The winning streak for Pumpkinferno continued last Thursday night, November 14 in Toronto when the hugely popular fall event was named Ontario’s Tourism Event of the Year at the Ontario Tourism Summit.
This is the second provincial award for Upper Canada Village’s Pumpkinferno in just it’s second year.
The Ontario Tourism Summit is an annual event that brings together hundreds of tourism professionals from across Ontario to learn the latest in industry trends and forecasts, share best practices, network with colleagues, and recognize industry leaders at the Tourism Awards.
The award for Tourism Event of the Year is presented to ‘an event or festival that exemplifies industry best practices in all aspects of its operation and serves as an example of excellence.’
Consideration is given to criteria such as visitor satisfaction, how the event stimulates economic activity for the community, region or province and the growth in visitation, visitor spending, innovation or product development attributable to the event.
Pumpkinferno is without a doubt one of the most innovative and creative events in Ontario and has captured the imaginations of thousands of visitors. In its first year, over 35,000 people visited; in 2013 over 38,000 visitors took in the event, an almost nine per cent increase year over year.
The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario is the umbrella organization for leading associations, destination marketing organizations and regional tourism organizations serving Ontario’s diverse tourism industry.
TIAO collectively represents 147,000 businesses and the 608,000 employees that are dedicated to promoting and operating the Province’s tourism infrastructure.
“Receiving Provincial recognition from our industry peers for Pumpkinferno is a huge vote of confidence in the creativity and innovation shown by our team in the development of this event,” says Darren Dalgleish, GM and CEO of the St. Lawrence Parks. “We set an attendance record in our first year and this year we broke that record! Ontario’s tourism sector is very competitive and we are honoured to be recognized for Pumpkinferno in this category.”
Earlier this year Pumpkinferno was honoured by Festivals & Events Ontario when it was named 2012 Best New Event in Ontario. It was also a finalist in the 2012 Ottawa Tourism Awards for Tourism Event of the Year.
Product enrichment is a key part of the SLPC’s strategic direction to serve the community in a thoughtful and entrepreneurial manner by making its vast array of attractions and experiences more economically accessible and collaborative while at the same time ensuring future growth and fiscal improvement.
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