Regional Tourism Organization won’t kill NOSTA: executive director

The creation of a new tourism organization does not mean the end of the North of Superior Tourism Association, says that association’s executive director.

Don Pearl, executive director of NOSTA, said he wanted to clarify to the members at the annual general meeting on Wednesday that the new level of funding provided by the province’s Regional Tourism Organization didn’t mean that other tourism organizations in Northern Ontario would be killed.

The RTO provides funding across Ontario with northern Ontario split into three sub-regions. Pearl said last year some members were concerned that the creation of the RTO would eliminate the need for some tourism associations.

But the RTO isn’t meant to be a replacement, but an additional funding agency.

"What the province did was they came out with a whole other level of funding for tourism and through that people were concerned that other people’s funding may drop off," Pearl said. "This funding is in addition to the existing funding that we see from Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation and other organizations."

RTO is in the middle of a transitional period before it is permanently implemented as an organization with the election for the board of directors happen sometime in the New Year and the hiring of the executive director sometime in January, he said.

Iain Angus, president of North of Superior Travel Association, said RTO made the tourism industry nervous as many thought it might replace existing organizations such as NOSTA and Sun Set Country.

But that wasn’t the case, he said.

"It is a new layer to provide funding for projects," Angus said. "For years we had to rely on the government or a government agency to provide money to NOSTA. It is a consistent supply of money that’s dedicated to the region and will be part of the taxes that tourists pay when they enter into a hotel."

Angus said last year NOSTA lost some memberships over confusion about RTO and fears that NOSTA wasn’t a stability marketing organization.

But this year is expected to go smoother with more focus on promoting tourism websites and a more aggressive attitude toward membership sales, he said.