100,000 free nights

I saw this on a website today....

100,000 free nights

By TUX TURKEL, Staff Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

Related Story:

Maine's 2006 cruise ship season begins Monday, when the 1,316-passenger Maasdam arrives in Bar Harbor. Visitors reboarding the ship with gifts and other purchases also will be carrying something else of value: Business card-size vouchers good for a free night at select lodging places.

The vouchers are part of a new program called Free- StayMaine. Between now and mid-October, organizers hope to hand out 100,000 of the vouchers - which resemble Maine license plates. Then they'll track the cards, to see where they are being redeemed and where the travelers come from.

If the program succeeds, it could bring some fresh blood to Maine's anemic tourism market. Tourism is the state's largest industry. But visitation has been relatively flat for the past five years, and officials are looking at nontraditional ways to attract new and repeat visitors.

Behind the giveaway are some key assumptions from a 2002 survey of Bar Harbor cruise ship passengers: They typically have above-average incomes and come from more than 1,200 miles away. And a third of them said they wanted to return to Maine within two years.

These are potential visitors who live beyond the reach of Maine's core tourism promotion effort, which targets New England and New York.

"We're getting passengers and tourists from nontraditional market areas, so we want them to come back," said Amy Powers, director of CruiseMaine, the coalition helping to spearhead the program.

FreeStayMaine is supported by the Maine Port Authority and a variety of partners that include state and regional tourism agencies. It is expected to run for at least three years.

Cruising has been a growth industry in the United States, according to a new University of Maine study, with direct spending growing from $9.4 billion in 2000 to $14.7 billion in 2004. Traffic also has been up in Maine, and the number of passengers arriving in Portland last year set a record. Although volumes seem to be leveling off this year in the Northeast, Powers said, activity scheduled for 2007 appears stronger.

Cruising is valued by Maine tourism officials and retailers because most ships arrive in September and October, just as the peak summer season is winding down. But tourism leaders lament that passengers can go ashore for only a short while, and their travels are confined to a narrow band along the coast.

Vaughn Stinson, executive director of the Maine Tourism Association, said FreeStayMaine could entice cruise ship passengers to return to Maine and venture inland, where hospitality owners have a harder time generating income.

"This gives us an opportunity to get in front of a very affluent group of people," he said.

FreeStayMaine is modeled after a voucher program used in St. Thomas, Jamaica, St. Croix and other tropical islands, called Freestay Caribbean. That program uses coins that are good for land-based vacations at hotels and other businesses on the islands. According to the Maine Port Authority, organizers there had hoped 10 percent or so of cruise ship passengers would return after the first year; instead, 30 percent came back.

FreeStayMaine is being financed in part with roughly $10,000 in startup money from the Maine Port Authority. Some details of the program are still being finalized, but this is generally how it will work:

Passengers will receive a voucher that can be redeemed for a future visit. Each voucher - which is numbered so it can be traced - will prompt people to explore participating businesses on the Internet at www.freestaymaine.com.

A search engine on the site will link to the businesses and their online addresses, as well as to regional tourism associations. Businesses can tailor and update the promotions as they desire, as long as they include a minimum of one free night. For example: An inn might offer a single free night during a slow time of year, or give away an additional night as part of a four-day, peak season package.

Organizers can measure the performance of the program, and learn more about who is responding, by tracking data on the Web site. The site will collect the ZIP code and e-mail address of the redeemer, as well as which lodging places were reviewed and booked.

Guests must present their vouchers when they check in at a hotel. The lodging owner must report the booking to the Maine Office of Tourism.

Todd Gabe, an associate professor at the University of Maine who has been studying the economic impact of cruise ships, will prepare a quarterly tally for researchers.

"We're going to monitor when passengers go to the Web site and ultimately, look at the people who actually come back," Gabe said.

This information will take time to collect, Gabe said. Some people may check out the Web site when they return home. Others may file away the information for next year.

"Given that the majority of ships come in the fall," he said, "we're expecting people to book trips for next summer."

Regional tourism associations, such as the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Portland, will help hand out the vouchers.

Barbara Whitten, the bureau's president, said she thinks the program will draw some repeat visitors. A typical hotel room in the city costs between $89 and $300, she estimated. Receiving a free night could appeal to travelers who live more than a day's drive from Maine, as the majority of cruise ship travelers do.

"If they're coming from California," she said, "they're going to stay more than one night, anyway. So it is of real value."

Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at:

tturkel@pressherald.com