Chatham-Kent Tourism received an Honorable Mention for its ‘Detourism Campaign’ at the 61st Annual Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO) Conference and Showcase – Awards of Excellence, hosted in Toronto on February 5-7, 2018.
Municipal officials say the Awards of Excellence were aligned with this year’s EDCO theme: Mission Possible: Agents of Change, which challenged entrants to look past the status quo and use new and inventive ways to take action in an ever-changing landscape.
The Chatham-Kent Detourism Campaign was created to do just that by taking a challenge and turning it into a rewarding experience for both tourists and residents of CK, municipal officials said in a press release.
The Detourism Campaign launched to coincide with construction along the 401 corridor within Chatham-Kent during the months of April to November of 2017.
The goals of the campaign were to move tourists away from the 401, to detour and discover the hidden gems of Chatham-Kent and also to encourage locals to take the road less travelled.
Audrey Ansell, Chatham-Kent’s manager of community attraction and promotion was delighted about the impact the campaign had.
“Our role is to promote our community so that visitors and residents alike are aware of all that it has to offer – to be recognized by our provincial colleagues is wonderful, and knowing that our community has supported and benefited from the initiative is even better,” she said in a press release.
“We’re thrilled to be recognized in such a competitive and well respected awards program,” added Shannon Paiva, supervisor of tourism development for the Municipality of Chatham Kent.
“To be recognized among our peers for a collaborative team effort, and to further increase awareness of all of the hidden gems in our municipality is wonderful.”
Because who wouldn’t want to come to Chatham-Kent to enjoy the amazing transformation of a beautiful and productive landscape into an industrial wind turbine nightmare ? Good job Chatham-kent ! De-tourism, indeed.