AUGUSTA — Ms. Balanced Achiever wants to vacation someplace the whole family will enjoy, where the kids will learn something. 

Mr. Genuine Original is about adventure and new experiences.

Ms. Social Sophisticate wants to be pampered. A lot. And make her friends jealous about her fabulous time.

They’re the three types of tourists most likely to visit the state and most likely to spend heavily when they get here, according to new research unveiled at the 2015 Maine Govenor’s Conference on Tourism on Wednesday.

So Maine’s hot on their trails.

Office of Tourism Director Carolann Ouellette said it means fine-tuning Maine’s existing promotions and being smart about how the state spends its $10 million tourism budget.

“Segmentation is something really big brands have been doing for a while,” she said. “To really be able to pick the people we know are highest-value visitors, to be able to get to them more specifically with messages that resonate, is really going to help, honestly, with a better (return on investment) in the long run.”

More than 400 people attended the annual conference at the Augusta Civic Center. Figures from the Office of Tourism’s 2014 annual report showed the industry coming off a banner year: Total visits were up 3.7 percent in 2014 to 36.6 million people. First-time visitors grew by almost 20 percent.

Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner George Gervais said tourism supported 94,000 jobs in the state last year.

“Tourism’s success contributes millions to Maine’s General Fund,” he said. “Maine has a reputation as a bucket-list destination.”

Keynote speaker Jonah Sachs credited Maine for already having switched to a values-based marketing message. The old way of advertising, messages that talk down to people and contain an element of “you suck” don’t work anymore, he said.

Don’t take a “God tone,” according to Sachs. Be human. Be vulnerable. Let your audience be the hero and show them other heroes, especially rebellious ones.

“It’s really powerful to tell about people who do things differently, who break the rules, who don’t fit norms and conventions, and we want to find out, do they succeed?” Sachs said. “I think that’s a natural fit for Maine because you guys are off the beaten path. You are made up of people who are here because they want to do things a different way. And the more that you can highlight that difference, that sort of resistance to normal society, the more compelling those stories become.” 

Sachs is the author of “Winning the Story Wars,” which shows how values-driven stories will revolutionize marketing and represent humanity’s greatest hope for the future.

After her talk, Ouellette brought three actors from South Paris’ Celebration Barn Theater on stage to personify each of the three new targeted tourist audiences to give “us a much better sense of who they are and how it can play out and how you get to know them as you do your marketing efforts.”

When it comes to booking a place to stay online, Ms. Balanced Achiever said she’d look for family-friendly amenities, for a place that listed ideas for day trips and close-by activities.

Mr. Genuine Original wanted “anything but a brand name. I just want a mom-and-pop shop, some kind of unique experience you can’t find anywhere else. Maybe a farm-to-table restaurant.”

Ms. Social Sophisticate was after on-site services, Wi-Fi and a concierge.

“I love that idea that I’m going to be at the head of the pack, I’m going to be the first one with this story to tell and if I can get away from it all and still have all of my creature comforts, that’s my style,” she said.

The hope, Ouellette said, was that attendees would think about how those tourists fit with what they had to offer.

“The idea is fascinating,” said Dina Jackson from the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments. “We’ve always known there were segments, but to see them come to life was incredibly helpful.”

Western Maine and the Twin Cities, known as the Maine Lakes and Mountains region for tourism promotion, has to decide, “‘Who is our core? Who do we speak to the most?'” she said. “In my opinion, in all my years of doing this, we seem to speak to the first two, those achievers and originals. This conference every year helps us to map out our plan for the next year.”

[email protected] 

Western Maine tourism meeting next week

Maine’s Lakes & Mountains Tourism Council will meet from 10 a.m. to noon at the Comfort Inn & Suites in East Wilton next Tuesday, March 24, to share promotional plans for the next year and a proposal on how to spend $130,000 in state marketing funds. The meeting is open to tourism-related businesses looking to offer feedback and ideas.