🔒Two-nation marketing strategy: Down East Maine and New Brunswick team up to attract visitors

Two neighboring nations. One gorgeous region with a rich heritage that happens to span both sides of the boundary line.

Why not join forces and promote both sides as a single tourism package?

That's the aim of a “Two-Nation Vacation” campaign launched by Down East Maine and New Brunswick. The cross-border tourism partnership is designed to increase visitation for both regions. The package entices travelers to take advantage of scenic drives and boat tours that cross the border, and along the way visit coastal towns, natural vistas, cultural heritage sites, festivities — and patronize businesses along the way.

“It's inspired us to look at our shared resources and started us talking about how to create partnerships and find ways to package and promote them, not only to visitors but also to people who live here,” says Crystal Hitchings, planner at the Washington County Council of Governments, which oversees the DownEast & Acadia Regional Tourism effort. “Businesses are starting to use the term 'two-nation vacation' on their own websites and in their advertising. We're starting to incorporate the idea into our branding for chambers of commerce and businesses.”

A year into the marketing program, Hitchings and other tourism officials are trying to broaden the awareness of the “two nation” appeal. Cross-border opportunities are packaged in numerous ways. There's the 125-mile “Bold Coast Scenic Byway,” an international transportation network extending along the coast of Maine and into the Canadian Maritimes. The “Downeast Fisheries Trail” takes in marinas, lighthouses, coves, museums and the like.

There are lighthouse and fishing village tours, an international sculpture trail, wine trails, birding trails, national and state parks, Roosevelt Campobello International Park, outdoor recreation opportunities, and dual-sided music and arts offerings, including “Artsipelago,” the promotional name for art and cultural activities of islands, peninsulas and adjacent areas on the international border. Festivals abound, celebrating seafood, blueberry chocolate, buskers, folk art and more.

Promotions focus on the differences and similarities between Maine and New Brunswick, offering a story hook and another way of talking about the assets of both regions. For example, visitors are urged to compare local cuisines: “Each side boasts the world's best chowder,” reads the Two-Nation Vacation website. Runners can participate in the Bay of Fundy International Marathon — Maine to Canada and back. The International Lighthouse and Lobster Festival for Campobello and Lubec leverages icons for both sides. An International Lighthouse Challenge maps the drive to five beacons in the two countries.

Marketers point out where events — such as the St. Stephen Chocolate Festival and the Homecoming Parade in Calais — dovetail. On New Year's Eve, a Canadian maple leaf is dropped at 11 p.m. EST (and midnight in Atlantic Time Zone) and a Maine sardine at midnight. There's even a golf course that straddles the border; it was founded in 1929 to allow American golfers to bypass Prohibition without passing through customs.

For local businesses, it's an opportunity to create cross-border packages, such as The Eastland Hotel in Lubec with Capt. Riddle's Whale Watch Cruises on Campobello Island.

“He gives a 10% discount to anyone we send over,” says Eastland co-owner Heather Henry-Tenan. “And we do a lot of referrals. When Lubec lodgings get full, we work with Campobello. It's not like we're two separate countries.”

“The program's goal is to increase incremental visitation to the region, particularly targeting those within a one-day drive,” Maine Office of Tourism Director Carolann Ouellette says of the concept's benefits to businesses and communities. “Leveraging resources and working collaboratively increase our overall competitiveness in attracting new visitors to our region. The 'Two-Nation Vacation' suggests extending what might be a two- to four-day visit to Acadia or New Brunswick into a longer stay of five to seven days that would span the region. On the Maine side, this will benefit the relatively less visited Bold Coast region, and in New Brunswick, the region south of Saint John.”

The two destinations began collaborating in 2003 with small initiatives, and picked up steam over the past couple of years.

“We worked closely with Maine over the past 10 years, and we'd grown to admire and trust each other, to learn marketing tactics and product development initiatives from each other, to share information and research,” says Rose Arsenault, New Brunswick Office of Tourism, Heritage and Culture's project executive. “Also, cross-country destinations are looking for ways to try and make the dollar go further, so partnerships and pooling resources are becoming more important.”

Lofty goals, modest spending

New Brunswick Tourism and the Maine Office of Tourism signed a pact in May 2014 agreeing to jointly invest $1 million over four years, or a modest $250,000 a year. The initial focus in 2014 was to refresh the brand and develop content. Website enhancement is key; research shows travelers most likely plan a two-nation vacation well in advance with online research.

Funds over the coming three years are going toward development of an integrated marketing and sales campaign designed to create awareness and interest in vacationing in both countries. This includes printed brochures, digital marketing through website and social media, media and travel trade familiarization trip support, and public and media relations.

Representatives of the region's tourism industry were officially introduced to the project in October 2013 at a conference on Campobello Island. At the time, Trevor Holder, a New Brunswick elected official, told attendees that the province's U.S. travelers tended to be from the Boston-New York City-Philadelphia corridor. Tourism in New Brunswick is a $1 billion-a-year industry. “We can drive the Maine numbers up. Maine's got the base and the brand. We've got the international aspect,” Holder told the group in 2013, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Industry outreach has continued with the creation of a marketing toolkit that explains the campaign's purpose and anticipated benefits, and supplies creative elements that can be integrated into individual marketing efforts. The use of digital platforms — versus broadcast and print ads — makes the initiative affordable, says Ouellette. Pooling resources helps both sides get more bang for their buck, extending Maine's reach into the Canadian market and vice versa.

“We've all been looking for other partnerships and we happen to have people on both sides of the border who were really committed and believed in this partnership,” says Arsenault. “It seemed to be the right time, and it made sense. Also, our industry sees the benefits because they're working individually and collectively to create partnerships on both sides of the border.”

Enthusiasm is high in the tourism industry, says Arsenault. “They've had wonderful ideas,” she says. “Everyone is excited about the potential this has in terms of growing their business — kayak operators on the Maine side, for example, partnering with kayak operators on the New Brunswick side.”

“We're well positioned to be a strong partner in this because we are, of course, on the Canadian border,” says Hitchings. “I'd say one of the greatest things for us is the increased communications and connections between New Brunswick and Maine tourism providers. A lot of ideas have gone back and forth about common resources that we can work together to promote. For example, we have the Schoodic International Sculpture Trail in Washington and Hancock counties. New Brunswick also has a sculpture trail. By connecting the two, we can create an international vacation.”

It's too soon to measure results. Anecdotally, both sides are seeing benefits. Visitation at Campobello was up in 2014, for example. New Brunswick tour operators are seeing “two-nation” travelers. Several small cruise lines have bought into the concept, and other businesses are incorporating the brand in their promotional materials.

“The tangible we hope to achieve is providing greater opportunity for people to experience the inter-connected stories of our cultures,” says Hitchings. “Stories help people engage with place, inspiring them to explore deeper, stay longer, and return more often. Ultimately, this results in an unforgettable experience for our visitors, and greater economic benefits for our communities.”

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