Essay Kincardine Tourism: Value in Visitors – Case Study – Tourism Assignment Help

Assignment Task

BACKGROUND

Kincardine Tourism was the department of Kincardine’s municipal government primarily in charge of attracting visitors, distributing information, and organizing local events. McDonald worked closely with the municipal government and provided frequent updates and results to the municipality. Changes in elected government officials could result in unforeseen changes to the office’s budget. McDonald was joined by two to four summer students during the busier months. The visitor information centre normally operated out of two locations: one on Highway 21 and a smaller satellite office on Queen Street, the town’s main downtown street.

The department operated in a highly seasonal industry; the number of visitors to the area nearly doubled during the third quarter of the year (July−September).1 In the winter, Kincardine was hit with extreme winter storms, which frequently led to highway closures. As a result, it was especially important for Kincardine Tourism to ensure that visitor numbers in the summer were met. The offices were busy in the summer months with tourists looking for maps, suggestions, and accommodation.

On top of this, the department managed the municipality’s weekly Market in the Park as well as many larger events such as the Gathering of the Bands, a Scottish music festival. McDonald and her team needed to plan effectively to ensure the marketing and promotion strategy was organized before the other responsibilities began demanding their time in the summer.

KINCARDINE, ONTARIO

Kincardine was a municipality located on the shores of Lake Huron in Bruce County, Ontario. Kincardine’s population as of summer 2020 was 11,665.2 Most of Kincardine’s businesses were small in scale, with 10 employees or less.3 The town was within a three-hour drive from major metropolitan areas like Toronto and was relatively close to the Canada−US border crossing at Sarnia. Kincardine had a small airport, but it was not used regularly for commercial flights.

While the town’s harbour had 14 transient slips, nearly all visitors arrived at Kincardine by car. Steady vehicular traffic passed through Kincardine on Highway 21, a major collector highway spanning from between Sarnia and London to Owen Sound. The busy highway traffic was separated from the downtown core based around Queen Street, which ran parallel to the highway. This separation allowed for a quaint downtown with more foot traffic for the smaller, locally owned stores. The most influential contributor to the county’s economy was the Bruce Power Nuclear Generating Station (Bruce Power).

The nuclear power station was the largest operational plant in the world and employed over 4,000 people.4 As a result, many of the businesses in the area were service-based and appealed to Bruce Power’s employees and their families. The variety of restaurants, bars, experiences, and events in the area equally appealed to the tourist market.