by Michael Erskine
MANITOULIN---Money may be desperately needed to help market
Manitoulin Island to the rest of the world, and a partnership program
may be the way to get it, but the MTA is very unhappy with the way
they were portrayed in a feasibility study recommending setting up a
tourism marketing organization for LaCloche-Manitoulin.
A study prepared for the LaCloche Manitoulin Business Assistance
Corporation (LAMBAC) marketing arm, intended to support the creation
of a new marketing corporation for the LaCloche Manitoulin area, has
offended at least one of the groups with which it purportedly plans
to partner.
Jennifer Sayye, manager of the Manitoulin Tourism Association, said
she found the report poorly researched, inaccurate and misleading,
especially when it comes to the MTA's many volunteers.
"I am not necessarily against this proposal, (to set up a joint
marketing corporation) there may be some good in it," said Ms. Sayye.
"I am against the way they are going about it."
Ms. Sayye said she found the report to be very misleading as to who
has been effective in marketing the area, and who has been doing the
work.
"I demand an apology from FedNor and from the LaCloche Manitoulin
Marketing Division for this report," she said. "Not for me, I am just
an employee and I can be easily replaced. But these are volunteers
who have poured their heart and soul into making this organization
work, with next to no money from any provincial or federal agency for
years. They should be thanked for all of the work they do, not have
somebody else take credit for their work and to be put down at the
same time."
The study, 'Marketing LaCloche Manitoulin Feasibility Study,'
prepared by Economic Growth Solutions Inc. with funding from FedNor
and Industry Canada, assesses the work of three of the groups which
it says currently provide marketing of the area.
The Espanola Chamber of Commerce was dismissed as largely irrelevant
in terms of tourism marketing, the Manitoulin Chamber of Commerce was
shown in a more positive light, but it was noted that LAMBAC Marking
Division provides staff functions for the Chamber, including
administration functions and office management.
The listing of information on the MTA in the feasibility study
focused exclusively on the shortcomings and limitations of the MTA,
and its work. LAMBAC marketing is given prominence of place in any
partnership noted between the two organizations.
"Of the three agencies listed in that report, ours is the one which
is actually doing the work," said Ms. Sayye. "We contact tourists
before they leave home, we take care of them when they get here, and
we wave good-bye to them when they leave."
MTA treasurer and volunteer Bill Ferguson, of Silver Birches Resort,
said he also felt the study was not very well done, although the idea
of joint marketing may have some merit.
When asked why he believes the study promoted LAMBAC Marketing over
the other agencies listed in the report, Mr. Ferguson said he
believed it was due to 'The Golden Rule.'
"He with the gold makes the rules," he said. "LAMBAC marketing paid
for the study, the study makes LAMBAC Marketing look good."
Mr. Ferguson said he was not impressed with the progress made by
LAMBAC Marketing to date, but he realizes the proposal may bring
government marketing dollars to the area and therefore wasn't
necessarily a bad thing.
The report notes that the MTA's trade show attendance is focused on
peak season travel and their appearance there is financed 100 per
cent by LAMBAC Marketing Division and Owen Sound Transportation and
that participation at the shows is manned 60 per cent by LAMBAC
Marketing Personnel.
"They attended one show, in Kitchener," said Ms. Sayye. "They were at
the Toronto show for part of the time. I would say our volunteers
manned the shows 90 per cent of the time. The report just isn't
accurate."
This is also the first year that LAMBAC Marketing Division has
participated in travelling to the shows, according to Mr. Ferguson,
and the first year they have run the financing of attendance.
"There was a lot of confusion we didn't have in previous years," said
Mr. Ferguson, who with his wife Betty, personally attended a number
of trade shows as an MTA volunteer. "That was probably because they
hadn't done it before."
"Most of the report is inaccurate," said Ms. Sayye. "One thing is
accurate though, we are membership driven. My salary is paid 100 per
cent by membership dues, not government funding or programs. We
market when and where our membership tells us to. If the membership
tells us to market in the winter, we will do it, right now they
don't."
The MTA does work extensively in the shoulder season, however,
despite the claim put forward in the feasibility study. "We are very
busy right now," she said. "Fall is one of the busiest times of the
season for us. There is a lot of work to do."
The MTA was not the only organization to come under fire in the
LAMBAC Marketing Feasibility Study.
The publication "This is Manitoulin," a private sector publication
aimed at off-Island distribution, which along with the Manitoulin Day
Trip Guide, provides tourism information on Manitoulin, which the MTA
in turn distributes, was also given short shrift in the study. The
publications in question are driven by stakeholder advertising, with
no government funding or programs to offset the cost of publishing.
The study claims no audit is conducted (a very expensive proposition
rarely if ever conducted on a publication of that size) and no
independent verification of circulation is conducted, which is also
true, but the guides remain wildly popular and are always gone before
the end of the season, said Ms. Sayye.
"I can tell you where every one of those 50,000 magazines has gone,"
asserted Ms. Sayye. "The 'This is Manitoulin,' publications are meant
for off-Island distribution. People may be upset the Island is not
plastered with them, but that is not what they were designed for."
The feasibility study also criticized the MTA for not distributing
the magazine until May, long after many travel plans have been made.
"We did hold back all of the magazines going to the Ontario Travel
Centres until after the Public Service strike was over," said Ms.
Sayye. "It was critically important that the magazines get to those
distribution points and we did not want to send them to places which
were not going to be open. Once the strike was over, we sent them
right out."
LAMBAC's marketing division was set up as a three-year pilot project,
with funding from FedNor and Industry Canada. The marketing arm was
projected to be self sustaining at the end of the three-year funding,
FedNor does not provide ongoing funding for initiatives of this type
on an ongoing basis.
The current pilot project's funding will run out this year.
According to Mr. Frank, LAMBAC Marketing manager Paul Marcon has had
his contract extended to the end of April.
"I think that is a good thing," said Mr. Frank. "Things were too
rushed the other way. This gives us some time to think about it."
Continuing the status quo with the current LAMBAC Marketing Division
is not an option, however.
"We provide startup money, to get things up and running," said FedNor
Community Economic Development Officer, Stig Puschell. "We are not in
the business of providing ongoing funding to projects of this nature.
Tourism is essentially a provincial jurisdiction."
Municipalities, which provide the MTA's small annual budget, are
being approached by the LAMBAC Marketing Division management and
asked to support the creation of the new organization, an
organization which will 'partner' with those offices which are
currently doing the work.
LAMBAC Marketing Division is calling for the formation of a
free-standing corporation to market the LaCloche Manitoulin area to
the world. The corporation would have a board with stakeholder
representation, including the Chambers of Commerce for Espanola and
Manitoulin, as well as the MTA.
The feasibility study reports that LAMBAC's Marketing Division had a
$168,000 marketing budget to promote the LaÇloche Manitoulin area and
received itsfunds from FedNor. It had no stakeholder representation
or membership base. The new proposed corporation would have
stakeholder representation.
An example budget contained in the feasibility study proposed that
the new organization would have a $400,000 annual budget, $20,000 of
which would be through 'MTA' memberships and partnerships.
The 'net' value' of 'This is Manitoulin' is listed in the study as $10,000.
FedNor would be asked for a $200,000 contribution, under the example
budget, roughly the cost of the payroll committments for the new
organization.
The feasibility report notes that the MTA has a limited budget of
$25,000, which mainly covers the Association Manager's salary.
The MTA is currently investigating the reactions of its membership to
the new marketing plan. A questionaire is being written to determine
the views of the MTA membership. The current membership of the MTA is
made up primarily of tourism stakeholders such as resorts and tour
operators.
The MTA itself will vote on the LAMBAC marketing proposal at their
annual general meeting on October 16.
Mr. Ferguson said he did not believe any significant changes to the
MTA were required by the terms outlined in the feasibility study.
Mr. Frank was unwilling to express an opinion on the future course of the MTA.
"I did not want the directors to decide on this by themselves," said
MTA Chair Al Frank. "This way, (by asking for a general membership
vote) anyone who is a member will be able to vote."
Calls to the LAMBAC Marketing office were not returned by press time.
Mr. Frank said that although he was left unimpressed by the way that
the LAMBAC Marketing Division feasibility study had approached the
MTA's role in tourism marketing he believed that "sometimes, in
business, you have to overlook these things and move on."
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