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Tourism Industry Support
Designed for Tourism Operators, we provide:
1. Consultations: to help you start or grow your tourism business
2. Training and Workshops: online and in-person workshops to help expand your knowledge on numerous topics
3. Grants and Funding: We provide funding opportunities for tourism operators and entrepreneurs to start or grow your tourism attraction
Who We Are:
We promote Bruce County as a travel destination and support the County’s tourism industry. The county's role as the Destination Management Organization (DMO) is managed by tourism experts within the Bruce County Economic Development Division. Tourism is a cornerstone of Bruce County’s economy, and our Economic Development team is proud to champion its growth.
What is a Destination Management Organization?
At Explore the Bruce, we’re proud to serve as your local Destination Management Organization (DMO). As a (DMO), we play a pivotal role in guiding and supporting tourism development through strategic collaboration with a wide range of partners. As leaders in destination management, we conduct research to gain valuable insights into tourism trends, visitor preferences, and market dynamics. We are a knowledge hub by gathering and utilizing research and insights, tourism trends, and utilizing the data to make informed decisions and measure performance
We work in partnership with all levels of government and community stakeholders to develop safe, attractive and well-managed destinations. Within the Economic Development department, we collaborate closely with a variety of stakeholders, including lower-tier municipalities, tourism operators, and community organizations such as Chambers of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, and local tourism agencies. These partnerships are essential to creating a unified and effective approach to destination development and promotion.
Explore the Bruce, your local DMO, aims to:
- support the development of new products and attractions,
- attract high value visitors and encourage repeat visits and referrals,
- foster long-term tourism growth, and;
- ensure the sustainability of our destination, responsibly.
What We Do:
- Taking the lead in shaping a responsible and innovative tourism industry.
- Connecting you with the right person to support your tourism initiative (ie. Land Use Policy Planner, like minded entrepreneurs, event organizer and/or, local Chamber).
- Supporting municipalities, tourism partners with tourism initiatives by participating in research or navigating through adversity such as Municipal Accommodation Tax explorations, sustainable tourism research studies and/or tourism data collection initiatives.
- Providing Funds and Grants for community development initiatives (ie. wayfinding signage, marketing tourism attractions, downtown streetscape infrastructure such as benches, public spaces, etc.).
What’s in it for you?
As leaders in the Bruce County tourism industry, we’ve experienced fluctuation in the tourism industry. Created in 2005, The Explore the Bruce brand was initially created to promote Bruce County as a premier destination. Today, as dedicated DMOs, we are committed to ensuring that every visitor enjoys a safe, memorable, and enriching experience in Bruce County through strategic planning and working with our partners.
We may not have all the answers but through our strong connections locally and provincially, but we can connect you with the right person or provide you to get you to the answer. We identify funding resources, market trends, industry news and partnership opportunities.
How We Can Help You:
- Mobilize Visitor Data Collection and Analysis,
- Strengthen Product Development and Community Development,
- Enhance Destination Marketing and Promotions, and;
- Empower Partners and Advancing Special Projects.
Click Here for Bruce County's Tourism Industry Support Fact Sheet
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
2024 Bruce County Visitor Survey Results
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4.45 MB |
Here’s How We Can Help You [Click Below]:
We believe in using data to drive decision making. Bruce County Economic Development gathers public and shared data from partner tourism organizations and community partners in Bruce County annually. This data can help you with understanding the landscape of and impact of tourism within Bruce County. The Visitor Survey Report is developed on an annual basis for thirteen communities in Bruce County:
Improving the visitor experience by strengthening ‘unique to Bruce’ experiences, supporting physical development and infrastructure improvements and providing value-added opportunities. We help local community development projects by offering resources through the Spruce the Bruce program. This program supports communities by offering tools to strengthen commercial areas and public spaces. We work with partners, like you, on new projects that aim to revitalize downtowns cores and support community partners with expanding tourism experiences and infrastructure improvements.
We promote tourism experiences and attractions to visitors through the Explore the Bruce marketing channels. Explore the Bruce serves as our strategic, public-facing brand dedicated to promoting tourism and driving economic growth across the region. Our partners find success promoting with us because of the existing brand awareness, high active following and positive results. Our success comes from developing integrated marketing tactics alongside our partners, where we research market segments, travel intentions and track online activities with analytics to get a pulse on visitor interests and motivations.
We believe in turning challenges into opportunities by working hand-in-hand with local partners to support innovative and sustainable tourism initiatives. Our peers lean on our support for new projects because we have successfully implemented similar initiatives with one of the eight local municipalities or have connections with other provincial partners who have done so.