Area business owners and others with an interest in boosting tourist traffic got brainstorming about how to do just that last Thursday when the Downtown Core Committee hosted the “Great Canadian Experience” marketing workshop.
“What the Downtown Core Committee is trying to do is get anyone who’s in local business together and work in a concerted effort,” member Alan Tibbetts said to the 20 people representing local businesses, camps, and visitor-related services, like the museum and Ontario Tourist Centre, that came out to the Adventure Inn that evening.
“The main idea is to sell our town and develop the retail and service sector,” he added.
Geoff Gillon, economic development officer with the Rainy River Future Development Corp., noted most U.S. tourists don’t differentiate between Fort Frances, Northwestern Ontario, or Ontario—they want to got to “Canada.”
Hence, this area should be marketed as the “Great Canadian Experience”—a concept stemming out of the Downtown Core Committee study—and clearly make tourists that come over the border aware of where they are and give them reasons to stop and stay here.
“From Fort Frances’ point of view, we’re the first community that tourists see when they come to Canada,” said Gillon.
He noted marketing efforts using the tagline “Great Canadian Experience” already are happening—appearing on the large signs on the lap building at the border, as well as on a billboard 10 km out of International Falls and another in Ray, Mn.
This is in addition to advertising campaigns and promotional materials, like the recently-published “Discover” visitors’ guide. There’s also now a website at www.greatcanadianexperience.com
“[The ‘Great Canadian Experience’] is not something we want to railroad people with. We want people to accept it. It’s an inclusive approach,” stressed Gillon.
“‘Great Canadian Experience’ can mean anything you want. But it’s got to have group acceptance.”
Gillon noted the “Great Canadian Main Street” signs erected on the 100 block of Scott Street and near the water treatment plant last year also tie into the marketing, adding the signs give the downtown area businesses “a goal to achieve, a goal to strive for.”
Following a presentation by Steve Piragis, a business owner from Ely, Mn. who spoke about how his town went from a mining community to a retail-based tourist destination, those attending the workshop went into break-out groups to address four questions.
When asked what is needed to become more competitive with the rest of the world, answers included:
•centralized marketing because too many groups are trying to do things separately (possibly combining the Chamber of Commerce and BIA);
•getting the Town of Fort Frances on board, to contribute money for marketing as well as creating incentives for new businesses to start up/current businesses to stay open in the downtown core;
•improving the “bad reputation” our border has with U.S. tourists, and improving customer service from Customs officers; and
•providing destination attractions.
When asked what businesses can do to help the town become more competitive, answers provided included:
•using the “Great Canadian Experience” slogan when advertising;
•joining the Chamber of Commerce;
•improving customer service;
•having more cross-promotion between businesses;
•pooling money to maximize marketing;
•having more community festivals; and
•providing more to do (tours and activities) with a focus on the “clean, green, and safe” environment of Rainy River District.
When asked if tourism affects their businesses, and how should Fort Frances be advertised, all agreed tourism either directly or indirectly affects their business, and provided the following marketing ideas:
•“thinking big” when marketing the area, possibly even advertising abroad on television/radio/Internet, or hiring a consultant;
•having the “Great Canadian Experience” promoted at trade shows in U.S.;
•co-operative marketing of Borderland;
•having a very large Canadian flag flying in the downtown area;
•making available to anyone a CD-ROM with images and information regarding local businesses and attractions; and
•making an effort to provide more choice to tourists, whether it’s different kinds of retail items or wider variety of restaurants.
When asked if they supported a single, town-wide marketing plan to promote all businesses in the area, all seemed to agree, adding the Town of Fort Frances must be a partner and the effort should be spearheaded by the Chamber of Commerce.
Downtown Core Committee chair Gary Rogozinski said yesterday the committee will compile the recommendations from Thursday’s workshop for future use.
“We’re in the process of summarizing everything. We’re going to meet again shortly to go over our next steps and go forward,” he remarked.
Rogozinski clarified that Fort Frances town council passed a motion in late March to remove its councillors from the Downtown Core Committee and revoke its status as a sub-committee of the Economic Development Advisory Committee—leaving the group to exist as an ad hoc committee not affiliated with the town.
“We were kind of disappointed. But the downtown core is a really important issue to the community, and all the people on this Downtown Core Committee are pretty anxious to push it forward,” he said.
“We’re going to move on with it. And if we have issues, we’re going to go to the town to support some of those recommendations,” added Rogozinski.
He noted the “Re-Inventing Fort Frances” committee also became an ad hoc committee back in 2003 after its report was completed, and several of its key members went on to be part of the Downtown Core Committee.
“We’re pushing some of the issues that were in the ‘Re-Inventing’ study, that we raised again. There were similarities with the Downtown Core Committee recommendations.
“We’re going to see some of these through to completion,” he vowed.
Rogozinski did note there was one sour note to Thursday’s marketing workshop.
“It was kind of disappointing there was nobody from the town council there to show their support for the business community. It was a pretty obvious vacancy,” he remarked.
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