Reshaping Maine Woods Destinations for Twenty-First-Century Tourists

Abstract

Maine’s rim counties—here called the Maine Woods region—suffer from chronic economic and community distress, marked by declines in several resource-based industries, an ongoing youth exodus, and a rapidly aging population. Nonetheless, many encouraging new ventures are helping to revitalize the Maine Woods economy and communities, and tourism and recreation should play a central role in these efforts. This article focuses on initiatives launched through a partnership between the 16-member Maine Woods Consortium and the Maine Office of Tourism designed to reinvigorate Maine Woods’ recreation and hospitality offerings and to enrich amenities in the region’s gateway communities. M rim counties, the term we use for the Maine Woods region, suffer from chronic economic distress and community erosion. Rural Maine is not unique, of course. Across rural America, there are similar patterns of low and stagnant incomes, job loss in traditional resource-based industries, heavy dependence on government supports, on-going out-migration of youth, and rapidly aging populations. Analysts stress that these long-evolving conditions have deep structural causes and thus no simple fix (Hendrickson Muro, and Galston 2018; Krugman 2019). Nonetheless, efforts to launch new lead sectors and revitalize rural economies abound, from cross-laminated timber to telemedicine and craft brewing. In the Maine Woods region, many encouraging tourism initiatives are reshaping the venerable recreation economy to meet twenty-first-century leisure travelers’ changing preferences and to tap their spending power. Tourism is a major component of Maine’s rural economy, generating $2.3 billion in visitor spending in 2017 and providing employment for over 39,000 people: it must be an important part of any revitalization strategy. The Maine Woods—Henry David Thoreau’s evocative term for our vast northern forest—has a long and storied history as a tourist destination. For more than a century and a half, sports and rusticators, mostly from the Northeast, have recreated at interior Maine’s special places including the Mahoosuc Range, Rangeley Lake, Moosehead Lake, Baxter State Park, and Grand Lake Stream. In recent decades, winter sports, cultural events, and fall leaf-peeping excursions have expanded and enriched the menu of attractions in these areas. Past and present, the fundamental appeal of the Maine Woods has been the same: iconic lake, mountain, and forest landscapes, far from the bustle and bright lights of the city. In the words of tourism consultants Future iQ, “the region includes a wide range of unique landscapes that create a huge outdoor recreation canvas. From a visitor perspective, this creates an incredibly exciting and enticing nature-based destination” (FiQ 2018a: 5). Maine’s long tradition of public access to millions of acres of private lands is a crucial enabler of outdoor recreation. Moreover, since the 1990s, it has been reinforced by extensive public and nonprofit land acquisitions and conservation easements backed by investment in motorized and nonmotorized trail networks. The Maine Woods tourism economy, however, faces an epochal challenge: adapting to major changes in its prospective customers, the experiences they seek, the ways they seek them, and the quality standards they demand. Compared to a century ago, for example, more of Americans’ leisure travel today is squeezed into long weekends and involves multi-activity experiences. Visitor demographics, preferences, and standards have also evolved. Two examples suggest distinct features of growing market segments. First, many baby boomers, with ample discretionary time and income, are experiential tourists seeking low-stress outdoor activities, supplemented by quality dining, lodging, shopping, and cultural amenities. Second, many younger adventurers seek destinations offering outstanding expedition hiking, cross country skiing, and mountain biking, but MAINE WOODS DESTINATIONS MAINE POLICY REVIEW • Vol. 28, No. 1 • 2019 29 they also want cell phone and internet coverage, a great meal, lively night life, and a comfortable bed after their exertions. Future iQ emphasizes that the greatest growth in coming decades will be in a market segment that the Maine Woods has never seriously sought to attract: the “growing global middle class,” especially affluent Asians (FIQ 2018b: 19) Making inroads in that market will be a stretch—not only for the Maine Woods, but for the state as a whole. This article describes the evolving tourism landscape and an emerging Maine Woods tourism strategy for the Maine Woods and then focuses on three promising initiatives. The strategy centers on creating, branding, and promoting outstanding four-season visitor experiences in nine high-potential destination areas in the broader Maine Woods region. Strategic elements blend recreational and cultural amenities, events, hospitality services, broadband internet access, transportation infrastructure, and lively downtowns. The core conviction is that these initiatives can tap the Maine Woods’ potential for sustainable tourism growth—growth that supports quality business and career opportunities and helps revitalize distressed rural communities. The initiative is led by the Maine Woods Consortium and the Maine Office of Tourism (MOT). The consortium is a network of 16 businesses, nonprofit organizations, and state agencies pursuing a triplebottom-line approach to enhance human and environmental well-being in the Maine Woods region.1 It is led and coordinated by the Northern Forest Center. ECONOMIC CHALLENGES AND TOURISM’S POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTIONS T Maine Woods covers most or all of seven counties, extending from Oxford County in the west, across the northern crown of Maine, to Washington County in Downeast Maine (see Figure 1). Compared to prospering south coastal Maine, the Maine Woods PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM The Maine Woods Consortium’s triple-bottom-line mission is to encourage sustainable contributions to the rural economy, communities, and ecosystems. The core values of a sustainable tourism strategy have been well articulated by Travel Oregon: Sustainable tourism... • Is integrated with and respectful of the culture, homeland, heritage, and people of a place • Provides a unique and authentic experience