OCTA

A Message from The Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance:

We are pleased to forward the Four-Year Culinary Tourism Strategy and Action Plan (2011-2015). It is informed by the thoughts, ideas and analysis of many within the culinary tourism and hospitality sectors and reflects their aspirations to ensure a sustainable culinary tourism sector in Ontario.

The Strategy updates and builds on the 10-Year Culinary Tourism Strategy and Action Plan and responds to the changes and challenges in the provincial and global environment that may have had an impact on the sector over the past five years.

DOWNLOAD THE 2011-2015 ONTARIO FOUR-YEAR CULINARY TOURISM STRATEGY

The vision of the Strategy is to ensure that: By 2015, culinary tourism in Ontario is valued as a leading contributor to a vibrant and sustainable tourism economy in the province. It sets out the menu of steps and sub-strategies to achieve this vision and ensure this sector is economically, culturally, and socially sustainable. There are solid opportunities to make this happen – across all regions of Ontario.

Three values underpin the strategy: Commitment, Collaboration and Communication. By adopting these values, we believe all partners in the culinary tourism value chain benefit from the outcomes identified in the Strategy – and ultimately so too will visitors to Ontario.

The implementation of the original 10-Year Culinary Tourism Strategy and Action Plan has garnered great progress and profile for culinary tourism in Ontario and the demand has flourished beyond expectations.

However, the sector has reached a fork in the road. Now is a time to be decisive – to act on the opportunities laid out in the strategy to ensure sustainable growth and support the ambitious goals of Ontario’s Competitiveness Study – Ontario Tourism Competitiveness Study – Discovering Ontario, a Report on the Future of Tourism.

We all know that “what gets measured, get’s done.” The Strategy also addresses the need for performance measurement and evaluation to ensure continued growth and success of the sector.

We look forward to working with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture in the coming years to realize the vision and outcomes contained within and to communicate our successes in the form of greater tourism visitations in Ontario, driven in part by a vibrant culinary tourism sector.

The Ministry, the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance and our many partners and stakeholders each has a crucial role to play and the Strategy provides the guidance to help us all contribute.

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