Tourism Roundtable Report Completed

In March, 2012 City Council directed the Orillia Economic Development Committee to work with the Orillia Hotel Association to engage a facilitator to consult with Orillia and area tourism stakeholders to discuss the delivery of tourism promotion services.

BrainTrust Marketing and Communications was retained to work with the roundtable to facilitate discussions of opportunities for roundtable members to work more effectively to enhance tourism service delivery and marketing of Orillia and Area.

BrainTrust facilitated a two-part, one-day session to assist in the development of a marketing and partnership model for the delivery of tourism services for Orillia and Area and prepare a summary report with recommendations.  A copy of the report is attached.

Among the key recommendations in the report are:

- That Orillia and Area tourism stakeholders embrace Ontario’s Lake Country as the official Destination marketing Organization;

- That Lake Country focus over the next 12 months on ensuring that its brand is relevant to Orillia and Area tourism stakeholders, and consider using an “Orillia and Lake Country” approach in the short to mid-term;

- That a Tourism Roundtable Task Force work to consolidate the activities of tourism organizations within the area with a goal of reinforcing the on-task activities and eliminating off-task activities of Ontario’s Lake Country and other tourism stakeholder organizations;

- That the Orillia and District Chamber of Commerce embrace and reinforce the Lake Country brand to visitors;

- That the City of Orillia, as the center and the home of the majority of the tourism infrastructure, should increase its financial contribution to become a lead funding partner in destination marketing and development, and increase the level of human resource support to Lake Country to boost opportunities for destination development.

For more information about this artical and/or other EDC projects,
please contact the Orillia Economic Development office
at 705-325-4900 or edc@orillia.ca 
or visit our web page.

Attachments

• Roundtable Summary Report