Happy Spring!
I recently attended two industry events. One hosted by the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO) and one hosted by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC). Both organizations are dedicated to ensuring that decision-makers across all levels of government ACTUALLY understand the impact visitors (domestic and international) have on the economy. As you know, this is easier said than done because the money and taxes associated with visitor spending is spread across tens of thousands of businesses and organizations rather than with a few mega-conglomerates. But they keep fighting the good fight, and are doing a great job of talking with stakeholders to better understand where the biggest gaps are.
At the TIAO event, the morning session was dedicated to discussing the Municipal Accommodations Tax (MAT) and how, through proper implementation, it can be leveraged successfully to grow regional visitation. And the word “regional” is key because visitors to an area don’t differentiate between neighbouring municipalities. People who visit Markham for a badminton tournament are not tied to spending all of their time and money in Markham. And, in fact, if Markham doesn’t showcase a critical mass of attractions (both in Markham and surrounding areas) that will engage the participants, there is a good chance that they will lose the bid to host the event in the first place.
Not a single presentation about successful best practices for MAT delivery was made by a Municipal Services Corporation, whose only “stakeholder” is the municipal council rather than the hundreds of businesses that rely on visitors for part of their income. It was a very interesting discussion and I got the feeling that the political staffers heard the message loud and clear – the industry needs to determine the best course forward for continued growth and success.
Destination Ontario then presented their finding regarding visitor intention in 2025 – both domestically and from the U.S. And the results were very positive for Ontario, and I believe our region specifically. The report shows that 87% of Ontarians plan on taking an overnight vacation in Ontario in 2025. In addition, far fewer people are planning a trip to the U.S. this year. Here is our advantage. 50% of Ontario’s population lives in the GTHA which means that we are still going to benefit from all of the people looking to get away just for the day to do something new and fun. But the other 50% of Ontarian’s don’t live in the GTHA, which means that we have an opportunity to capture some of those visitors for a vacation in our region or as part of their plans to visit Toronto and Niagara Falls.
There are very few locations in our area that are big enough on their own to break through the communications noise and motivate travel. All of us will be more successful when we work together to tell stories that speak to various travel types. This means banding together – businesses, municipalities, regions, CCT – to showcase what already exists, but in a way that strikes a nerve with potential visitors. For example, there are many fantastic heritage and municipal museums across our region. There are also thousands and thousands of people that are motivated to travel to learn about history and culture. Instead of Uxbridge promoting theirs, and King Township promoting theirs and Dufferin County promoting theirs, etc., we should collectively communicate the breadth and depth of history and culture available throughout the region.
We can work together to make suggested multi-day itineraries that has visitors exploring our downtowns, shopping and dining between their stops at the various museums. We can give options for overnights from glamping to B&B’s to 5-star hotels. We then target those in Ontario who are predisposed to travel because of heritage and culture and motivate them to travel. The same can be done for family fun, creating a myriad of itineraries that feature our attractions, family agritourism locations, outdoor adventure places, etc. And for people who love nature, or art, etc.
The key here is that the stories are big, the itineraries are robust and can fill multiple days (or just one for our very important day traveller), and the content and experiences are built for a very specific, targeted audience. With these ingredients, we can cut through the noise and create a myriad of reasons for the nearly 90% of Ontarians wanting to take a vacation in Ontario to choose our region. But CCT can’t do it alone. We need the businesses to understand the concept of “coopetition” and be okay promoting other businesses and organization that deliver a similar experience. We need the municipalities to be okay with promoting things to do that are outside their municipal boundaries. We need our regions to be okay with working together to send visitors to other places, because when the tide rises, all the boats go up.
Central Counties Tourism is doing the same thing when it comes to our more general communications. We understand that for many visitors, spending time in Toronto and/or Niagara Falls is a “must do” on their vacations. Instead of fighting that, or competing against it, we want to focus on a narrative that gets them thinking about adding time in our region as part of their holiday. If they have a week, let’s try to get them for two days. If they are coming from far away, let’s get them to use our region as the hub for their daily adventures – regardless of where those adventures take them. We want people to know how close we are situated to some of the things they want to see and do outside of our region, not solely focus on what we have to offer. What this does is put us on the radar as a fantastic add-on to some of the things they have their heart set on. We capture part of an audience who are not motivated to travel because of what we offer, but because we provide additional experiences they didn’t know about.
CCT will be working with the stakeholders across several segments in the coming months to create the foundations of these bigger tours. That has always been the easy part of development because businesses understand the benefits of working together. We will also be working with our municipal and DMO partners to determine how best to drive local visitation through regional communications. I am very hopeful and optimistic that we will be able to gain support and traction for this concept as we are already seeing these imaginary lines between municipalities come down to support joint initiatives. Our job as CCT is to help municipal staff educate council about the visitor mindset and the benefits of looking beyond their borders. We are making headway and I believe it will continue to get easier to collaborate across the region.
That’s my long-winded way of saying here’s to a great 2025 and CCT is going to do everything we can to make sure it is!
Chuck
P.S. The AVTR1 program is up and running!! I am looking for ten organizations to work with me to ensure that all of the manuals and supports make the process of creating your own experience enhancer simple and hassle-free. If you want to be one of the first organizations to implement it, please email me directly at cthibeault@centralcounties.ca.
