell my rooms, so why give a night away for free?'"
Convincing the innkeepers
Because a free night's stay is the hook to get people back to Maine, the local lodging industry must be on board to make the program work. But convincing owners to give a free night's stay isn't so hard, Turek says, once they realize they have a great deal of control over how customers earn that free night.
Participating establishments are required to offer a minimum of one free night to participate in FreeStayMaine, but that night can be offered anytime the inn or hotel desires, and can be part of a package such as "three nights for the price of two," or even a larger travel-adventure package. "It can be a challenge if a business operates at 100% capacity in July and August to convince them this is worth it," Turek admits. "But if they are open at times other than just the peak tourist season, it can be a way to offer deals during their off-seasons."
That opportunity sold James Haught, the owner of the Galen C. Moses House in Bath, who was intrigued by the idea of attracting cruise passengers back to Maine. Although he says Bath is not as "hidden away" as more remote inland locations, it still isn't a destination spot in the same way that Bar Harbor or Boothbay Harbor are. "In our high season, I wouldn't consider offering this," Haught says. "But in our low season, when we are less full and we have the potential to get people in ˆ well, that sounds like fairly solid business sense to me."
Even inns located far from the coast have already begun to join the FreeStayMaine program, such as the Moosehead Lake region's Greenville Inn, co-owned by husband-and-wife team Terry and Jeffrey Johannemann. "We're trying to attract more people to Moosehead Lake because a lot of people who come to Maine don't even know it exists," Terry Johannemann says. "We'd love for people on cruise ships to realize that there is tourism well beyond the coastline and that they can come to the woods and not have to 'rough it' unless they want to."
Although interest is picking up among innkeepers across the state, a key challenge remains: Simply giving them a chance to see the site. Because a voucher number is needed to sign in, innkeepers cannot view the listings themselves. Allowing extra visitors to the site, Turek points out, can throw off the tracking process that is so crucial to the program. FreeStayMaine has yet to find a solution to that problem, but ideas such as providing PDF "snapshots" of the lodging search pages have been circulated.
In the end, supporters of the program say it's more important to launch the program now and give it time to grow while working out those details. That's because research by the University of Maine on cruise passengers' intentions to return to the state, Powers and Gabe note, has shown that roughly a third said they'd come back within two years. Moreover, they add, cruise ship passengers spend more, on average, than do tourists in general.
"That is what really inspired us to do this, but ultimately, people's intentions to come back are just intentions. You have to put it to the test and you may have to give them incentives," Powers says. "If it is really true, then we have already lost a lot of opportunities to reach out to cruise passengers in years past ˆ and we've potentially lost ground on the ability to benefit tourism across the state."
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