Local hotels ramp up holiday tourism offers
If you’re not looking forward to your in-laws visiting or pumping up that old air mattress, Tourism Windsor Essex is giving you an out this holiday season.
“We all love family time but there’s only so much of it you can take over the holidays,” Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island CEO Gordon Orr said Tuesday. “And that’s why we think you’re best suited to put up your family and friends that are visiting from out of town in a hotel this year.”
Tourism Windsor Essex launched its first Home For The Holidays campaign Tuesday at the Best Western Plus Waterfront Hotel on Riverside Drive.
Fifteen local hotels are offering discounts or special deals during the holidays.
“As everyone gears up for the holidays, we know the inevitable is coming. Uncomfortable nights on the floor, fold-out couches, blow up mattresses and of course a collapsible futon,” Orr said to open a news conference.
The campaign, a first for the region, is a great way to boost the local economy and hotels during a traditionally slow period and get your own bed, bathroom and quiet back at the end of the day, Orr said. One of the tongue-in-cheek posters for the campaign advertises an “In-law Free Zone” and peace and quiet.
Tourism Windsor Essex is spending about $30,000 to advertise the Home for the Holidays campaign in Sarnia, London and the GTA. The No. 1 visitor market has always been visiting friends and relatives, Orr said.
People can look for discounts, a number of hotels are offering 15 per cent off, or special packages by visiting yqgfortheholidays.ca. There are a few hotels in Essex County participating too.
Over the last few years, local hotels have invested more than $76 million in renovations and new flags or chain hotels have opened, which help attract out-of-town visitors through the chain’s loyalty programs, Orr said.
The five downtown hotels, including Caesars Windsor, have all had renovations in the last three to five years and most of them are new franchises, Orr said. Downtown hotels that have switched brands include the newly opened Four Points by Sheraton at Ouellette Avenue and Park Street, the Holiday Inn Express and the Best Western Waterfront Plus on Riverside Drive, and the Towneplace Suites by Marriott at 250 Dougall Avenue, the city’s first Marriott hotel, he said.
The former Radisson Hotel on Riverside Drive West next to the Best Western Waterfront Plus is being renovated into a luxury Doubletree by Hilton.
Brian Yeomans, business development manager for FHC (Farhi
Holdings Corporation) Hotels and Resorts, said Doubletree by Hilton is expected to open in early 2020 after $20 million to $25 million in renovations. That amount was not included in the $76 million worth of renovations other Windsor hotels had undergone in the last few years.
On Tuesday, Tourism Windsor Essex also launched My Trip digital itinerary planning software at mytrip.visitwindsoressex.com. You can customize your own visit or get ideas from suggested itineraries such as one from Lasalle football player Luke Willson or an Instagram favourites tour.