Sarah Fox, Executive Director of Visit the County, presented its 2024 annual report to the Committee of the Whole this summer, highlighting efforts to streamline data collection. 

“I have learned a lot about data sources over the last few months,” Ms. Fox said, emphasizing that none offer a fully accurate picture of local tourism. 

Environics, for example, which calculates individual visitors, provides a “snapshot in time based on the best tools available. It doesn’t necessarily give an accurate number of visitors overall.”  

Without the data, it’s not clear how effective VTC’s marketing efforts and methods are.

Ms. Fox is working with the County’s Economic Development Officer, Karen Palmer, and the County Foundation’s Anne VanVlack to create baseline data points to construct year-over-year visitor numbers. 

That data is crucial to setting VTC’s budget, which is dictated by the Municipal Accommodation Tax collected the previous year. Total amounts are not available until well into the following year, and vary year to year. 

VTC wants to keep a full year’s operating budget in reserves for stability. Its 2025 budget allocates a total of $170,000 to reserve funds, of which $25,000 is from this year’s revenue.

Council asked about this summer’s tourism, and how effective VTC’s large marketing spend is. In 2024, VTC spent $409,000 on advertising.

Ms. Fox noted accommodation bookings are up 40 percent over last year, even into October. “We’re hearing stories of many more American visitors,” she said. European visitors are also up. That bump likely has as much to do with US President Trump as with VTC’s marketing efforts.

While Councillor Bill Roberts noted that media coverage of PEC has reached at least as far as London, England, Ms. Fox noted VTC’s marketing is targeted to Ontario and Quebec. 

For 2025, the focus is on building up tourism during the shoulder seasons by working with local partners such as County Arts and Picton’s Business Improvement Association.

But while supporting a four-season economy requires producing more events, Ms. Fox stressed that neither VTC nor its partners have the budget or resources required. 

“None of us are equipped to be the event producers,” she said. “We’re hoping to encourage businesses and other organizations to join in and create that critical mass.”

Councillor Roberts asked if VTC is prioritizing local procurement in its operations. “We certainly will,” said Ms. Fox.