When I came to Prince Edward County, I fell in love with the people, the lifestyle, and the beauty of this place. At that time, the County had a campaign about “building a new life,” and I remember a video of a guy on a scooter, heading to work down tree-lined country roads. “That is what I want,” I thought. “An escape from the big-city lifestyle.” 

When I started my PEC adventure, I went to a class on writing a business plan in Quinte with several other like-minded people doing the exact same thing. 

We all had the ambition to put down roots, lead the entrepreneurial life, and call PEC home. 

I opened Carson’s Garden Centre in 2019 and loved every single moment. 

Then came Covid.

For a lot of businesses, just like mine, the pandemic changed everything. Many struggled to just get by in the early days of lockdown. We quickly realized that PEC was not ready for the massive influx of tourists that arrived after restrictions were put on international travel. To be blunt, the business community got slammed and had to scramble to keep up; hiring any staff willing to work, bringing in large amounts of inventory, and recreating spaces for social distancing. It was hard, and while it was profitable for that short window, the bottom fell out of the bubble when people could go back to travelling the world — and we were left to pick up the pieces.

When the MAT (Municipal Accommodation Tax) was implemented, to bring in much needed dollars to the municipality from its tourist trade, I was hopeful that new efforts to market the County would stem the year-over-year decline businesses were facing. 

But this wasn’t the case. Many of my peers are candid about their own, more recent struggles. They feel they are not getting the attention higher profile businesses get.

As Edward Pickering of SHED Chetwyn Farms put it, “It is a slippery slope to highlight, without careful consideration, a handful to represent an idea.” 

When the board of Visit the County, the Destination Marketing and Management Organization, or DMMO, created to manage MAT dollars for tourism development, was looking for new people to join, I applied. 

Complaining about VTC wasn’t going to help fix what I thought was the problem. I was going to step up, to “foster the change I wanted to see.”

Within a few months, I was ready to walk away.  I felt that I wasn’t being heard. Decisions about spends had already been made and that there wasn’t an opportunity to make the changes I felt were important for our business community.  

Then I realized that the big issue wasn’t VTC. My ego was clouding my understanding of what it is meant to do. I was looking at other markets, the programs they were launching, and thinking we were under-represented. I was angry, frustrated at the lack of attention, and ready to turn my back on supporting VTC because I felt they weren’t supporting me. 

“Why would I give my time to an organization that was only promoting others?” I thought. 

This is where I got it wrong.  VTC was not deliberately promoting other businesses over my own, they were promoting the businesses that understood the role of a DMMO. VTC promotes the businesses that put together events and initiatives that bring people to PEC. I was waiting for VTC to come to me when I should have been going to the business community and creating partnerships and events that VTC could promote. I had the proverbial cart before the horse. 

The role of a DMMO is to increase visitor revenues through more overnight stays, to make sure that the visitor experience makes visitors want to come back, to manage the impact of tourism on the community, and to help foster the things that bring tourists in the first place.

 It does not replace the Picton BIA in beautification of our streets or in creating local festivals. It also does not replace the Chamber of Commerce’s role to advocate for local businesses. VTC amplifies the great things that are happening here to a larger audience. For example, Visit the County invested in building a new website to attract potential visitors looking up PEC online. The website is the vehicle to allow businesses like my own to promote what we are doing. The same can be said for other initiatives like Countylicious, the Arts Trail, and the Taste Trail. 

VTC gives the businesses involved in these initiatives a larger platform to reach a wider audience based on a long-term strategy of growth.

Do not mistake what I am saying. VTC should be held accountable to the community it represents. Businesses and residents should be able to express disappointment in the results, or concerns about the direction the marketing is going if they disagree with the strategy. 

It is, however, unfair to blame an organization for something it was never meant to do. That is the equivalent of sitting in boat complaining that it is sinking and not helping to paddle. It’s even worse when everyone is trying to paddle in different directions. 

Our tourist-based business community will not succeed unless we start working together.  Accommodations won’t have visitors if the restaurants close and retail won’t have customers if we don’t highlight our arts and culture as part of what makes PEC special. There are plenty of other communities fighting for the same tourist dollars. 

VTC offers a chance to foster a sustainable approach to tourism that meets the needs of the whole community, but that only works if we collaborate to build a long-term marketing strategy.