Report seeks tourism marketing changes

Michael Kurts, assistant deputy minister of tourism for Ontario, spoke about the Sorbara report at the annual Resorts of Ontario annual convention March 30.

ORILLIA, ON—A special report on tourism in Ontario calls for the province to be divided into a group of well-defined tourism regions, each caring for and marketing its own attractions, with one central umbrella organization overseeing the province as a whole.
This would take away from the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership the role of principal organization selling Ontario to visitors.

The Ontario government has set up a $40-million fund to be portioned out to such regions, starting on July 1 next year.

The report on tourism says that operators should be prepared to help pay for the increased marketing and management expenses for the new regions with a standardized destination marketing fee. In different municipalities such a charge is now tacked onto guest bills in lodging establishments, and the money goes into local tourism marketing funds.

The development of tourism regions and establishment of a standardized destination marketing fee are two of 20 recommendations from the Ontario Tourism Competitiveness Study, a document the government of Ontario is now considering as it develops a strategy for increasing the long-term flow of tourism dollars into the province.

Released in February this year, the study was the work of a team led by Greg Sorbara, MPP for Vaughan and former provincial finance minister.

The team toured the province to speak with industry stakeholders and the public. Also, 13 formal public consultation meetings were held, almost 200 written or online submissions were received and 13 studies were commissioned, looking at issues ranging from global trends to the impact of festivals on the economy.

The study concluded that the tourism regions should be formed, each with two organizations running them, one for marketing and the other for management.
It also calls for a single association to represent the entire tourism industry, saying, “It should reflect the diversity of the industry across the province.”

The study has proposed boundaries for 10 regions which will be discussed at future meetings. At the same time the province is hiring a company to work with the industry to develop the different tourism areas.

Assistant deputy minister of tourism Michael Kurts told the annual Resorts of Ontario Convention on March 30 that besides the $40 million earmarked for the new regions, the province has also budgeted $40–45 million to spruce up attractions runs by the province, including Fort Henry, Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and Fort William Historic Park.

At the same time, the province is following up on another financial recommendation from the study. It is working to attract private sector investment in tourism businesses.

The government is also considering a recommendation that it should help support loans or loan guarantees to small and medium size tourism operators who say that lack of access to capital is one of their big problems. “This was an issue in the tourism industry before it became an issue across the economy in Canada,” said Kurts.

Another problem that tourism operators made clear is the way rules and regulations pose barriers to doing business—things such as alcohol and water quality regulations. Kurts said the government is looking at ways to reduce such barriers.

An important issue the province must deal with, said Kurts, is access to broadband Internet service throughout the province. This is necessary because many travellers now book accommodations on the Web. Fifty per cent of Americans do this.

The Ontario Tourism Competitiveness Study is available at www.tourismstudy.ca.