Wellington North has partnered with Minto and Hanover on a joint application to secure funding for a Tourism Growth Program grant.
Robyn Mulder, Economic Development Officer in Wellington North, says the three municipalities are working together to fund some initiatives that will help all three communities boost tourism. Mulder says one of those initiatives is an app.
"Driftscape, which is an app, and has been well received by many municipalities across Ontario. What it does is it helps small, rural communities share their stories to visitors and tourists. It's also interactive and you can put events on there, promotions on there, things like that," Mulder shared. "So you would have it on your mobile device, and say a tourist is coming from Toronto, they could go on Driftscape, and look at what we have. So they can actually make a tour plan of their day on a map. So that's one thing that we're gonna be looking into."
Another initiative is a cultural symposium this spring.
"It's our roundtable all coming together from our three communities, and we'll be discussing tourism opportunities, diversity and inclusion training, promoting the arts in rural and remote communities. So we'll be looking at all those and how we can support each other," added Mulder.
Also, the three communities will be joining Culture Days festivities, which Mulder says is already a big program across Canada.
"So we want to I guess piggyback on Culture Days and do a culture bus tour. That will take visitors and tourists to various events, art galleries and festivals. We haven't pinned down an exact date yet, but it'll be sometime during Culture Days, which runs September 20 to October 13," Mulder said.
Mulder adds the initiative to do this was driven by each municipality's respective cultural roundtable, which is a committee of each council.
"They've been active for many years and they will support and sustain these programs within our communities. I think that is huge, because you need to have a council that is open to culture and support it, and who back it with funds, as well. It's so important," noted Mulder.
Mulder says they've applied for $40,000. Wellington North is putting up $10,000, with Minto and Hanover each putting in $5,000 to fund the programs alongside the grant.
