TOURISM GETS $500K BOOST
Funding helps five cancelled events
The hard-hit local tourism industry got a boost Monday with the announcement of more than $500,000 in provincial funding to bolster regional marketing and five local events that were cancelled this year because of COVID-19.
“We recognize it is going to be a challenge to get people travelling across this province and welcoming them to this province, post COVID-19,” said Lisa Macleod, minister of heritage, sport, tourism and culture industries, during a news conference at Coventry Gardens in front of the Charlie Brooks Memorial Peace Fountain.
In an “effort to encourage homegrown tourism and talent,” Macleod said, the government has earmarked $532,000 “to support initiatives in Windsor and the surrounding areas to promote our communities and put our tourism industry on a path to recovery.”
To that end, $182,000 will flow through the Celebrate Ontario program, to support Liuna Blues Fest Windsor, The Island Unplugged Music Festival on Pelee Island, Mill Street Market’s monthly night market in Leamington, Windsor International Film Festival and Hogs for Hospice motorcycle rally fundraiser, all of which will not proceed this year, the minister announced.
Another $350,000 will be invested in the Regional Tourism Organization Ontario Southwest, which encompasses Windsor to Haldimand County on the Niagara peninsula.
Gordon Orr, CEO of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island, said his group works with the regional organization on a regular basis and will be able to utilize the additional funding to “augment our messaging.”
“(Tourism was) hit first and hit the hardest and will take the longest to recover,” Orr said. “We have to build consumer confidence.”
Calling it the summer of the “staycation,” he said their marketing efforts will focus on reminding residents of the many local tourism attractions, restaurants and wineries they can explore.
“If you can venture out in your own backyard and retreat back to your home, you’re not having the cost of the overnight (stay),” Orr said. “We have to get the economy moving to allow people to have that discretionary spending to do so.”
“We’re focusing on hyper-local initiatives,” Macleod said. “Having Ontarians reconnect with their neighbours in their own communities and visiting some of their cultural and tourist attractions that they may not have done in years.”
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens applauded Macleod, who he jokingly referred to as “the minister of everything fun in this province,” adding she is “well-versed in the challenges faced in this region” with the sudden closure of Caesars Windsor and the Canada-u.s. border.
“In our area, it’s been a real struggle,” Dilkens said. “(We want to) help make sure that when we do start, when that new normal comes about, that we are ready to go, that our region is ready to go, that the businesses can thrive. They’ve been surviving but we want them to thrive.”
Asked when Caesars Windsor, the region’s biggest tourism employer, will be able to reopen, Macleod said she didn’t have that answer.
“At the moment, casinos have not been green-lit by the chief medical officer of health,” the minister said. “We continue to take his advice on the reopening of economies and businesses.”
Macleod also wouldn’t say if casinos will be included in the province’s Stage 3 opening.
“We haven’t released what will be in Stage 3. I know that we want to continue to see the numbers (of COVID-19 cases) in the province go down.
“Obviously we had an outbreak this past weekend with more testing and a couple of localized areas around this part (of the province) but by and large it looks like we’re moving in a really good direction as a province as a whole and the city now as well,” she said. “We’ll continue to monitor that.”