United strategy required for tourism industry to grow.

• Author: Krupa, Deborah
• Position: Industry Overview

I heard a story the other day about a large Northern Ontario business that spent a good part of 1990 meticulously designing its 10-year plan only to discard this "New Directions" document because it had become irrelevant and out-of-date by October of 1991.

Company management, along with outside consultants, worked on the plan for approximately four months.

Once put to paper, it was printed in large enough quantities to supply most of the staff with a copy. Information sessions were also initiated to discuss the long-term strategies with the company's employees, but before these sessions were completed, the project was shelved because the document had become obsolete.

To some, this story might serve as an example of how difficult it is to plan for the future in the rapidly changing world in which we live. To others, it illustrates the importance of building flexibility into our planning in order to positively react to changes that could come our way.

Many of us in the Northern Ontario tourism industry believe that long-range planning is imperative if the industry is to prosper and grow into the new century. However, it is obvious that our traditional methods of planning will not work in today's marketplace.

Northern Ontario is slowly changing its attitude towards tourism development. In the past it was not uncommon for government and business tourism agencies to operate totally independently of each other. Each worked towards its own mandate, sometimes unaware of the programs and policies put in place by the other.

We can no longer afford to operate in this manner. Tourism may well be Northern Ontario's second-largest industry by now - not because of any growth it's enjoyed, but because of the decline we've experienced in our traditionally strong resource-based sectors.

Tourism, therefore, and its growth is more critical than ever to the Northern Ontario economy.

Second, there simply is not enough money, time or human resources available to waste in making mistakes or in duplicating our efforts.

If there is potential for the tourism industry to grow, we must begin immediately to pool our resources and to work together to build one united long-term strategy for the benefit of the whole Northern Ontario economy.

The first step in designing a successful tourism strategy for Northern Ontario is to bring all of the players together.

The players should include government and private-sector groups such as FedNor, the provincial ministries of...