Ms. Donna Cansfield, MLA for my riding in Ontario, former Minister of Energy, former Minister of Transportation and current Minister of Natural Resources was kind enough to see me in her constituency offices to talk Tourism. My objective in approaching Ms. Cansfield was simply to try to make her a champion for tourism in Ontario. I wanted to make her aware that, in my case at least, as one of her constituents, my business depends on a strong Ontario tourism industry. Furthermore, given the impact of globalization, high energy prices, the American economy and other factors, on Ontario's manufacturing sector, I mentioned that Tourism can be a very bright light in the province's economic future. I suggested that the government should consider a long term plan (ten to twenty years) to make Tourism a pillar of the provincial economy. -
In order to maximize the potential of tourism in Ontario I mentioned that the province should increase the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership's budget to double what it is today. Currently, The OTMP's budget hovers around $43 million, but the economic impact of tourism in our province is over $21 Billion. According to the Ministry of Tourism, the sector generates over $2.3 Billion in provincial taxes (figures from 2004). Clearly there is upside potential in the sector. Ms. Cansfield was very attentive and interested in my observations. I think it is important to reach out to our elected representatives as individual business people or tourism workers in order to put a human face to those whose living actually depends on tourism as oppose to just leaving it to the associations and dmo's to lobby for the sector.
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Have you thought about approaching your MLA or MP to talk tourism? Don't just wait for your tourism association to do something, you can help by making your representatives aware of how important support for tourism is to you.
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
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