| The Honourable Steve Crocker, Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation, announced the launch of ‘Transition. Transform. Thrive. A Tourism Vision and Strategy for Newfoundland and Labrador.’ Minister Crocker was joined by tourism, hospitality and cultural industry stakeholders and partners at The Rooms in St. John’s for the announcement. Also known as Vision 2026, this five-year strategy will ultimately transform the province’s tourism landscape. It is the result of work by the Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism Board, whose membership consists of representatives from the Provincial Government and private industry. The board also consulted with countless partners throughout the province. Plans for the next five years will take a three-phased approach: Transition 2022-2023 – A short-term strategy that transitions tourism to more solid footing, building capacity to grow visitation to pre-2020 levels. Transformation 2024-2026 – A comprehensive medium-to-long-term strategy that transforms tourism on a sustainable path of consistent and responsible annual visitation, spending and employment growth. Thrive 2026 and Beyond – A long-term strategy focused on guiding and supporting tourism development with an equal focus on economics and the well-being of people and places, also referred to as regenerative tourism. In this phase of Vision 2026, tourism is thriving by constantly monitoring and adapting to the dynamic and ever-changing tourism environment. With Vision 2026, private and public stakeholders will strive to not only grow tourism’s contribution to the economy, but also to enhance the sociocultural vibrancy and environmental well-being of the province. Work on the Transition Phase has already begun, with the following activities underway for years 2022-2023: – Investing in air access capacity development; – Developing a new tourism research plan, along with enhanced visitor surveying; – Completing a review of the province’s marketing strategy and enhanced marketing investments for two years; – Creating exceptional experiences through the recently announced Tourism Experience Enhancement Fund; – Investing in season extension initiatives to drive visitation outside of the peak summer season; – Establishing Celebrate NL to implement an event attraction strategy; – Completing evaluation of the private-public leadership model and evolving the leadership structure; and – Making strategic investments in signage at points of entry and on themed routes throughout the province. Budget 2022 included $20 million to support tourism recovery initiatives related to Vision 2026. |
Vision 2026: A Tourism Vision & Strategy for Newfoundland and Labrador
