Without any discussions with tourist operators and cities across Ontario, seven Ontario Travel Information Centre (OTIC) sites will close on April 30.
While 181,000 American visitors cross the International Bridge at Fort Frances, they will see that Ontario really doesn’t value their financial contribution to the economy of Northwestern Ontario with the tourism office closure here.
Similarly, visitors arriving on the western doorstep of Ontario from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba will discover that the first really easy information site to reach is located 1,200 kilometres away in Sault Ste. Marie. They will have to travel across half of Ontario before they can find anything “to Discover” and will have missed attractions, accommodations, and vacation opportunities.
The province may focus their support on redeveloping its tourism website and call centre, the means to access the website across much of northern Ontario is limited, and cell service for callers to make calls to the call centre is limited and non-existent in much of Northwestern Ontario. The province may in the future expand its smart phone travel apps to provide information to travellers.
The province may say that they have an app to help people travel, but it is not available for smart phones and only works on iPads.
Technology may be something that will eventually be made available to replace the OTIC sites across Ontario, but it should be tested within Toronto first, since two sites—Toronto Atrium on Bay and Windsor Park—are in the most technologically-advanced Canadian city.
If technology can’t work in Toronto at present, how can it possibly work in Northwestern Ontario?
The province must rethink the OTIC closures in the Kenora-Rainy River riding and keep them open past April 30.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
