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Grey County Tourism Destination
Development Action Plan
Grey County’s DDAP is almost a wrap thanks to the input of 118 businesses and stakeholders who completed an online survey, another 50 who completed an interview, attended a workshop or information session, and many hours compiling the report by Bannikin Travel and Tourism. The 2016 DDAP is a Partnership Funding project with BruceGreySimcoe, and builds on the work completed over the past five years in Grey County’s first DDAP. The plan analyzes the County’s strengths and weaknesses related to tourism, looks at some competitive tourism destinations and recommends continuing some existing activities as well as suggesting some new areas of focus. Recommendations are made under four pillars; community/stakeholder engagement, destination management, market research and tracking and resource allocation. Increasing outreach to tourism businesses and stakeholders is an over-arching theme of the plan, and several actions are outlined, including enhanced communications, regular industry meetings and relationship building, and revamping Visit Grey’s industry website to provide more useful tools and information. The plan provides a detailed outline of recommended actions and timing for the next three years. Next steps are acceptance of the plan by Grey County’s Tourism Advisory Committee, and then on to the Planning & Community Development Committee and ultimately County Council.
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The temperatures are rising, the printing presses are firing and it’s time for our 15th Annual Grey Bruce Brochure Swap. In advance of the busy summer season, we invite you to bring your freshly printed brochures to exchange with other local businesses. Catch up with your fellow tourism partners and help ensure that we all have the latest and greatest info for our visitors. Our simple swap-and-go event will be held on Tuesday, May 10th, 2016 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at Bluewater Park (400 William Street) in Wiarton. The brochure swap helps save on distribution costs, allows for networking opportunities and is the perfect excuse to get out and enjoy some fresh spring air. It’s helpful to bring two people if possible, so one can stay at your vehicle and hand out your materials and one can walk around and collect other brochures.
This event is FREE for everyone! Register NOW.
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Save the Date! RTO7 Information Session on Thursday, April 21st at Blue Mountain Resort, 9 to 11 am. More information posted here .
Partnership Program – Applications are now open for the RTO7 2016/17 Partnership Program. New categories and expanded features have been added to this program, now in its fourth year. For guidelines/applications, deadlines and more information on the program, visit the Partnership Program page or email partnerships@rto7.ca.
RTO7 is seeking nominations for a Board Director. Nominations and applications are now being accepted to fill one vacancy on RTO7’s Board of Directors. For more information on this position and the application form, visit RTO7’s Board of Directors page . Deadline for application submissions is April 30, 2016.
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Become a tourist on our Grey County Familiarization Tour as we experience and taste our way throughout the County! We will be rejuvenating at a new spa that has volcanic rock integrated into their experience, off road cycling among forests, quenching our thirst at a local brewery and doing sumac tea shots, plus much more! Don’t miss out…
Registration and invites to follow, we wanted to ensure this fun filled day and networking opportunity made your calendars! Stay Tuned..
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Heather & Philly attended the Experience Development Training Course that RTO7 organized, with facilitator Celes Devar from Earth Rhythms in late March. It was the second time this was hosted by RTO7 in the region, with the rest of our staff attending the one in Port Elgin in 2015.
It was a jam-packed 2.5 day course based out of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Midland and we not only experienced local tourism products, but learned how to look for and develop experience based tourism products in our own backyard.
We acquired the skills needed to help our businesses identify and develop experiential tourism products, and we are looking forward to working with anyone who would like to explore the necessary steps to create an experience like no other, right here in Grey! Kim Clarke, the Tourism Experience Development Specialist for BruceGreySimcoe is also readily available to discuss these opportunities with the potential for 1:1 matched funding, as well. You can contact her by email kclarke@rto7.ca.
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TMAC Media Event Takeover - Colour it Blue
As a region, BruceGreySimcoe, Grey County Tourism, Blue Mountain Village Association, Blue Mountain Resort and Westin hosted the Travel Media Assoc. of Canada’s March Munch & Mingle at the Pantages Hotel in Toronto on March 22, 2016. Through acoustic entertainment, video features, gourmet food offerings and door prize getaways to the region, we showcased the summer and fall seasons to over 80 Toronto based travel writers. The event was a success, with many of us seeing some media inquiries for the summer months already. We look forward to working with each of you (our tourism businesses) to highlight the area as the writers visit. Way to go team, we definitely ‘coloured’ the room that night!
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As people are starting to think about their summer vacations, we encourage you to login and update your free listing on visitgrey.ca. You have the chance to feature multiple photos, link to your social networks and map your location. Login NOW and begin the process. Forgot your password, no problem! For other assistance email amanda.pausner@visitgrey.ca.
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For the past several years, Grey County has been supporting the Grey Bruce Agriculture and Culinary Association (ACA) to be a member of the Ontario Culinary Tourism Association (OCTA). OCTA supports culinary tourism development with various research, and marketing tools which are made available to members. In discussion with the ACA, it was decided that a Grey County membership in OCTA would serve the widest number of businesses and communities in Grey (including the ACA and their members). The County has been “friends” with OCTA for years and we look forward to working even more closely with OCTA
Saints & Sinners Update
The Saints & Sinners: Bootlegger’s Run trail development continues, tying alcohol producers across the region through an agri-culinary trail. This year’s tagline is “Beer. Wine. Cider. History.”
Thanks in part to matching funds from the RTO7 Experience Development fund, we now have a branded 10x20’ event tent for use at events around the region. We also have 64oz growlers, glassware and tee shirts that will make their debut at the Saints & Sinners: Taste of the Trail event at Grey Roots Museum on June 12th. Maps will be available at the upcoming Brochure Swap on May 10th in Wiarton. The website (an RTO7 microsite through Partnership Funding) will launch in early June. For more information, contact Philly Markowitz at philly.markowitz@grey.ca or 519-376-3365 x6125.
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Some of you communicated concerns that the business mapping on the visitgrey.ca seemed incomplete. Previously, our website would only drop pins on the map for businesses that were currently in view. Since pages are limited to displaying 25 businesses at a time, if there were 100 businesses in a category, only those 25 pins corresponding to the listings on the current page would appear on the map, and map pins would change with each new page loaded.
We have made changes to our website so that ALL locations in the category appear on the map automatically. If you click on “Dining”, all 150 businesses will appear on the map, no matter what content you are viewing within a category. This will especially benefit all those businesses at the far end of the alphabet.
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