Some of you may have heard about the mess with Maine’s official tourism agency: its PR/marketing firm is suing a blogger who criticized it and displayed a photo of a mocked-up tourism poster, which he had pulled from a public website. (Incidentally, none of this would’ve happened if the tourism agency or the PR firm had a presence in the blogosphere, and used it.)

Given that story, I find it interesting that Maine tourism is launching a new initiative, called “FreeStayMaine,” to attract visitors. It will follow the lead of Caribbean islands, and give away vouchers to people who visit Maine on cruise ships. It will track who’s redeeming the vouchers, and where those people come from.  This prompts a couple of thoughts.

1. People take cruise ships to Maine?
2. Seriously, people really take cruise ships to Maine? (Ha, just having a little fun, Maine!)

Aside from those two thoughts, I have a third. Does Maine’s official travel agency have absolutely no desire to build relationships with travelers? Giving away vouchers is a way to say “sample our product”–but it’s completely disconnected from any attempt to convince people that’s a good idea.  I suppose the Maine tourism folks would say they hope people come back once they’ve cashed in the vouchers.

But there’s a better idea.  Connect the vouchers with a website that tells the stories of people who’ve visited.  Mine the millions of photos at flickr to show people having fun at Maine destinations. Convince the most enthusiastic visitors to contribute to your effort.  And most of all, make your website a resource–not just for marketing copy and straight information, but for compelling stories and entertaining programming. Spend a little money telling stories and everything else will fall into place.