Allyson Beauregard
CAMPBELL’S BAY – About twenty people, including many business owners, attended the Pontiac Tourism Association’s (PTA) annual general meeting in the Elsie Gibbons room of the MRC building, April 5. The Association ended 2017 with a $1,123 profit, compared to 2016’s $680 deficit; the accumulated surplus is now $4,041.
Allyson Beauregard
CAMPBELL’S BAY – About twenty people, including many business owners, attended the Pontiac Tourism Association’s (PTA) annual general meeting in the Elsie Gibbons room of the MRC building, April 5. The Association ended 2017 with a $1,123 profit, compared to 2016’s $680 deficit; the accumulated surplus is now $4,041.
The surplus was made possible, in part, by a $5,000 contribution from the SADC Pontiac to create six short promotional videos focusing on Pontiac paddling activities: rafting, kayaking, and paddle boarding. According to Jessica Forgues, PTA Treasurer, the videos will continue as a series, with the next ones focused on winter activities. Board member Denis Lebrun from Bryson Lake Lodge suggested the popular Pontiac activities of hunting and fishing also be featured at some point. The videos, which sport #Pontiacnature, will be released one at a time throughout the tourism season, the first expected to be released soon on social media platforms, the PTA and Tourism Outaouais networks.
Other 2017 activities included, among other things, enrolling 25 members; partnership discussions with the MRC Pontiac; developing a new tourism promotion trade show booth; participation in consultations on the new regional tourism route; and developing and distributing the Pontiac Travel Guide as well as a new Pontiac Travel Map. According to Brittany Morin from the SADC, the map was a huge success with more than 10,000 copies distributed; a second version will be developed.
During the elections, Robin Judd was acclaimed to seat 2; Jane Toller stepped down from seat 4, which was filled by Trevor Miller from Hotel Pontiac, Fort William; Jessica Forgues and Adam Thompson were acclaimed to seats 6 and 8 respectively; and David Gillespie and Sandra Armstrong filled vacant seats 7 and 9.
At the end of the meeting, Vince Accardi, a PTA board member and employee
of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, spoke about the value of forming partnerships in order to flourish in the tourism industry. “If you hunt alone, you’ll die alone,” he stressed, noting 1 in 11 Canadians work in the tourism industry, a $91.6 billion sector in Canada.
