According to the province's recent announcement, Bruce, Grey and Simcoe Counties comprise Region seven of the 13.   

These regions will each establish a Regional Tourism Organization by July 1, 2010, to intensify that region's tourism products and marketing activity.  

Mark Thompson, Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture, said the province would allocate $25 million in each of the next two years to help support destination marketing and management in these 13 tourism regions to help with the transition. The province also announced $40 million in ongoing annual funding starting in the 2009 budget for the tourism industry.

"Tourism regions and Regional Tourism Organizations are a major step towards a stronger, more coordinated and competitive tourism industry," said Thompson.

There are already existing tourism associations in each of those counties now left wondering what will happen to the initiatives they've been working on.

Jamie Petit, manager of the Meaford Chamber of Commerce said he's got a wait and see mindset.

"We're still going to continue with business as usual," he said. "I don't see any immediate impact."

Petit said the big question for him is government funding and whether this regional split will make it more of a competition to get funding for local regions. Still, his hope is for greater collaboration, and he believes that's the message coming from the province through this initiative.

"We're all in this together," said Petit. "There's always room to do more."

Linda Simpson, executive director of the Georgian Triangle Tourism Association said the new region includes partners that the Association has collaborated with for more than 30 years.

"As a regional tourism association, we have worked to promote our destination crossing five municipalities and two counties, understanding that political boundaries are invisible to our visitors," said Simpson. "Without understanding the roles and responsibilities of the [province's mandated] Regional Tourism Organization, it's premature to speculate on positives or negatives and future steps."

Simpson said she hopes for greater collaboration among regional destination marketing organizations to promote increased visitation and greater economic impacts.

Bryan Plumstead, Grey County Tourism Coordinator, says there's an opportunity in this initiative to do some high level marketing provided the new regional players ask themselves some important questions.

"How can we work together?" said Plumstead. "What kind of organization is this going to be?"

He, Petit and Simpson thought the work that the Georgian Bay Coastal Route group has been doing to promote tourism around Georgian Bay should continue. Plumstead also thought the model for the new regional organization should come from that group.

"There are certainly opportunities to work together to do new marketing and product development," said Plumstead. "We have to be careful not to lose work that's been done at the local and county level."

He said the first challenge is getting together to bring collective thinking to the table.

"I think job one is getting us all together sort of looking at the broad issues of a larger region," said Plumstead. "I think the provincial government has finally recognized tourism as an important economic driver."  

The province plans to release a request for expression of interest for industry proposals for establishing regional tourism organizations soon via its website at www.ontario.ca/tourism.