By Mark Ladan
PARRY SOUND - The East Georgian Bay Sustainable Tourism Plan has received a financial boost from the federal government. FedNor is providing a $100,000 grant to the organization to assist in the promotion of the area as a four-season vacation destination.
The goal of the new organization is to work with Rainbow Country Tourism and the Lacloche Manitoulin Business Assistance Corp. to ensure a co-ordinated effort to develop sustainable tourism from Port Severn to Killarney. The new group is expected to create, implement and sustain all aspects of year-round tourism in the region.
"This money from FedNor will be used for the first year of operation for the East Georgian Bay Tourism Plan, to hire management staff, and to get this thing up and running," says Parry Sound Community Business and Development Corporation general manager Bill Spinney.
Operation of the new tourism body will be managed by a committee of 10 volunteers from both the public and private sector until staff can be hired, Spinney says.
"Once this has a solid administrative base under it, we will hopefully incorporate East Georgian Bay Tourism into to its own entity so that it will be responsible for its own contracts," Spinney says.
The net result will be a full tourism strategy and marketing plan for East Georgian Bay, which includes travel advertising and brochures, as well as the creation of a comprehensive Internet site.
"We want the Parry Sound area to be in the front of peopleÕs minds when they think of a vacation destination," Spinney says.
