By Cecilia Nasmith

When it comes to tourism, a post-COVID society is rarin' to go, Northumberland County Tourism Manager Eileen Lum said this week.

And as she gave her report on the work of her department for the first half of 2022 to Northumberland County council's Economic Development, Tourism, Land Use Planning standing committee this week, Lum recounted how her department had sought to grow the county's share of this pent-up demand with several big campaigns.

Warm Up To Winter ran Jan. 15 through March 31 as a more robust version of a typical winter's marketing campaign, carried out primarily on social media and digital ads on such strategic sites as CBC and Global.

Find Your Spring (April 1 through May 10) capitalized on a spring when COVID was not dominating public life the way it had in 2020 and 2021. Again, it was primarily a social-media campaign.

In both campaigns, more than 28,000 visitors clicked on what Lum termed the campaign landing pages created for the initiatives, and a like number viewed the campaign videos, with more than 3,600 social-media likes, comments and shares.

The Great Northumberland Road Trip digital tourism guide in May and June produced a magazine-quality guide in digital form that users could access on their phones while they travelled. It included 42 fully accessible pages, 165 web-page links, 150 Google locator pins, 15 printable maps, eight curated to-do lists and 25 ambient-sound videos that Lum said were designed to paint an inviting picture through one's sense of hearing with the crisp crunch of an apple from Cricklewood Farms, for example, or the sound of waves lapping at the shore of the Presqu'ile lighthouse.

The chance to promote this campaign came in May through the Globe & Mail travel edition that went to three-million subscribers to the newspaper.

In the end, they got almost 26,000 visitors to their website and digital guide, more than 46,000 campaign video views, more than 2,500 social-media likes, comments and shares, and more than 1,300 entrants in an on-line contest.

A very successful new focus is the Wellness Tourism Experience initiative, Lum said, a natural way to capitalize on such attractions as Ste. Anne's Spa, Northumberland Heights and Harmony Dawn, as well as to incorporate businesses related to agri-tourism and the arts. They developed 10 new wellness experiences for their first year, after which 60% of participating businesses indicated they planned on hiring one new staff member as a result.

Intake for a second year of this initiative is going on now, Lum said, and the deadline to apply on-line is Sept. 18.

Lum discussed other projects, such as the 661 tourism businesses listed in their NT Business Directory and the five cycling repair stations that have just been purchased. This is a pilot initiative meant to help position Northumberland as a cycling destination with installations that can help with such basic bike-repair operations as changing a tire or fixing a dropped chain.

Deputy Warden Mandy Martin applauded the focus on bicycle tourism, saying she personally runs into cyclists from out of province, and also Lum's focus on social media.

“It's the way to reach people,” Martin declared.

“It isn't just one newspaper ad. It truly is all on social media now, one way or another. It's quite brilliant, Eileen, the way you ahve built it on social media. That's the key.”

Committee chair Sanderson asked where the five bicycle-repair stations will be located. That discussion is still on-going, Lum said, though one location seeming to find favour is Memorial Park in Port Hope – close to both a public restroom and a downtown where they might look around and choose to shop or eat.