Officials promote tourism at games

PRESQUE ISLE – After participating in the shotgun start of Friday morning’s biathlon relay race, two state commissioners got down to the details of the tourism and economic development effects of the 2006 Biathlon Junior World Championships.

Patrick McGowan, the state conservation commissioner, and Jack Cashman, the economic and development commissioner, visited Presque Isle Friday in place of Gov. John Baldacci, who canceled a trip to Aroostook County because of the recent death of his brother.

McGowan and Cashman, who had never seen the Nordic Heritage Center before, said Friday that they were impressed with what they saw and what they believed it would mean for the area.

“This is a wonderful sports center that is generating worldwide attention again on Aroostook County,” McGowan said. “We want to let people know that we are fans of what is going on and that we support it.”

Cashman said: “If you bring people from Europe to northern Maine, they’re going to want to come back because it’s such a beautiful place. This is excellent exposure.”

From Cashman’s perspective, the center and the events it hosts are exactly the things the state needs to see happening.

“We operate today on a world stage in economic development,” Cashman said. “That’s just as true in tourism as in other aspects of economic development. We’ve participated in this event in terms of financial support and other support, and we’re glad to do that, because we want to move tourism into other parts of the state.”

Cashman specifically was referring to northern and western Maine. The commissioners pointed out that the problem facing certain places in the state, such as northern Maine, is tourism infrastructure – places for people to stay and things for them to do when they visit the area.

If such infrastructure is put in place, and if world-class events continue in the area and more people use that infrastructure, officials believe major tourism and economic development advances will follow.

That’s why, right now, state and local officials are working on an in-depth resort project for northern Maine. Preliminary plans include establishing resorts in both Presque Isle and Fort Kent.

While final plans are far on the horizon, officials agree that it all starts with hosting successful events like the 2006 Biathlon Junior World Championship.

“It’s very impressive,” McGowan said of the event. “These [volunteers] just do it over and over again with [the] best of professionalism and cooperation. It’s unbelievable.”

Cashman said their work was “a tremendous contribution. This is the type of activity that draws the attention you need to bring it to the next level, which is resort development, and that’s the next shoe that will drop up here, and when it does, I think you’ll see a tremendous increase in tourism activity.”