The Tourism Destination Area Committee has just completed a first draft of the “Blue Book”, which is a self assessment tool for the tourism industry endorsed by the Nova Scotia Tourism Partnership Council. We have produced this first draft to get some discussion going. We are therefore very much looking for your comments. Please take the time to review it and provide your input. The files are below.

"Please take time to review and to comment. Tourism is our industry."

Comments should be forwarded to travel@tallships.ca by June 23, 2006.

Tourism Destination Area "Blue Book" - 246 kb (PDF)

Destination Annapolis Map (jpg image)

Available Rooms in the area (MS Excel Document)

Accommodation Occupancy (MS Excel Document)

Below are the Comments, Concerns and Questions from the TDA meeting, which was held on November 30.

Comments

• Getting a committee to move forward as one is difficult.
• Good marketing is not the voice of a Committee.
• Answer to the question of who brands to Town appears to be “no one.”
• There are six brands within the Town and there has never been a coordinated marketing effort.
• In Scotland as the Warden of Annapolis County – meeting with people in Scotland who are working just like we are discussing the issues. Beth Halliday talking with resident and Nova Scotia is not on any map, they have no idea. The market is very attractive. Residents of Scotland comment that the money is worth a lot here; money worth twice as much here. Huge market.
• We have to let them know that it is here. The advertising is not there.
• Delegation will be visiting, Robbie Burns night planned, expecting to have about 100 business people here with their families. Hopefully will get some to say this is a good place to start business, have summer home, family home etc. that was a BOT initiative that was very unique
• TDA has made a commitment to move forward and to further its new partnerships.
• Steering Committee meeting in December is the next move – will discuss the signs and branding.
• Linda Brown encouraged all to list name, phone number and concerns.
• Good luck, a lot of hard work has gone into the project.

Concerns

• There are too many plans, books and pictures. Put all that stuff away and address the real problems and issues. Signage on the highway should be the main priority, we are the only Town off the 101 that does not have special signage.
• Is the Town and/or the TDA aware that the restaurants in Town are closing whenever they feel like it? Tourists don’t eat at 4 in the afternoon, they like to eat later. Tourists are being sent to restaurants by B&B owners only for the tourists to find the place closed. This look bad on everyone. Restaurants should have regular posted hours and should have to remain open during those posted hours.
• We were told at the strategic planning meeting that tourism and signage would be discussed tonight. Misconception tonight, thought we were coming to discuss the issues. If the concerns do not go to a place where they can be discussed then there is nothing that can be done.
• Every spring we have counts from Tourism, they are never right. It just keeps going down. We need to start with the small things.
• B&B Association made a map of the Town to give to tourists. You can’t even get a map of the town at Fort Anne. It is issues like this that should be discussed.
• It is not a good idea to keep advertising in the USA. They may have been here in the past but they are not coming as much. Should be targeting Europe. Europeans think that the prices are reasonable here considering the exchange on the money.
• As entrepreneurs we are doers. We understand the process this all comes from, the government, which is a top down organization. We are a bottom up organization and we want to see some action.
• In my personal opinion branding should be your number one priority and someone should decide what goes on that sign! Who will decide?....I don’t know. I am addressing the committee, branding is an important issue and I believe that it should be discussed.
• There are too many people with too many conflicting ideas. Someone should be appointed as head of branding.
• I don’t think it should be a BOT position. Who traditionally has these positions, who decided on the signs in other Towns? I believe that it should be the town, the Town should have a marketing position. The only business in the Town is tourism; the Town would not survive if there was no tourism.
• BOT takes money from the B&B’s and the Inns – they are responsible to do something. There is some discrimination; small B&B pays the same amount as the big B&B’s (BOT membership fee) Why should I be a member? Spoke of tourists who wanted a room on the waterfront and they were told at the VIC that there were none available. At the tourist office everyone has pictures of their business, there is no picture there of his business, BOT apparently removed his pictures because he was not a member of the BOT. Claims that is discrimination. Comments? Those are the small things where we should start. Let’s fix all the small problems first.
• The comments about signage, communication and branding are all important (Linda)…..what are the things we can do about it together? What we need to do is talk together – willing to talk one on one with each business to discuss the issues. It is a partnership. We invited the BOT to sit at the table and they chose not to. We have to find away as a community to discuss all the issues. We offer the opportunity to leave the questions with the County or the Town, Harry or Linda. There is no doubt that we have to start small. If we don’t start taking those small steps together then we won’t get anywhere. We need to discuss the overall branding for the region and determine what the branding will be for the Town.
• Clarified that he meant a meeting where everyone can put all the issues on the table, he claimed that he believed that the BOT was responsible for most of the issues. We must determine what to do with all of this stuff.

Questions

• Where does the TDA plan to start? – will “brand” be the start point?
• Who looks after or is in charge of the “brand” for the Town? (It would be valuable to have a voice from the community)
• What will the TDA do to bring more tourists?
• Who will decide what will go on the signs? – and how quickly will they be completed and put up?
• Does the TDA have the power to do anything about the tourism problems in the area?
• Why is it that the Town does not have a marketing manager?
• Could you organize a meeting for all the B&B owners and we will discuss the small issues?
• Is their funding coming from the provincial government for trailways?
• The TDA will formulate a new plan – who will volunteer to sit on the new committees?