Greater Napanee enters three-year marketing agreement with Bay of Quinte

During a Regular Greater Napanee Council meeting on Tuesday, March 23, council committed to a nearly $25,000 annual membership, for the next three years, that would increase tourism and residential attractions in the area.

With the 2021 budget already set, council moved to allocate monies in order to adjust for funds that would buy the Town a seat on the Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board (BoQ RMB). Brandt Zatterberg, General Manager of Community & Corporate Services for the Town of Napanee, suggested to council that it utilize $20,000 from the economic development budget for consultants, and another $5,000 from the tourism advertising and marketing budget to cover the cost. The cost of membership is determined on a per capita basis. In 2021, the board membership fee will be $1.55 per capita for 15,892 (2016 census), which equates to $24,632.60 annually.

 “We’ll continue to build on the multi-tactic campaigns that were created last year, targeting our GTA East – Ottawa – Montreal & in between market as deemed appropriate. We’ll also look at some new markets that our accommodations sector has prioritized, like Niagara and Muskoka regions,” BoQ RMB Executive Director Dug Stevenson laid out in his package to council. He originally presented to council on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, and the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and council’s BIA representative met virtually with the BoQ RMB Chair, Executive Director, and other directors following the initial presentation.

“I fully support this,” declared Deputy Mayor Max Kaiser. “I just wanted to make sure – we’ve got a three year plan – is there an easy exit, should we feel that it’s not serving our interest anymore? … Some of our past efforts didn’t materialize as we thought they would.”

Zatterberg explained that staff “would be reviewing this every year,” and even though there is a three-year commitment, if the municipality found that it was “not happy with it in year two, then [it] would plan for an exit after year three.”

Other partnering municipalities are the City of Belleville, the City of Quinte West, the Municipality of Brighton, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, Quinte Home Builders Association, and the Quinte Restaurant Association.

“I certainly support it. The only question I would have is: who is going to reach out to all the partners?” asked Mayor Marg Isbester.

“We have community engagement within our department. For example, Lyndsay Tee (Manager of Community Economic Development for the Town of Greater Napanee) has met with BoQ and will be in communication with our stakeholders along the way,” explained Zatterberg. He added that the BoQ RMB “does their own outreach,” by a paid employee whose focus is to conduct outreach with stakeholders of paying members, as well as to form new relationships and partnerships within the communities it serves.

Isbester asked for clarification on residential attractions and how the BoQ would promote existing developments within Greater Napanee.

“We have a specialty housing here and… I don’t think you see too many small municipalities like us… that are supplying a really specialty need,” said Isbester. “Will they go to Heritage Park? Will they promote the ones we already have here? Will they go to the new one that’s going in at Richmond Park?”

“It isn’t that I don’t support it, I just want to make sure we get bang for our buck,” added Isbester.

Zatterberg said that BoQ is “promoting lifestyle,” and therefore residential developments that currently exist “would naturally fit into their campaigns to promote our lifestyle” in Greater Napanee.

“The attractive thing for us is that it would put us in the marketing all the way to Brighton. Their target market has been GTA. That means when people are accessing the Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board, they’re going to be seeing Greater Napanee at the same as those developments that are happening to the west of us,” Zatterberg said. He added that these tourism efforts would be in addition to, and separate from, the tourism partnership already in place with the County.

Some of the BoQ RMB campaigns include: “TAKE A DRIVE campaign” which is promoted year-round to attract consumers to the region with multiple entry points of interest based on each season; the “Staycation Sweepstakes,” which encourages BoQ residents to explore and discover all that the region has to offer right in their backyard, as well as shop local campaigns. For more information visit the Town’s website, or click here.

Greater Napanee council moved to enter the three-year partnership agreement with the BoQ RMB by a motion made by Coun. John McCormack and seconded by Coun. Bob Norrie. Coun. Ellen Johnson has been appointed as the board representative for the Town of Greater Napanee.