Tourism as a centrepiece for development
Martin Lacelle, directeur de Tourisme Prescott-Russell (TPRT), est venu présenter les efforts de son organisation lors du Sommet des affaires rurales qui a eu lieu au Collège d’Alfred les 22 et 23 mars. Plus de 1,3 million de personnes ont visité la région l’an passé et ont généré près de 85 M$. Pas moins de 88 % des entreprises membres de TPRT disent avoir été positivement affectées par les activités de promotion de TPRT. La dernière campagne marketing, lancée tout récemment, met en vedette nulle autre que Katherine Levac, humoriste native de Saint-Bernardin.—photo Martin Lacelle, director of Prescott-Russell Tourism, presented the organization’s accomplishments and the status of tourism in the region. At the end of the presentation, it was clear that tourism is a force to be reckoned with for the economic development of Prescott-Russell as a whole.
It was during the Rural Business Summit, held at the Alfred College on March 22, that Martin Lacelle took the stand as one of the main speakers of the event. With an annual budget of $687,000, including 250,000 coming directly from the UCPR, Martin Lacelle managed to tackle the difficult task of gaining visibility for Prescott-Russell Tourism (PRT) on social media. But before their social media blitz, many events that are already a success in the region have already generated substantial revenues.
“This year we believed that since we have a hard time finding data on tourism in Prescott-Russell, it was time to collect or find that data. The numbers we are presenting are real numbers from business members,” said Martin Lacelle during his presentation. “When it comes to festivals, like the Curd Festival in St-Albert, the Hawkesbury Bike Fest or smaller events like the Western Festivals, together these events generated $3.2 million per year. That’s 130,000 festival goers coming to our area.”
Bigger businesses like Beau’s All-Natural Brewery, the Calypso water park and the St-Albert Cheese Factory attract people, more than 1.3 million people to be exact, from all over, but also help promote smaller businesses in the area. Tourism generated around $85 million in the region last year, according to businesses which are members of Prescott-Russell Tourism.
“In total, 88 per cent of our members acknowledged that the activities of Prescott-Russell Tourism had a direct impact on their sales. Many businesses confirmed that a quarter of their new clients came to their commerce because of one of our many informational tools available. In other words, our members gained around $2 million because of our operations.”
Even though these numbers are great for a region of 80 000 residents, Lacelle and his team have launched an online marketing campaign with the help of Katherine Levac, the St-Bernardin native comedian. The campaign consists of witty short videos of Levac going around various landmark locations and businesses.