Blind River’s facility and recreation manager Karen Bittner reported that a recent Northern Ontario Tourism conference showed that tourism is continuing to grow along the north channel.
Bittner said the conference also identified new ways for attracting visitors to the area between Blind River and Sault Ste. Marie taking into account what members of Mississauga First Nation (MFN) have to offer in that work.
“This conference is one of the most useful platforms for professionals working in tourism, management, and promoting our beautiful area,” she said of the conference. “Tourism, specifically northern Ontario, is steadily climbing."
The conference agenda also dealt with workplace safety and strategies to keep workers, supervisors, and employees safe.
“Workplace safety highlights the importance of everyone respecting each other’s role in the workplace,” she said in the report given to council at its meeting Monday evening. “Safe measures are created with structure, open-door policies, and effective hazard management. This is a practice I am proud to say is followed in our work areas, where hazards noted by our employees are dealt with swiftly to ensure trust and caring.”
To attract foreign visitors, Bittner said it is essential for any promotion to use “vivid images to inspire the guest to feel like they are in Blind River long before purchasing their plane ticket to Canada.”
Any promotion strategy has to involve input from Blind River and MFN residents and organizations.
She also cautioned that particular attention has be paid to dealing with negative information on social media about the community and the area.
“I look forward to bringing fun, inexpensive, and engaging plans for committee and council,” she added. “We are going to continue pushing for many small-fish opportunities that produce faster turnaround, more revenue, and less long-term maintenance pressures."
Council voted to receive the report.