ROCKLAND – The state is taking a tourism marketing cue from the Caribbean: entice cruise ship passengers to return to Maine for extended vacations via land-based travel.

It’s called FreeStayMaine and it aims to set sail in May.

On Tuesday, the Rockland Downtown Business Group was briefed on the state’s newest tourism initiative, which is funded by a grant from the Maine Port Authority and CruiseMaine Coalition.

The plan will work this way: Cruise ship passengers will receive vouchers and welcome bags when they arrive at Maine ports. The vouchers will direct visitors to the Web site www.FreeStayMaine.com.

That site will provide a list of vacation packages offered by participating inns, hotels, motels or bed-and-breakfasts. The Maine businesses do not pay a fee to participate, but each owner absorbs the cost of at least one free night’s stay in its vacation packages.

CruiseMaine Coalition will administer the program with Web support provided by the Maine Office of Tourism.

Marketing research for 2002 shows that 33 percent of cruise ship visitors to Bar Harbor later returned to Maine by land-based travel for extended visits and that 36 percent of the 598 respondents had annual household incomes of $100,000 or more, according to Shari Closter, assistant executive director of the Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber of Commerce.

The report, released this month by the University of Maine, concludes that the Bar Harbor cruise ship industry had a total economic impact of $13.7 million in sales during the 2005 season, according to the report. That revenue included spending by passengers and crew members while in port.

That economic activity supported 174 full- and part-time jobs and provided $3.7 million in labor income.

The cruise ship industry in Portland, which hosted about 45,000 passengers – compared to just below 100,000 visitors in Bar Harbor – generated a total of $6.7 million in sales during 2005, which supported 96 full- and part-time jobs in the Portland area and provided $1.8 million in labor income.

Rockland wants to capture some of that market.

So far, two cruise ships are scheduled to call at Rockland this season.

FreeStayMaine could push state as well as local tourism revenues higher if cruise ship passengers choose to come back, Closter said.

Vouchers the size of business cards, sequentially numbered on the back, will help track the success of the program, she said, adding that one goal is to develop cruise ship data for Rockland and Port Clyde.

The program requires participating businesses to report the duration of stays and package details, the number of returned vouchers and zip codes of people who did not use the online search engine. The Web site will also collect data.