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Tourism as a centrepiece for development
MAXIME MYRE maxime.myre@eap.on.ca
fromall over, but also help promote smaller businesses in the area. Tourism generated around $85 million in the region last year, according to businesses which aremembers of Prescott-Russell Tourism. “In total, 88 per cent of our members acknowledged that the activities of Pres- cott-Russell Tourismhad a direct impact on their sales. Many businesses confirmed that a quarter of their new clients came to their commerce because of one of our many infor- mational tools available. In other words, our members gained around $2million because of our operations.” Even though these numbers are great for a region of 80 000 residents, Lacelle and his team have launched an online marketing campaignwith the help of Katherine Levac, the St-Bernardin native comedian.The cam- paign consists of witty short videos of Levac going around various landmark locations and businesses. The business owners then have the chance to showcase their products and operations. Josée Bourbonnais 613-286-9949 Service à domicile
Martin Lacelle, director of Prescott-Rus- sell Tourism, presented the organization’s accomplishments and the status of tourism in the region. At the end of the presentation, it was clear that tourism is a force to be rec- konedwith for the economic development of Prescott-Russell as a whole. It was during the Rural Business Summit, held at the Alfred College onMarch 22, that Martin Lacelle took the stand as one of the main speakers of the event. With an annual budget of $687,000, including 250,000 co- ming directly from the UCPR, Martin Lacelle managed to tackle the difficult task of gai- ning visibility for Prescott-Russell Tourism (PRT) on social media. But before their social media blitz, many events that are already a success in the region have already generated substantial revenues. “This year we believed that since we have a hard time finding data on tourism in Pres- cott-Russell, it was time to collect or find that data. The numbers we are presenting are real numbers frombusiness members,” saidMartin Lacelle during his presentation. “When it comes to festivals, like the Curd Festival in St-Albert, the Hawkesbury Bike Fest or smaller events like the Western Fes- tivals, together these events generated $3.2
Martin Lacelle, directeur de Tourisme Prescott-Russell (TPRT), est venu présenter les efforts de son organisation lors du Sommet des affaires rurales qui a eu lieu au Collège d’Alfred les 22 et 23 mars. Plus de 1,3 million de personnes ont visité la région l’an passé et ont généré près de 85 M$. Pas moins de 88 % des entreprises membres de TPRT disent avoir été positivement affectées par les activités de promotion de TPRT. La dernière campagne marketing, lancée tout récemment, met en vedette nulle autre que Katherine Levac, humoriste native de Saint-Bernardin. —photo Maxime Myre
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million per year.That’s 130,000 festival goers coming to our area.” Bigger businesses like Beau’s All-Natu- ral Brewery, the Calypso water park and the St-Albert Cheese Factory attract people, more than 1.3 million people to be exact,
Rockland Job Fair returns by popular demand
Infirmière en soins de pied joseebourbonnais1@sympatico.ca
En haut de la Pharmacie Jean Coutu Above the Jean Coutu Pharmacy
AU CŒUR DE VOTRE VIE
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Après Hawkesbury, c’était au tour de la Cité de Clarence-Rockland d’accueillir la foire de l’emploi du Centre de services à l’emploi de Prescott-Russell (CSEPR), le 25 mars dernier au River Rock Inn. —photo Vicky Charbonneau
and those with work spaces to fill. This year’s CSEPR Job Fair sawmore than 1000 people walking around the kiosks and information booths set up inHawkesbury, at l’École secondaire catholique régionale de Hawkesbury, during the first half of March and at the RiverRock Inn over the March 25 weekend. The Rockland event itself had almost 450 walk-ins during the day among the 34 information and interview booths. The overall satisfaction response from both job-seekers and employers taking part in this year’s Rockland Job Fair was high. Muise noted that most comments from the employers were about how well-prepared were many of the potential applicants at their booths. CSEPR staff offered the same type of advice to job-hunters taking in the fair, that they do on a day-to-day basis at the centre’s offices throughout Prescott-Russell. “We were told that the quality of job-see- kers was very high,” she said. “The job fair is really about pairing a job seeker with the right employer.”
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
The first official weekend of spring saw a crowd of students and others passing in and out of the convention room at the River- Rock Inn. The Rockland Job Fair was back by popular demand as part of an annual spring tradition. The Prescott-Russell Employment Ser- vices Centre (CSEPR) has hosted an annual job fair for the past six years, starting with the original fair in Hawkesbury and then shifting to twinned spring job fairs in both Hawkesbury and Rockland soon after. Last year the centre was forced to limit the spring job fair site just to Hawkesbury but Carol Muise, CSEPR representative, said this year’s event marks its return to Rockland. “Our people (clients) really expect it to be in both locations,” Muise said, adding that the twinned job fair project has proven very popular with both those in search of work
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