Extending tourist season on agenda: newly formed committee to develop marketing direction for East Georgian Bay. (Parry Sound: Special Report).

With the summer tourism season about to begin, the recently formed East Georgian Bay tourism committee is already starting to look ahead to summer 2003. The East Georgian Bay tourism committee was set up earlier this year with the help of the Parry Sound and Area Community and Business Development Centre and FedNor. It takes in the Georgian Bay coast from Port Severn to the French River/Killarney area.

Marty Peterson, hired to manage the committee on April 29, is becoming well entrenched in his new position. Over the summer, he and an assistant, to be hired soon, will work on organizing a marketing forum, expected to take place this fall.

"To the marketing forum, we will invite as many (tourist operators) as possible to help develop a marketing identity," says Peterson.

A marketing direction, which focuses on where to draw visitors from and how those markets will be approached from a marketing standpoint, will also be developed in the fall.

"The consultants have also offered to run a product-development workshop," he says. "So, instead of just being a July and August destination, we can focus on different types of events to bring people in the spring and fall."

Another central focus of the committee is to create a "strong identity that is different, exciting and more stand alone than what we've had in the past."

As for new events or attractions, one of Peterson's ideas to draw more tourism dollars to the area, is a driving tour in the spring for people to view Ontario's provincial flower.

"To everyone who lives here, trilliums are just flowers out in the bush. I'm not from here, and I've never been anywhere in the province where there are so many. But they're all gone by July and August when most people take their vacations here."

The main drawing areas for the East Georgian Bay tourism committee will be southern Ontario and the northeast United States.

Tourist operators will have an opportunity "buy into" the committee's activities, at whatever level they choose, Peterson says.

"If we do an advertising campaign, or go to do some trade shows, we will offer every partner a chance to buy in at a particular level depending on how much exposure they want to have," he says.

The buying-in factor is what Peterson and the committee members hope will make the committee a self-sufficient, not-for-profit organization. The cost to each partner, has not been determined and will depend on the type of campaign being done, Peterson says. Agencies set up to draw in tourists, and their money, are already set up in most communities in the East Georgian Bay region, including Parry Sound.

"Those things that are already in place, we are not going to go out and try to take them over and replace them. We want to incorporate them in what we do. We will market the services that are already here."

The main benefit of setting up a marketing body for such a vast and varied area is to increase the length of time that tourists stay.

"What you end up doing is extending the seasons of your operators, and extending the seasons of your stores and restaurants. If you can extend those things, you also increase the number of people who are employed for longer periods. That is what will make the overall economy stronger."