Durham Tourism
Industry
Report
Connecting, engaging and informing Durham Tourism's valued stakeholders
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New branding for Durham Tourism
New Durham Tourism branding was recently approved at Regional Council. A full brand launch will take place later in 2020. The
Durham Tourism brand was last developed in 2006. This new brand considers the value proposition and core messaging: Durham Region is a dynamic destination to discover, offering urban excitement alongside country charm.
The colours are updated to reflect the urban excitement of the Region through the vibrant hues of coral, chartreuse and teal, while the country charm and heritage of Durham Region is reflected through denim blue and warm beige.
The brand has been designed to be versatile and includes icons and graphic applications that are brand-aligned for various uses. These uses include marketing materials such as advertisements, merchandise, promotional materials, or tourism guides.
In addition, they offer an ability for the brand to be adopted by the various vibrant communities in Durham Region. These graphical applications will be developed to capitalize on pride of place and to enhance the ability of communities within Durham Region to be ambassadors for the Durham Tourism brand.
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Canada Day the
Durham Way
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Residents and visitors are invited to join an uplifting, virtual celebration of our amazing community by tuning in to Canada Day the Durham Way on
July 1.
From 2 to 5 p.m., this collaborative event—in co-operation with the Region of Durham and all eight local-area municipalities—will highlight unique attractions and talents that drive our vibrant arts and culture scene.
Come together as a community—while practising social distancing—by tuning in to this first-of-its-kind, virtual Canada Day celebration. The event will be available on Durham Tourism’s Facebook Live with a watch party shared through each municipal Facebook page, as well as on Rogers Television.
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Register your business on Ontario Live
Ontario is working with industry and agency partners to launch
Ontario Live — a new virtual hub designed to promote and support the province’s tourism and cultural industries. This initiative, developed in collaboration with industry partners and leaders, will provide support for Ontario’s culture and tourism industries and help to mitigate the economic toll of the COVID-19 outbreak on Ontario’s artists, creators and attractions.
Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries held a stakeholder telephone town hall to announce the province’s launch of Ontario Live which is available online at
www.ontario.live.
This initiative shares with Ontarians inspiring and uplifting culture and tourism content by working with industry stakeholders to keep consumers engaged and ready to travel again when it is safe to do so.
When complete, Ontario Live will allow all Ontarians to access concerts, online art experiences, gallery and museum tours, virtual tourism experiences and much more, from the safety of their own homes. It will continue to evolve to support COVID-19 recovery efforts for the tourism and culture industries.
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COVID-19:
Recovery Planning Free Webinar
The COVID-19 Pandemic has launched economic developers into uncharted territories.
In this webinar, Aileen Murray and Kate Burns Gallagher will talk about planning and mobilizing a response to COVID-19. The webinar will include examples of the innovative ways that communities are adapting and evolving their efforts to support local businesses and rebuild the local economy.
June 25 -
2 – 3:15 p.m.
Cost: FREE
Another Free Webinar in the COVID-19 Series by University of Waterloo/EDAC.
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Tourism HR Canada has launched the COVID-19 Tourism Workforce Impact Survey to help shape recovery efforts and ensure they are providing targeted, useful, and timely resources to tourism businesses across the country.
The research will assist Tourism HR Canada in making policy and program recommendations specific to addressing workforce needs during and post COVID-19.
The consolidated data and analysis will be made available to all participating organizations.
The survey will be live until
June 26
.
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Community Reopening Toolkit
As Ontario begins to reopen the economy, we encourage all Durham Region residents and businesses to review the information in this Community Reopening Toolkit.
This information has been compiled by Durham Region Health Department. It is intended to provide guidance to residents and businesses to prepare for safe reopening of our community, subject to direction from the Province of Ontario, and should not be construed as legal advice or to replace specific instructions that may be issued by Durham Region Health Department or the province.
The Ontario government has announced that Durham Region will be moving to stage 2 of the province’s
reopening of businesses and services
, effective
Friday, June 19
. This means that certain establishments will be permitted to reopen for business, including restaurant patios, some personal service settings, malls and other area services.
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Durham Region is making it easier for small businesses to move their operations online after joining ShopHERE—a no-cost service that helps to build a digital platform.
ShopHERE provides independent businesses and artists an opportunity to develop an online store, free of charge, with specific branding, messaging, digital marketing, shipping and inventory management.
Initiated by Digital Main Street and the City of Toronto, this service is provided in collaboration with Google, Shopify, Mastercard and Microsoft; with support from marketing and business students.
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York Durham Headwaters Virtual Roadtrip
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Central Counties Tourism invites people to hit the road from the comfort of their own home with the launch of the
York Durham Headwaters (YDH) Virtual Road Trip
website. Filled with interactive experiences, engaging stories and activities, the website features experiences that people enjoy from home now, and then take part in first hand once travel restrictions are lifted and tourism businesses begin to fully reopen.
In addition to providing a means for people to keep exploring while at home, the YDH Virtual Road Trip is intended to help keep the region top-of-mind with future visitors, as well as provide marketing support for the businesses that make up the vibrant tourism community within
York Durham Headwaters
.
The website includes content submitted by local tourism-related businesses, along with “YDH Official” videos made in collaboration with the organization’s stakeholders. Content on the site ranges from interactive farms tours, and first-person views from Canada’s top thrill rides to bike-trick and cycling tutorials, and cooking videos. There are even online wine tasting experiences that allow viewers to purchase a featured wine selection and download tasting cards before they settle in for a guided tasting by one of the region’s award-winning wine makers.
Virtual road-trippers can easily navigate the site based on their interests such as Foodie Fanatics, Family Fun, Adventure Seekers, Passionate Putters and Art Lovers. As with any great road trip there is always more to explore, and virtual road-trippers are encouraged to visit the site regularly as more experiences and virtual itineraries are added.
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Durham Region Sport Community Impact Round Tables
On
May 28 and June 1
, Sport Durham hosted three virtual
Durham Region Sport Community Impact Round Tables
in collaboration with local area municipality recreation and sport facility representatives.
More than 40 members of the sport community from across all eight municipalities, representing a wide variety of sports, joined these sessions to: hear the results of the COVID-19 Durham Region Sport Community Impact Survey
;
share and learn about the key challenges and successes that others have experienced in recent months; discuss ideas for future collaboration; and ask questions of representatives from their local area municipalities.
Some of the key topics included financial challenges, participant retention and attraction, municipal contracts/permits and return to play. Since the sessions, some follow up materials have been sent to participants and additional follow up activities are underway. We look forward to continuing to support our sport community as they plan for returning to play.
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On
May 28
, the national organization that advocates on behalf of the sport tourism industry announced a bold new look and a new name during its virtual Annual General Meeting.
Sport Tourism Canada
(STC)
is the new name for the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance.
The organization has an international reputation for its promotion of Canada as a premiere destination for bidding and hosting sport events and has just entered its twentieth year.
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Tourism Industry Roundtable Letter to Premier Doug Ford
TIAOs President and CEO Beth Potter has joined other tourism leaders to form the Tourism Roundtable group.The Roundtable is comprised of leaders in Canada’s tourism and travel sector – airports, airlines, hotels and others – working together with a goal of restarting the sector safely and smoothly.
The Roundtable has written to Premier Doug Ford urging the Ontario government to immediately establish clear and consistent health standards and protocols that are aligned with global rules and procedures and designed to build traveller confidence.
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Survey 6.0 is released
Survey 6.0 is now open is open until
Friday, June 19 at 8 a.m.
As many tourism businesses are beginning to prepare for reopening we remind you that data on the impact of COVID-19 to your operations is more critical than ever.
The data collected here will be used to let all levels of government know which tourism businesses are at risk and what kinds of economic supports must be continued into the next stages of reopening.
Please help best represent you and your interests, and take a few minutes to fill out the survey.
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Connect and engage with Durham Tourism and Sport Durham on our social media pages:
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