Mitch Calvert
Pearson back
as president
of NWOTA
The North Western Ontario Tourism Association and the Ontario Sunset Country Tourism Association will continue to serve their membership base with or without the help of the provincial government.
That was the message delivered to members at NWOTA’s annual spring meeting last Thursday in Nestor Falls in response to the Ontario Tourism Competitiveness Study, also known as the “Sorbara report” after chairman Greg Sorbara, which was released in late March.
The report recommended the restructuring of travel regions across the province—which would include amalgamating Sunset Country into a region stretching from the Manitoba border to Sault Ste. Marie under the new moniker of “Superior North.”
“Nothing is going to happen to Sunset Country even if they don’t play ball with us,” OSCTA executive director Gerry Cariou vowed Thursday. “If it jeopardizes the 30 percent of our budget funding we get from Ontario, we’ll still operate without that and still promote this area as Sunset Country.
“We will have to survive as an organization that is funded by its membership base,” Cariou added.
The report proposed the reduction of travel regions to just 11 province-wide, with a specific Destination Marketing and Management Organization (DMMO) being assigned for each one.
Executives of NWOTA, the OSCTA, and the Kenora District Camp Owners Association met with Ministry of Tourism reps last Wednesday, proposing a 12th region be added, using the OSCTA as the main DMMO for the area.
Sunset Country is the largest travel association in Ontario with 450 member businesses, and has a well-established model in place.
Tom Pearson, who was elected to a second stint as NWOTA president at Thursday’s meeting after Jerry Fisher stepped down, said some elements of the Sorbara report proposed positive changes for tourism in this area—notably when it came to improving infrastructure—but stressed abolishing the Sunset Country brand makes zero sense.
“We’re basically almost funding ourselves now anyway, and tourism ministers come and go,” noted Pearson, who owns Camp Narrow Lodge on Rainy Lake.
“They bring something in like this, but then two or three years later we have an election and they change everything again.
“We’ve seen these things before.
“Most of this plan is pretty good,” Pearson added. “The region [restructuring] is a sore spot, but by the sounds of it, they seemed to be receptive to our proposals [at the meeting], so we’ll see.
“We are almost 75 percent funded by membership and it’s been working for 35 years.
“No matter what they are doing, Sunset Country will always be there,” Pearson stressed.
Sorbara’s report also proposes regularizing Destination Marketing Fees (DMFs)—essentially a fee tacked on to a room rate—to help support regional marketing and management expenses.
NWOTA had a similar fee in place last summer, which went directly towards beefing up its print advertising efforts in the U.S. Midwest over the winter months.
On another note, several factors are working in the tourism industry’s favour heading into this summer’s season—with lower gas prices and a higher-valued U.S. dollar now in place.
“I’ve talked to quite a few different operators and some are doing all right and some are down a bit depending on where they are,” Pearson said. “But certainly [those factors] should be a good thing.”
But Pearson, who also has been elected president of the OSCTA, cautioned against too much optimism—with the border restrictions still being a major obstacle for tourism operators and municipalities in Northwestern Ontario.
“I don’t really get any surprises anymore because I give them the interrogation before they book,” Pearson mused. “I’m interrogating as they are trying to make a reservation, and when I book at hotels in other places, the last thing they ask me is whether I have a criminal record.
“But I have to do that to cover myself so that I avoid getting burned in the summer,” he lamented.
Pearson pointed to a specific example at his camp as a disturbing trend.
“Last year I had four deer hunters at almost $3,000 a pop, but one of them got a DUI [last] summer, so all four of them cancelled in the fall,” Pearson recalled. “They were driving from Michigan, and chances are they were going to get turned away, so they just didn’t come.
“In the end, we are still losing.”
“It’s not just tourist camps,” Pearson stressed. “We have websites that market every aspect of Northwestern Ontario, so the whole area is affected.”
