End of the road for RR Travel Info. Centre

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Tourists will be on their own when they cross the border at Rainy River and Fort Frances this summer as the Ontario Government announced it will be permanently closing the season Travel Info. Centre in Rainy River as well as six others in the province as a cost cutting measure.
The others include Fort Frances, Kenora, Fort Erie, Hill Island, Prescott, and Cornwall.
The closures were announced in Ontario’s 2012 budget on Tuesday.
According to the Ministry of Tourism’s (MoT) website, the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corp. (OTMPC) “is realigning its tourism services by focusing on online travel marketing activities to meet consumers’ travel research preferences through major redevelopment of its tourism information website, call centre, and brochure distribution service.”
Numbers have been a problem at the local Travel Information Centre for some time. It was thought if moved from its first home right at the border to its present location about 15 years ago, that things would pick up. It is located at the Heritage Square, adjacent to the 4008 and Railway Museum and Farmer’s Market. However, that did not help.
Signage, or lack there of, was also thought to be a problem in both Rainy River and Fort Frances and despite complaints to that effect little was done to make the centres more noticeable.
“Visits to some Ontario Travel Information Centres [OTICs] have dropped by half in the last decade, as travellers adopt a self-service approach and increasingly use the Internet for their travel research and planning,” said the MoT website.
Effective April 30, OTMPC will close seven of its network of 18 OTICs throughout the province “that collectively experience low and declining visitation numbers.”
The year-round OTICs located in Fort Frances, Cornwall, and Fort Erie will close, according to the ministry.
The seasonal OTICs located in Rainy River, Kenora, Hill Island, and Prescott will not re-open.
Eleven OTICs province-wide will continue to operate in Bainsville, Barrie, Hawkesbury, Niagara Falls, Pigeon River, Sault Ste Marie, St. Catharines, Sarnia, Tilbury, Toronto Atrium on Bay, and Windsor Park.
“As a Board member for the new Regional Tourism Organization 13C and President of the Ontario Sunset
Country Tourism Association and the North Western Ontario Tourism Association, I am very concerned
with the Government of Ontario’s decision. This judgment was made without any input from Ontario
Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporations (OTMPC) marketing partners,” said Tom Pearson, President of both Ontario Sunset Country Tourism Assoc. and the Northwestern Ontario Tourism Assoc.
“RTO 13C recently spent 1.5 million on marketing in the Midwest US and Western provinces. OTMPC has also spent millions of marketing dollars in the cities of Minneapolis and Chicago promoting NW Ontario in, only to have guests entering Canada in Fort Frances to have limited information of tourism experiences available. With all the Ontario Tourism Centers closed in Sunset Country, what kind of message are we sending to our guests? They will enter into Ontario from the US or Manitoba and the first building they see is a boarded up Tourism Information Centre,” added Pearson.
Kenora-Rainy River Member of Provincial Parliament said Monday, “I am deeply concerned about the proposed closure of Travel Information Centres in Rainy River, Fort Frances and Kenora.”
“This is yet another sign that the current government simply does not understand our region and the vital role tourism plays in our economy.”
“This is a decision that was done without consultation and without warning. It also does not make sense.”
“Studies have shown that while tourism plays an important role in other regions of the province, the Northwest’s is unique because here we bring in dollars from other jurisdictions outside of Ontario, such as the United States and Manitoba, while other regions rely substantially on tourists from inside Ontario. It also shows that visitors to our region spend substantially more money per visit than in other regions of the province. We can only ensure that we maximize the money that is spent by offering Travel Information Centres that are open at points of entry and ready to serve.”
“In recent years our tourist economy has been under attack. It started with the cancellation of the Spring Bear Hunt, then it was the rising dollar, followed by increased costs to travelers through the HST and now this.”
“This is unacceptable and I vow to fight these closures.”
“I will be raising this issue in Queen’s Park this week and I encourage residents to get involved by sending letters and emails to my office, and by printing off, signing and circulating a petition I have drafted, which will be available on facebook, facebook.com/Sarah4NWO; twitter @Sarah4NWO and my website: Sarah4NWO.ca on Tuesday afternoon.”