1. Project Up Dates Maine TAC October 24, 2006

2. Tourism & Hospitality Education Tourism Certificate Program – Hutchinson Center, Belfast –Fall 2006 BUA 490 Hospitality Guest Service Internship REP 254 Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management –Spring 2007 BUA 370 Introduction to Marketing REP 466 Internet for Small Business –Other Courses PRT 470 Principles of Tourism Management and Planning REP 3## Tourism Economics Elective

3. Longwoods International Partnership Key Features of the Agreement –Access to Data Raw Data All Data But that for the Current Year –Potential Uses for the Data include … Regional Analyses Requiring Aggregation Investigation of Special Topics not Requiring Current Data Student Projects

4. Longwoods International Partnership CenTRO’s Responsibility –Prepare the Partnership Agreement Document –Process to Avoid Unwarranted Release of Conflicting and Potentially Erroneous Conclusions Systematic Approach to Informing Researchers about the Appropriate Analyses of the Data Avoid conclusions resulting from artifacts of collecting and weighting the data to validly represent Maine’s tourism market(s)

5. Longwoods International Partnership Longwoods’ Responsibility –Document the Data Weighting Alterations of Data Collection Methods & Instruments –Access to Personnel Review Data Analysis before Release of Potentially Controversial Conclusions

6. Customer Satisfaction Tracking Purpose –Micro Level: Feedback to Individual Businesses regarding product quality Businesses can monitor the quality of customer experience –Macro Level: An Indicator of the Health of the Hospitality Industry and Tourism in Maine Pilot Test: Summer 2006 –4 Campgrounds, 2 Dropped Out –Incentive Panel Response Rate: 47% –Reminder Panel Response Rate: 22%

7. Customer Satisfaction Tracking Continued Data Collection Method –E-mail Invitation from Campground within week of check out –Respondent clicks through the hot link in the Invitation –Respondent Completes On-Line Questionnaire –Registers for the drawing for 2 $1000 LLBean Gift Certificates (incentive panel only) –Single e-mail reminder (with hotlink) to complete the questionnaire (reminder panel only) –Communication with Establishment Management Biweekly Update Reports on Response and Completion Rates Current Status –Drawing for the Incentives at Week’s End –Report to Participating Campgrounds in Development

8. Customer Satisfaction Tracking Continued What Did We Learn? 1.This Method Can Work Well 2.Participation Requires Dedicated Managers at the Establishment –Requires that Managements of Prospective Establishments Fully Understand the Benefits of Participation –Regular communication with managers helps maintain commitment 3.It Can Not be Supported with Web Mail –Requires E-Mail Client Software, e.g., MS Outlook or Eudora 4.Need to Work with Producers of Operations Management Software to More Fully Automate the E-Mail Invitation Process 5.An Incentive Seems to Be Important to Increasing Response –Higher Response Rates may also be a result of the quality of the relationship between Tourist and Management Personnel

9. The Market for a North Maine Woods Ecotourism Resort Purpose –Example of One Step in Tourism R&D

10. Innovation Management Process The Innovation Pipeline Idea Generation Idea Screening Marketing Strategy Business Analysis Product Development Test Marketing Commercialization Concept Development and Testing Kotler, Philip and Gary Armstrong (2006) Principles of Marketing, 11 th Ed., Pearson-Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ., pg. 276

11. The Market for a North Maine Woods Ecotourism Resort Purpose –Example of One Step in Tourism R&D –Explore the Market for an Eco-tourism Resort –Estimate the Size of Market Method –Concept Development Qualitative Research Focus Groups in Boston and Suburban Philadelphia –Concept Test Quantitative Research On Line Concept Exposure & Data Collection

12. The Market for a North Maine Woods Ecotourism Resort Benefits –Size of the Market for a Unique Value Proposition in a Portion of the State Less Favored by Main Stream Tourism –Publication of Research Findings for Public Use Financing –Grant: Northern Forest Center –Match: University of Maine and New England Outdoor Center Current Status –Waiting for Grant Approval