Two Vacationlands

The tourism season now winding down may turn out to be the best ever. While the bottom-line sales tax numbers won’t be added up for some time, early returns — Turnpike traffic and state park usage — suggest 1998 will be a record-breaker.

But, as it is with many silver linings, there is a dark cloud. Overall state park attendance was up a robust 12 percent in July, yet it was down at parks in Aroostook and Washington counties, precisely where tourist spending would do the most good.

Certainly, distance, second-rate roads and the shrinking Canadian dollar are part of the declines at Aroostook, Cobscook Bay and Roques Bluff state parks. These are beyond local control. But another cause — the lack of strong and united self-promotion — is not.

An example of what tooting one’s own horn can do is Lily Bay State Park, where attendance was up a hearty 20 percent this summer. The Piscataquis County park is as far from the big city as anything Aroostook or Washington have to offer, the roads are just as rough and Canada’s money just as devalued. But the folks around Moosehead Lake are notorious boosters, and their efforts attracted the attention of World Traveler magazine. A very favorable review there led to a full park and ringing cash registers.

“Maine Invites You,” the tourism guide produced by the Maine Publicity Bureau, provides a clue as to why visitors missed Aroostook and Washington counties. The large, colorful vacation planner is arranged as driving tours of eight regions and most entries virtually gush with things to do. The Aroostook section, though, is woefully sparse and, despite a nice full-page, all-purpose ad by the Caribou, Fort Faifield, Houlton and Presque Isle chambers of commerce, the startling lack of ads by individual hospitality businesses would lead the prospective visitor to conclude that the County takes the concept of getting away from it all to a sleepy and hungry extreme.

The Washington County entry is longer, but remarkably shy about touting the natural attractions that are the region’s primary draw. There is no mention of the huge Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. The Land for Maine’s Future Board has acquired public access to several remarkably scenic and historic properties Downeast. Finding them would be a stroke of dumb luck. And no wonder attendance at Cobscook, one of Maine’s most magnificent state parks, was down. The driving tour suggests it will be found somewhere between Machias and Jonesboro. Not even close.

It would be unfair to blame the publicity bureau. The content of the guide is based upon what the locals provide and what goes out can only be as thorough and appealing as what goes in.

The Maine Office of Tourism has, for several years, tried to bring greater notice to the state’s less-visited regions, not to redistribute the wealth, but, says director Dann Lewis, “to make the pie bigger for everybody. But it all boils down to making information available. You can’t attract first-time visitors if your map is a blank.”

Aroostook and Washington counties have long been on the losing end of the economic, demographic and state-policy factors known collectively as the Two Maines syndrome. The tourism boom offers these regions an opportunity to help themselves and it starts with giving tourists a map that will get them there.