STRATFORD TOURISM ALLIANCE HAS RATHER ODD SALES PITCH

ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW
BY JOHN KASTNER
THE STRATFORD BEACON HERALD
The role of the Stratford Tourism Alliance is to promote tourism and convince people near and far that this is a great place to visit.
The alliance is a partnership of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the City of Stratford and the city's tourism sector. This collaboration replaced Tourism Stratford, which had been a city department.
Bringing in the stakeholders as partners makes sense, but to suggest everyone is on the same page is a stretch. It s clear the partners are using more than one song book.
Case in point - the annual Stratford swan parade. The Tourism Alliance wanted to ramp up the event and bring in bleachers, more glitz, gimmicks and pomp and circumstance.
The City Beautification and Environmental Awareness Committee disagreed, a standoff ensued and the committee opted for the KIS approach ( Keep It Simple ), and so the swan parade will be a lot like it has been for the last 20 years.
Bagpipes, tons of people and swans.
Then, last SaturdayThe Beacon Herald published an article about sports tourism, and in the article Tourism Alliance executive director Eugene Zakreski made some statements that irked the City Centre Committee.
To paraphase, Zakreski was somewhat dismissive of sports tourism and said that the mandate of the Tourism Alliance was to go after clientele that is " looking to spend a good deal of money" and "willing to spend a higher price".
The City Centre Committee was so miffed it sent out a media release to counter Zakreski s remarks and pointed out that tourists who only buy a newspaper or coffee werre also very welcome.
Zakreski, whose job is to sell Stratford as a destination for touristss, also took a swipe at Stratford s inventory of resturants and hotels.
"I think sports tourism is an excellent opportunity, but we have our challenges in terms of infrastructure, particularly places to stay and places to eat," Zakreski was quoted as saying in the article.
Well, that's an odd thing to say for the guy who is supposed to be singing the praises of the city and especially its hospitality and tourism sector.
And if there aren' t enough hotel rooms, or resturants or the right kind of hotels and resturants, one assumes that good old fashioned capitalism would kick in.
If Zakreski and the Tourism Alliance were bringing so many people here that there really was no place to eat or no place to stay, hotels wouldn t be converted to seniors' homes and new resturants would be opening up to handle the crowds.
The tourism alliance should be less picky about the sort of tourists we attract and if it brings so many tourists, whether it be sports tourism or anything else, that new resturants open and hotels have to be built, so be it.
There are lots of different and successful sales pitches, but to imply we only want tourists who are not worried about price and that there is no room at the inn and not enough good place to eat is rather a new approach.
And not a very good one.
john.kastner@sunmedia.ca