Tourism Windsor future plans for the city

By: Vince Ferraro

 

The CEO of the local tourism bureau says they have plans for the city and county.

 

“We have a budget of approximately $2.1 million dollars which comes from the City of Windsor ($925K) and County of Essex ($850K),” said Gordon Orr, the CEO of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island.

 

TWEPI is a not for profit organization which is dedicated to selling Windsor, Essex and Pelee Island as a destination for tourists, convention travelers or business goers. They have many goals such as increased development and retention at Devonshire, Windsor Crossing and Tecumseh malls. They also have plans to work with social influencers, expand sports tourism and many more.  

 

“We receive some money from the province through their appropriate funding envelopes as well. This is a deciding year on our funding because of the newly legislated municipal accommodation tax (four per cent applied to booked hotel rooms). Therefore, after a full year of collection (2019) we’ll have a better prediction if our funding from the City of Windsor (who is collecting the tax) will go up (in 2020),” said Orr.

 

According to TWEPI, the Canadian dollar is weaker which brings more from the U.S. here. The TWEPI Facebook page has 7.1 million impressions and 3.03 million Twitter impressions, which the organization believes shows TWEPI is attracting people to the city.