Emily
Stonehouse, economic development, destination and marketing officer for
the Township of Minden Hills, gave councillors an overview of her plans
for 2019, during a December council meeting. 

 

Stonehouse
was hired to the position, a new one for the township, in the fall, and
recently held jobs with local tourism business Yours Outdoors, and
Fleming College/Haliburton School of Art + Design. 

 

“In
2019, it’s recommended that Minden Hills focus on its internet
presence,” Stonehouse said, explaining that the plan was to break Minden
Hills’ online presence, both in terms of its website and social media
accounts, into separate categories; one for the administrative business
of the township, and one for destination tourism. 

A tourism campaign called Mind on Minden will be launched, and Stonehouse showed council a mockup for a tourism website. 

“As
you can see, it’s a very kind of simplistic idea here,” Stonehouse
said, “and it’s based on a background from the Ontario Highlands Tourism
Organization.” 

OHTO is a provincial regional tourism organization
of which the Haliburton Highlands is a part, and marketing for Minden
Hills will fold into the experiential tourism strategies employed by
OHTO. 

 

“I
did do a lot of research on how I can kind of keep up with social
media, and encourage all of our businesses, all of our community members
to get on the same page,” said Stonehouse, but said she found there is
some social media burnout among stakeholders in the community. 

“I found that people were over it,” she told councillors. 

“In
this time of social media burnout, hashtags, geotags and exploited
natural resources, Mind on Minden is a tourism initiative designed to
encourage visitors to disconnect to reconnect, and live in the moment,”
Stonehouse said. The campaign will also mirror Newfoundland and
Labrador’s 2012  “Find Yourself” tourism campaign. 

 

Part
of Stonehouse’s role is engaging with the township’s businesses
community to establish priorities. There has been some talk at the
council table in the past about establishing a mandated business
improvement area. BIAs are different from business associations, in that
the former are established geographic areas in which businesses are
mandated to pay fees, those fees being used for events and promotional
activities. The Village of Haliburton has a BIA. 

“So
far, potential BIAs have been met with some tension, a little backlash,
so I’m hoping I can lay the groundwork to move forward,” Stonehouse
told council.