Touting a ‘2-nation vacation’ Maine officials visit Nova Scotia to foster tourism alliance

YARMOUTH, Nova Scotia – Maine is not visible from this Canadian town, but tourism officials on both sides of the Gulf of Maine are hoping that, in this case anyway, out of sight does not mean out of mind.

After all, it takes about the same amount of time to get from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, as it does to get from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Maine. And for now, anyway, you don’t need a passport to get there, according to tourism officials.

“There’s a trend that people are looking for multiple-destination vacations,” Patricia Eltman, executive director of the Maine Office of Tourism, said Monday. “Our northern neighbors mean a great deal to us. We share a lot of the same [tourism] goals and strategies. We share the same market.”

Eltman was among a small contingent of tourism officials from Maine that traveled Monday to Nova Scotia for a three-day trip aimed at promoting the “two-nation vacation” idea by which people travel to both Maine and to nearby Canadian provinces. To get there, they took the only direct, earthbound link between Maine and Nova Scotia – Bay Ferries Ltd.’s Cat ferry, which makes round trips between Yarmouth and Maine. Three days a week it leaves from Bar Harbor and four days a week it leaves from Portland.

The weather Monday morning made for a smooth ride for the ferry, which left Bar Harbor at 9 a.m. Besides Eltman, Maine tourism officials on the trip included Chris Fogg, executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce; George Driscoll, vice president of marketing and sales for Bay Ferries; Carolann Ouellette and Charlene Williams, both with the Maine Office of Tourism; and Lianon Close, marketing manager for the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Portland.

In Yarmouth, the group and members of the Maine media who accompanied them for the day attended a luncheon along with approximately 20 Canadian tourism officials at Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant and Brewpub, located on the water a few hundred yards north of the ferry terminal.

Diners ate rappie pie, a traditional Acadian dish made from potatoes and meat – chicken in this case – and made short presentations at the meal about the potential for marketing both Nova Scotia and Maine to tourists.

Eltman said her office has been in contact with tourism officials in New Brunswick and in Quebec and was working to promote Maine as a part of vacation packages to Canada. They are working on a proposed joint Maine-New Brunswick vacation itinerary to be posted at www.visitmaine.com that includes stays at the Samoset Resort in Rockport and the Algonquin Hotel in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. The Maine Office of Tourism hopes to come up with similar coordinated marketing plans with other eastern Canadian provinces, she said.

“It will benefit us some years; it will benefit the Canadians some years,” Eltman said, adding that now more Canadians are traveling to the states than vice versa because of the value of the American dollar.

“It’s another tool,” she said. “It’s something else for tourists to consider.”

Julie Grandy, tourism development officer for South West Shore Development Authority in Nova Scotia, said that by coordinating efforts with their counterparts across the gulf, tourism officials in Maine and the Canadian province can better promote themselves to tourists who are considering visiting the region or are passing through.

“Our whole purpose is to build business and tourism connections with Maine,” Grandy said. “Maybe [tourists] will stop in Yarmouth an extra day or two. That’s what we’d like to see.”

After the luncheon, Fogg said cross-border cooperation could help generate more tourism business on both sides of the gulf that otherwise wouldn’t materialize.

“With our natural link to Nova Scotia via the Cat, this certainly is an opportunity for us to find ways to partner so we can both mutually benefit,” Fogg said. “Working together, we bring more people to the region overall.”

At the luncheon, Maine and Canadian officials exchanged gifts. Eltman gave Charles Crosby, the mayor of Yarmouth, a book of scenic Maine photographs. She also gave small scented balsam pine needle pillows to Crosby and to Grandy. Fogg gave Crosby a jar of Bar Harbor blueberry jam.

In return, each of the Maine tourism officials received a bag with a book of art from the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, cards of original Nova Scotia art, and lapel pins of the Acadian tri-color flag and the Cape Forchu Light Station, which stands at the mouth of Yarmouth’s harbor.

After the meal, Maine tourism officials left for Oak Island Resort in Western Shore, where they planned to spend the night. The group plans to stay in Halifax tonight and to return to Bar Harbor on the Cat on Wednesday.

The old Bluenose ferry, which for years operated between Bar Harbor and Yarmouth, took the better part of a day to cross the Gulf of Maine. Since the Australian-built catamaran ferry took over the route a decade ago, the journey now takes three hours between Bar Harbor and Yarmouth and 51/2 hours between Portland and Yarmouth.

The tourism officials and members of the media who accompanied them for the day got a tour of the ship on the way to Canada.

The ferry can carry about 200 vehicles and up to 760 passengers per trip. During the journey, passengers can watch movies, buy food, browse the duty-free gift shop or play the slot machines in the ship’s casino, part of the main deck where passengers ride.

According to David Doucet, the ship’s captain, the ship usually travels at about 35 knots, or about 40 mph, during the crossing. It went as fast as 46 mph during sea trials in 2003, he said, but economic concerns discourage traveling at top speed.

“We’ve got plenty of time, and the price of fuel keeps going up,” Doucet said during the morning trip, seated at the ferry’s helm.

Sue and Bob Brusa, two tourists from Atkinson, N.H., were in no hurry to get off the ship. They had just been married this past weekend on a boat in Portland’s harbor and were on their way to spend a few nights in bed-and-breakfasts in Nova Scotia.

“We wanted to do something different,” Bob Brusa said.

He and his new wife brought their antique Corvette with them, he said, and planned to enjoy the scenery, driving no more than a few hours a day on the way to their next stop.

“It’s all part of the experience,” Sue Brusa said about taking their car on the ferry to Canada. “This is something very special.”