It’s really not hard to attract tourists to Niagara during the summer months, from late May to early October.
With over 110 million people living within a ten-hour (one-day) drive, we will always attract a healthy number of visitors to our beautiful part of the world.
The wineries, the Shaw Festival, Niagara Jetboat, and oh yes, the world-famous Niagara Falls just on top of the Niagara Escarpment. Only a short drive or bike ride. One of the Great Lakes and a famous river.
Some marketing types tell me the challenge is to extend the time visitors spend with us and to fill rooms in the shoulder seasons and the winter season.
As a veteran of Niagara Falls tourism wars, with the very popular Oh Canada Eh? Dinner Show, I always admired businesses like White Oaks. They seemed to have full parking lots, and not just during the summer season.
Imagine my happiness last week, on a brisk, sunny and blue sky day. About noon, I was chatting with my good friends, the very active Patty and Bill Garriock, in front of their historic house at the corner of Johnson and Gate streets.
The energetic Patty is a former NOTL Ladies Golf B Flite Champion and contributes regularly to The Lake Report. Bill, replete with worldly and good ideas, occasionally writes a Letter to the Editor of the weekly Lake Report. I wish he would share his business and philosophical bon mots more often.
As we discussed their future living plans, a happy-go-lucky group of about 50 bicycle riders came pedalling and chirping down Johnson Street on Zoom Leisure rental bicycles.
Tour guides Mark Gadet and Martin Harvey called out cheery greetings and their somewhat youthful group members waved enthusiastically.
I noted that they were about 30 or 35 years old on average, from many different parts of the world. I asked a straggler the name of their group, and she happily called out, “Google Canada.”
They all had helmets snuggly strapped to their heads. Not most of them. All of them!
Hats (not helmets) off to Steve deBoer and Ben Visser for having six hard-working Zoomers facilitating this complicated group activity.
Yes, great companies spend lots of money developing their employees, with off-site retreats and seminars and team-building getaways. And great companies set out fair and reasonable rules. Other companies are often afraid to be too strict with their teams.
I imagined that the Google event planning team had told the attendees that for those wanting to enjoy the bike tour option, safety helmets were obligatory.
“We don’t care if you might mess up your hairstyles. We spend a lot of money developing you and we don’t want you to crack your skull falling off a bike.”
This two-night retreat had been planned for months, and it rolled out seamlessly. Great rooms at the Queen’s Landing and other first-class hotels.
Tours to several area wineries and a guided history tour of Old Town by the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum. The mandatory scavenger hunt demanded teamwork, and feigned enthusiasm, and a beer and wine tasting at Cork’s Wine Bar and Eatery.
Even special pricing at the NEOB Lavender shop near the new-and-improved Cenotaph. Greaves Jams and Marmalades happily put extra stock on their rustic shelves, with a fair incentive price.
Still fighting fatique? How about an early morning 10-kilometre run or jog past Fort George and along the Niagara Parkway Trail for fresh fruit juices at Walker’s Family Market? Optional early morning vespers at the little white church.
There’s also the obligatory Nia Movement class with Anne outdoors on top of the Fort George moat.
Let’s pause and admire the logistics planning for five full highway motorcoaches, arriving in NOTL for three days of interesting, educational and fun activities.
Event planning takes talent and desire, but the per-person price can be very fair due to the shoulder season timing. The town’s business people win, and the visiting groups win.
In fact, everybody wins. Local employees get more hours of work, our businesses create more revenue without more fixed costs, and the visitors get even better value for money.
Off-season business is where it’s at.
My chats with several young Google sharpies reminded me that to visitors, our town is a fabulous venue for corporate team-building retreats.
Small enough that attendees don’t go their separate ways and get lost. Large enough to satisfy and challenge even the most demanding young folks from Google Canada.
Want to know more about Niagara and NOTL? Google it.
