On this month's newsletter of "You Need to Know This":

Tourism Chatter: new additions, investments & celebrations
Attend Oxford's First Culture and Heritage Conference
Ontario's Southwest wants to hear from you!
New Tourism Minister Announced in Federal Cabinet Shuffle
New Federal Tourism Strategy & Annual Public Meeting
Organizations are advocating for more time to repay CEBA loans
The last Rural Oxford Networking Session of the year!
Submit your Nomination for the Ontario Tourism Awards

In July, Ontario's Southwest welcomed 3 new board members, including Oxford County's Aggie Armstrong of Fine Art & Perennial Palettes! Congratulations Aggie!
The Future Oxford Legacy Fund awarded over $10,000 in grants to local not-for-profit organizations including some familiar names like the Norwich Chamber of Commerce, Tillsonburg BIA, Tillsonburg Station Arts and Why Not Us. Congratulations to all!
Congratulations Makkink's Flower Farm on the grand opening of your flower farm's NEW café! The café is serving up sweets specialty coffees and light meals. Watch the grand reveal here.
Congratulations to our newest Rainbow Registered business here in Oxford County - Early Bird Coffee in Woodstock! Congratulations on being such a welcoming place. See their post here.
Jarful Local Refillery welcomed some new owners in July - Thessaly and her partner David are now the new owners! Thank you to Jess for bringing Jarful to Woodstock, and we're excited for this next chapter.
The Kiln Room is a new ceramic & art studio in downtown Woodstock. They host adult ceramic classes, demos and a tiny boutique; welcome to downtown Woodstock Jennifer & HollyJo!
Rural Oxford's Shopping Channel is back for another season! Congratulations! Watch videos from the new season here.
It’s official – Ontario’s Southwest (OSW) is a Bronze Certified Sustainable Tourism Destination! Click here to read the news release.
Habitual Chocolate recently celebrated their 9th anniversary at their Woodstock location! Congratulations!
35 years ago Patina's Gifts of Art & Craft opened shop in downtown Ingersoll - congratulations on such a wonderful journey!
Welcoming Groove Decor to downtown Ingersoll! A retail store featuring orginial modern wall art, photographic prints and more!
Sophie at Rising Roots Farm recently opened a brand-new farm stand at her location! Open Thurs-Sat 9am -1pm with all the goodies from her garden and other local producers!
The Town of Tillsonburg is inviting you to Discover Tillsonburg in this new 6-part video series. Watch to discover 'where big city life meets small community love.' Watch them here.
Red Dragon Dairy just celebrated their one-year anniversary! Congratulations!
There is a new paper in town! The Woodstock Ingersoll Echo

Do you have news to share? Email Emily

Attend Oxford's First Culture and Heritage Conference - July 28, 5-9 pm

This is a great event to make connections, learn from experts, and sample various cultures in Oxford County.

Celebrate the diverse cultures and heritage in Oxford through sampling and speaking at the Oxford County Culture and Heritage Conference on Fri. July 28th 5pm-9pm. Hear from a diverse group of speakers while enjoying food connected to the culture and heritage of each speaker.

Location: South Gate Centre, 191 Old Wellington St S, Woodstock, ON N4S 3J2

Learn more about the event here.

Ontario's Southwest wants to hear from you!

Ontario’s Southwest has designed a survey to help them better understand what’s happening on the ground and determine how they can continue to support the work and amazing things you’re doing.

It can be completed in under 5 minutes. As always, responses will be treated as confidential with no personal information being disclosed. You will also have a chance to enter their grand prize giveaway, where the winner can choose an OSW Signature Experience for four guests.

Click below to access the survey. Please share your input before the survey closes on July 31, 2023.

Answer the Survey

New Tourism Minister Announced in Federal Cabinet Shuffle

This week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a major shuffle of his cabinet team, including a new Minister of Tourism. Quebec MP Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who represents the riding of Hochelaga, becomes the Minister of Tourism and Minister Responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for Quebec Regions. You can learn more about her here.

The Honourable Randy Boissonnault (former Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance) becomes the Minister of Employment Workforce Development and Official Languages.

New Federal Tourism Strategy & Annual Public Meeting

The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance unveiled the new Federal Tourism Growth Strategy: Canada 365: Welcoming the World. Every Day.

The strategy outlines five Guiding Principles;

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Reconciliation in action
Sustainable and regenerative approaches
Focus on rural Canada
Canada has what the world wants

In addition, on July 6, 2023, Destination Canada hosted our Annual Public Meeting, where our leadership team discussed our priorities for 2023: where we are building success, making bold decisions, and a look at the work we are doing to build long term resilience.

Read TIAO Media Release

Watch Annual Public Meeting

TIAO, TIAC, and Over 250 Organizations Call for More Time to Repay CEBA Loans

This week, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) sent a letter calling for debt relief to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland on behalf of TIAO and more than 250 other national, provincial, and regional organizations across Canada, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and Restaurants Canada.

The letter, which you can read here, urges the federal government to extend the current Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) repayment deadline by two years to the end of 2025, or at least by one year, while maintaining access to the forgivable portion.

45% of Canada’s tourism businesses are likely or somewhat likely to close within the next three years without government intervention into their mounting debt loads.

If you’re struggling or if there’s something you want TIAC to know, please share your story with TIAC. Hearing your voice helps them paint a clear picture in their advocacy work, which extends beyond the walls of Parliament.

Share Your Story Here

Recent Tourism Oxford Media Coverage

Dine Magazine

The summer issue features a six page article on numerous attractions in Oxford County. Thank you to Adam Waxman for this feature.

Read Article

Top 3 hotspots to visit on a road trip to Oxford County | CBC News

Summer is road trip season and we want to help you make the most of it. The counties outside of London are full of hidden gems, so we're asking the people who know their county best to give their top three list of must-dos.

Come out to the last Rural Oxford Networking Event of the Season!

Join Rural Oxford for an evening of meeting and mingling at Thames River Melons!

When: Tuesday August 15th from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Where: 775530 Blandford Rd, Innerkip, ON N0J 1M0

Thames River Melons has over 500 acres of produce ranging from rhubarb and asparagus in the spring, to strawberries and melons in the summer, to squash and pumpkins in the fall.

Submit your Nomination for the Ontario Tourism Awards

The Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence celebrate success and recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to Ontario’s tourism industry. The overall categories are:

Tourism Industry Awards of Excellence
Tourism Marketing & Travel Media Awards of Excellence
Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence (CTA)
Ontario's Choice Awards (Attractions Ontario)
Workforce Innovation and Collaboration Awards (OTEC)

This year’s selection of awards have two new opportunities of entry. The first is an additional award included in the Culinary Tourism Awards of Excellence – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award.

The second addition is The OTEC Workforce Innovation & Collaboration Award, which recognizes a business or organization that has developed an innovative, local solution to a workforce challenge, accomplished through collaborative partnership(s).

Submit Your Nomination Here