CANADA: Ottawa Valley Tourist Association Hosts Second Trade Show

The Ottawa Valley Tourism Association held a different kind of trade show in June, bringing 35 local hospitality and tourism businesses into a vacant unit in the Pembroke Mall to promote the region's vast array of tantalizing travel treats.

Instead of the more traditional tourism marketing targets, the second Ottawa Valley Tourism Trade Show was primarily aimed neither at travellers nor anyone specifically looking for something to do. Rather, the aim was to inform workers in other customer service areas of the travel options available to tourists and visitors.

"Everyone who works in customer service in the valley are all, essentially, tourism ambassadors," explains OVTA communications coordinator Lauren McIllfaterick. "We want them to come down to learn about the different tourism offerings in the valley so that when they have tourists stop in at their businesses in the summer, they can direct them."

In addition to local customer service reps, another goal of the show was to convince local residence to stick around during the summer rather than exploring elsewhere.

"The second part of it is to encourage our residents to come down and to learn what's going on in the Ottawa Valley and get them to plan their 'staycation' and spend more time in the Ottawa Valley this summer."

One of the ways the OVTA is encouraging people to visit more within the valley is their new Ottawa Valley Passport. The passport contains a list of more than 30 regional destinations, and anyone who collects stamps from at least three of them over the summer and submits their passport by Aug 25 is entered into the running for some impressive prizes.

For more information about the OVTA or the Ottawa Valley Passport, visit their website at www.ottawavalley.travel.