Efforts to boost tourism in Sarnia-Lambton have gone digital with a new mobile app that offers a points incentive.
Tourism Sarnia-Lambton recently launched Tour Ontario’s Blue Coast app.
The app is free to download and acts as a tool to highlight various beaches and businesses. Customers can collect 10 points every time they attend a participating business. Once 100 points are collected, they can be redeemed into a $10 gift certificate.
Tourism Executive Director Mark Perrin said the app has been in the works for approximately six months.
"It's a very important new marketing initiative. We find that with a lot of the apps it also opens the opportunity for different demographics that aren't [using] traditional media or different things so it allows a little more of a digital approach," he said. "It just creates another avenue to get the wording and messaging out about all that Sarnia-Lambton has to offer."
Perrin said about 150 locations were added to the app to start but more will be loaded with time.
He also said the app could come in handy as residents and business operators prepare for Step Three of the province's Roadmap to Reopen Plan.
"It's a really good tie-in with what tourism does and what Economic Development does," said Perrin. "It's another feature that really takes away the boundaries of the area so when a tourist comes they want to see the whole area and not so much one municipality over another. This is just a great way that showcases the whole region together and how important working together in a collaborative method is."
To redeem points from the app, users will need to visit the Tourism Sarnia-Lambton Information Centre, located at 1455 Venetian Blvd. in Point Edward.
