View - The Municipality of Lambton Shores

External marketing includes a major overhaul of the website and the travel guide.
75,000 travel guides were published, 44,000 have been distributed through South
Western Ontario, GTA, Michigan. Some marketing is targeted direct markets on
specific demographics such as international travellers who would likely have a passport
as they tend to stay longer and spend more than domestic travellers. The store front
presence would not be as productive as Grand Bend as T.S.L. is only open during
regular business hours and it is not located near a tourist attraction, so most support is
offered through phone, mail and email. Home Depot has also assisted with the
installation of freestanding information boards such as the one outside The Shores.
While at a recent meeting held by the South Western Ontario Tourism Corporation
(S.W.O.T.C), Mr Kern learned that there are five levels of hierarchy with specific logos
and sayings.
1. Canada: focuses their efforts to bring tourists from the UK now.
2. Yours to Discover: focuses to have people within Ontario to travel within Ontario,
also try to bring tourists from mainly Quebec, Manitoba and near US, New York, Ohio,
and Michigan.
3. Shaped by Nature: has 77 billboards within Ontario, some in Michigan and Ohio.
Their goal is to double economic tourism impact within the province by 2025
4. No specific logo: Tourism Sarnia Lambton Blue Water Country
5. Storefront: Such as Grand Bend tourism building offering direct visitor services
According to S.W.O.T.C tourism is the secondary industry after manufacturing, etc. is
exhausted. This means that our area is in competition with every other municipality. It
can’t be a one off effort, it must be continuous, a growing and sustained effort to offer a
new experience every time a tourist returns.
TSL has renewed its leadership, management and been given a renew mandate and
support by county council. Mr. Kern believes that TSL is on the right track engaged
with the tourism industry members in Lambton Shores and contributing to the growth of
the tourism industry across Lambton County. There 14000 tourist partners across the
county and mass emails can be sent out to the partners upon request for events,
festivals and attractions.
Mr. Kern can offer direction to the templates for tourism, agriculture and sports for
example.
Research and development does not have a budget, so duplicating is one of the few
options. The research is generally from a provincial or federal level, so it’s difficult to
determine how it applies to Lambton Shores. Advertising to London and Kitchener-
Waterloo includes direct mail and brochures. Recent tracking efforts have indicated that
website hits are often from South Western Ontario, Ohio, Michigan and lingering
response from efforts with S.L.E.P. within GTA. There are partnerships and ongoing
exchange of information with other areas such as Huron, Chatham-Kent, Windsor-
Essex, etc. There are intentions to have a biking tour extend into Lambton Shores area
in the future.
30