PRESQUE ISLE – When it comes to marketing tourism for Aroostook County, the state isn’t getting the job done.

That was the general impression of about 15 people who attended a meeting with the Maine Office of Tourism last Friday at the Presque Isle Inn and Convention Center. The session was designed to provide suggestions for use by the state as it develops its next five-year plan to promote tourism.

“Aroostook County is the only region marketed by a county name, rather than its attributes like the other seven regions,” said Jim Cyr of Presque Isle, pointing out that other regions have names such as Kennebec and Moose river valleys or Down East Acadia.

Use of the name Aroostook, Cyr said, fails to take into consideration the fact that the more commonly and more recognizable name, “The County,” is much better known, in New England and in other parts of the country.

“What people know of Maine is Bar Harbor and The County,” Cyr said. “[The state] does a great job of telling people to come to Bar Harbor and the coast, but not here.”

Rick Bruce, who operates the Northern Lights Motel in Presque Isle, pointed out that even the state’s own tourism Web site on the Internet features few, if any, pictures of Aroostook County.

“Maine isn’t even promoting Maine,” he said.

“A lot of first-time visitors up here never knew how nice it was,” he said. “They didn’t know there were so many things to do.”

The state spent $4.5 million on tourism this year, according to Nathaniel Bowditch, assistant director of the Maine Office of Tourism, who added that “we still lag quite a bit behind our competition” in other states.

That figure will jump to $7 million in 2003-2004, with 10 percent of that targeted to go specifically to regional promotion.

Michael Galeucia, a senior consultant with the firm hired to coordinate the meetings, said the original eight tourism regions in Maine were set up for administration purposes, rather than marketing.

“What can we do to better market this region?” he asked the group. “Why will people come here?”

Close to two dozen strengths were listed for the region, including diverse cultures, a wide assortment of festivals, numerous outdoor recreational activities and an abundance of wildlife, to name a few.

State Rep. Ross Paradis of Frenchville said Aroostook County was so diverse, in fact, that it could be marketed as regions within a region, similar to what is done in neighboring New Brunswick.

Several people said the state’s tourism emphasis for Aroostook County was misdirected at New England and the Northeast, when the target should be the Canadian provinces that rim the region.

“They make it so attractive,” Judy Paradis of Frenchville said of the provinces’ tourism efforts. “But they don’t know we’re here.

“We target New England, but they don’t come here,” she added.

One problem the region faces is the perception that there’s nothing north of Bangor, that The County is too far north or that the people are uneducated and poor.

Commenting on the perception problem, Jim Cyr said he was upset to hear people refer to Bangor as being in northern Maine.

“What does that make us?” he asked, to no one in particular. “We must be off the edge of the world.”

“We have to put it in [tourists’] minds that it’s worth their time to make that trip” north from Bangor, said Walt Elish of Presque Isle, a member of the Aroostook County Tourism board.

He pointed out that Interstate 95 continues north from Bangor, and Routes 1 and 11 provide direct access to all points in The County, making it easier to reach than many parts of western Maine.

Each of the participants at last Friday’s session in Presque Isle was asked to fill out a survey that will be used to help develop the state’s new five-year tourism plan. The survey also is available on the Internet at www.econdevmaine.com/tourismplan.htm.