A renewed purpose for APRA

MONCTON—Call it the new and improved Atlantic Provinces Restaurant Association.
While the APRA has been around for 10 years, the organization has a renewed purpose with the Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island restaurant associations, plus the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick officially under its umbrella.
 
Just before the ApEx foodservice trade show in Moncton last month, the APRA launched its eDining website for Newfoundland and Labrador. Mirroring the content of the Nova Scotia version, the site has 721 listings for every restaurant in the province along with a paid members feature section complete with a picture, description of the restaurant, links and contact names.
 
The New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island editions are expected to be up and running this month. Job listings, recipes, industry links and resources complete the site’s offerings.

In November 2007, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency invested nearly $200,000 in the web expansion project to boost culinary tourism in region.
Bringing Savour Food and Wine shows to every province in Atlantic Canada are also part of the plan.

Louis Wilby (left), an APRA board member and general manager of Moncton’s Future Inn, said the organization wants to bring all members together to develop a set of best practices for the industry.

“Anytime you are able to exchange ideas with other operators benefits everyone. Because everyone is in different regions, you are not cannibalizing everybody’s business,” Wilby said.

Neither the APRA nor the CRFA foresee a conflict among the organizations as the former is focused on marketing while the latter is more into lobbying government.
“I think we complement each other,” Wilby said.

“We are two different organizations that do two different things,” said APRA board chair Carl Nicholson, pointing out that members of the APRA board are also on the CRFA board and vice versa.

The CRFA’s Atlantic vice-president Luc Erjavec said the only problem he sees is that the CRFA and the APRA could now be fighting for the same restaurant members.
Nicholson said the organization’s goal with the Savour shows is to concentrate on marketing the entire restaurant industry in Atlantic Canada.
 
“We’re trying to drive business into the restaurants,” he said.

The St. John’s show was held at the Delta hotel on April 17 and attended by 350 people tasting the best of the province’s food and drink.

“Eating, drinking and socializing is what Savour is all about,” said Jennifer Barbour, president of RANL.

“The term ‘mingle-licious’ was used to describe the show by a consumer at one of the original shows and we feel that is a perfect definition for Savour.”

In Moncton, more than 50 booths and over 300 attendees packed the room at the Delta Beausejour hotel on May 1 for the inaugural New Brunswick event. Dinner came prepared by 25 of the province’s best restaurants, served with wine selections presented by 17 experts.
 
In 2009, Prince Edward Island residents get their chance to Savour food from local restaurants along with Island-made wine, beer and spirits.