Motel owner Steve Dobson is on a mission to try to get more people to visit Aroostook County and maybe even decide to live here.
“The economy is coming back now and I think tourism will be an important part,” said Dobson, who owns the Aroostook Hospitality Inn motels in Van Buren and Washburn. “My personal opinion and I’m biased: tourism is going to help save Aroostook County.”
Steve Dobson, owner of Aroostook Hospitality Inn motels in Washburn and Van Buren, entered the motel business as a second career and is now an advocate for tourism in Aroostook County. (Anthony Brino | BDN)
The 65-year-old Washburn native has spent the last decade in a second career in hospitality after working almost three decades as a utility meter reader, and he’s emerged as a vocal advocate for Aroostook County tourism.
“We are just a little podunk motel in the middle of nowhere,” Dobson said in the kitchen space at his Washburn inn where he often has breakfast and conversation with guests.
“But people come to us and they keep coming back. You can walk from here and be at a great fishing hole. You can stand here on your deck at night and the night sky is phenomenal.”
Dobson has cultivated a customer base of snowmobilers who return each winter, as well as some other regulars, while also drawing a range of guests throughout the year.
Late last summer, Dobson said, tourists from Australia, Belgium, France, India and Saudi Arabia were visiting Maine for fall foliage. They were too early to see fall colors for most of the state and ended up driving north and staying at Dobson’s Washburn inn.
“You can imagine what the conversation was like in the morning. I sent them up to the Allagash and they had a great time.”
Tourism brought in $6 billion to Maine last year, a 6 percent increase over 2015, Dobson said, citing soon-to-be released figures from the Maine Office of Tourism, of which he is board member. Aroostook County brought in $157 million in tourism spending, 2.6 percent of the statewide total, with more than 2,700 associated jobs, Dobson said.
Aroostook County already has a strong tourism footprint in hunting, fishing and snowmobiling, plus dozens of events that draw locals and regional visitors, including the Acadian Festival, the Aroostook County Brew Fest, the Crown of Maine Balloon Festival, the Maine Potato Blossom Festival, the Maple Meadows Farm Fest, the Fort Kent International Muskie Derby and the Nordic Trail Fest.
But Dobson said the share of the state’s tourism pie could grow from just 2.6 percent by reaching more people. “Five percent is a doable goal,” he said.
Theresa Fowler, executive director of the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce, said she agrees with Dobson that tourism has room to grow.
“Aroostook County needs to do a better job of promoting itself and explaining to people what our assets are,” she said. “It’s a difficult area to market,” because it’s so large and diverse.
Dobson said he thinks that two other northern regions of Maine are poised to see increases in tourism — the Katahdin and Moosehead Lake regions — and that Aroostook County should also see an opportunity as people seek vacations that aren’t in the traditional tourist hotspots.
“We have a lot of outdoor activities that we need to tap into: canoeing, bicycling, hiking. There’s a lot of gems here.”
Dobson said that Aroostook County has room to grow in agricultural and outdoor recreation tourism, two sectors that also appeal to young people and entrepreneurs.
“If you create jobs in tourism, the students in colleges might pick up a summer job and stay here, and the students from here that go away to school could come back home for the summer,” he said.
“That might also give people from away a chance to put down roots and stay here. That’s a small way of stopping outward migration. I really believe tourism can be a part of that.”
