Throughout Tourism Week, we're planning to salute tourism operators and their employees for their perseverance and resilience over the past 15-months. We'll also celebrate the magnificence of our country and how each region of Ontario delivers unique experiences vital to the tourism ecosystem.
During Tourism Week, we invite you to read more about the industry, hear stories about the operators and learn why Tourism Counts across Canada and in each province and territory.
There’s no better time to highlight the people, places, experiences, and events that make your community unique than during Tourism Week.
As Canada’s largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec have faced the biggest waves of the pandemic in the country, but they are finding ways to win the battle. That’s good news for the tourism sector, which is looking forward to a reduction in travel restrictions and the return of visitors.
Some tourism companies in both Ontario and Quebec have found ways to innovate and adapt to the restrictive government rules that are necessitated by the pandemic.
For example, Escape Manor is an Ottawa-based company that runs escape room experiences in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Cornwall, Saskatoon, Regina and even Brisbane, Australia. To tackle closures of in-person activities and changing capacity limit rules, Escape Manor created new virtual escape room experiences that have proven very popular, and that also adhere to hygienic requirements.
Saunders Farm is a family-owned farm a short drive southwest of Ottawa that is known for its hedge mazes, farm-fresh food and family activities in summer, and its spooky haunted house-style attraction each October. In summer 2020 (and returning in 2021), the farm offered campfire experiences, whereby visitors enjoy a physically distanced campfire for a few hours, complete with wood for the fire, hot dogs, kettle corn and a s’mores kit.
At Blue Mountain Village near Georgian Bay, the Agora Path of Light was designed as a new COVID-19-safe interactive light experience. On this path, participants encounter a series of lighting installations based on the five elements of air, space, earth, water and fire. From a business perspective, the attraction was conceived to drive incremental visitation to the Blue Mountain destination at a time when traditional events have not been permitted under public health guidelines.
The On-The-Grand Drive In, located in Kitchener, was a 25,000-person outdoor amphitheater, but it has been repurposed for use as an outdoor movie theatre by Feast On Certified operators Bingemans during the pandemic. The drive-in theatre has a 60’x30’ screen for showing movies, but it also hosts Yuk Yuks comedy events, live band concerts and light shows.
These success stories are just a few from operators across the province. It's for them that we pledge to travel in Canada!
