Business Retention and Expansion Final Report - City of Brantford

93qualitative feedback was also collected which can assist in creating the context and perceptions for the currentcommunity landscape. Both the County of Brant Economic Development & Tourism staff as well as the Two RiversCommunity Development provided direct input to the formulation of the questions. The tourism questions in this sectionasked for input on demand generators for the area, infrastructure needs, customer demographics, catalysts for foottraffic, and the issue of branding and overall service delivery by tourism offices in the area.The tourism sector respondents stated the Six Nations community had the highest percentage of revenue received fromvisitor spending at over 51% followed by New Credit at 45% County of Brant at 37% and City of Brantford at 33%. Ofthose that rely on visitor spending 53% are indicating an increase since 911(September 11, 2001). The data collectedalso indicates that tourism development is needed in the areas of more attractions and accommodation facilities andstronger marketing/promotions efforts are needed. Respondents also indicated the desire for a strong identifiable brandto support marketing efforts.The Downtown Brantford Business Improvement Area’s Community Questions focused on the organizational services,and how to advance the downtown district. Overall the planning and implementation of projects was ranked the highest(82%) and the need to be responsive to the membership’s inquiries and requests (88%). Respondents also indicatedthat the BIA should focus their efforts on community economic development projects as one of their key areas ofresponsibility as well as the coordination of BIA sponsored events. One of the key areas of effort for the BIA as indicatedin the survey result is advocacy and the need to form stronger partnerships with the area’s tourism sector. The threemost important hurdles to overcome in the downtown district were cited as the current image of the core (40%),followed by parking concerns (22%) and the condition of public spaces (17%).Some of these highlights from the survey data collected were used as the basis for the structuring of the strategicactions for both the tourism sector in the community and the Downtown Brantford Business Improvement Area. It ishoped that the participation and community engagement efforts that resulted from the surveying process would beused along with the information gathered in both sectors by stakeholders and decision-makers to improve and grow therelationship between businesses, organizations, and the community; build a positive business/organization environmentfor success; create opportunities to grow cooperation amongst a variety of community partners local businesses/organizations municipal government, and small business; and to assist the municipality in developing a long termstrategy and vision for community-based economic development.Finally, it is important to note that with the eventual implementation of the 14 strategic actions from this inauguralBR+E program for the tourism sector and the Downtown Brantford BIA should be considered as the foundation for thisstrategic approach to improve the health of the local economy by the creation of jobs; improve business andcommunity competitiveness; and ensure effective communication. These actions for both sectors are the building blocksto effect positive change that the voice of the community has identified through the process that involves capacitybuilding, training and networking; implementation of business supports and making meaningful connections to thecommunity; infrastructure needs; business development and improving the growth and assessment of the area; andservice delivery in order to better meet the needs of the community and in the case of the BIA the membership.