Destination Development Action Plan

The Action Plan Framework

The goal of the GCT Destination Development Action Plan is to increase sustainable tourism revenues through managing & marketing Grey County as a tourism destination. The GCT Tourism Action Plan is based on 5 pillars supporting this goal, as follows:

The Action Plan addresses the first four pillars, which have the following objectives:

Roles & Responsibilities Pillar  

·         Encourage communication and partnering with and among tourism stakeholders

·         Increase efficiency and effectiveness of tourism partners’ roles in destination development

Market Research & Tracking

·         Develop a comprehensive market research and tracking system for Grey County to support marketing efforts

·         Provide information on key visitor markets and trends for the industry

Demand Generators and Product Market Match

·         Identify key tourism demand generators

·         Facilitate the expansion of key demand generators and complimentary experiences

Destination Positioning

·         Recommend positioning and branding for GCT

Input to the Action Plan

The Action Plan was prepared with guidance from GCT and input from a wide variety of tourism partners, municipal stakeholders, visitors and residents through:     

• Five regional stakeholder workshops in 2008/ 09
   
• Three Roles and Responsibilities workshops held with 25 representatives of municipalities, business improvement areas, and chambers of commerce in Hanover, Thornbury and Owen Sound (2010) (Appendix B)
   
• A Demand Generators workshop with 13 tourism partners, representing attractions, festivals, events and parks. (2010) (Appendix I) 
   
• Depth interviews with representatives of the key demand generators (2010)
   
• Telephone interviews with a sample of 14 accommodations, 9 attractions and 9 events (2010)
   
• Conference call and telephone interviews with members of the Grey County Tourism Committee and the Grey County Chief Administrative Officer (2010)
   
• A summer visitor survey was undertaken in the summer of 2009, and an online survey of residents and visitors was undertaken in the winter of 2010
   
• The Action Plan was presented to industry stakeholders in late May, 2010 with suggestions made for some aspects of implementation (Appendix M)
   

Outcomes of the Action Plan

• Preparing the Action Plan was a positive collaborative experience that brought municipalities, BIAs, Chambers, businesses and a wide variety of other organizations together to identify both the strengths and weaknesses of tourism in Grey County, identify opportunities to work together and discuss the role that GCT could most effectively play to fill gaps in tourism marketing and destination development.

• GCT now has recommendations to guide its actions over the next three years, within its four major areas of responsibility: leadership, research, demand generators and marketing (summarized in Section 2).

• GCT has new “Tools in its Toolbox” for its areas of responsibility.