Overview

In 2009, the Ontario government reviewed Ontario's tourism industry. The study recommended creating tourism regions, each led by a regional tourism organization, to make Ontario’s tourism industry stronger and more competitive.

Regional boundaries were developed after extensive consultation and submissions from industry partners. More than 500 tourism partners from across the province helped inform the development of the regional boundaries through 13 public consultations, 17 planning sessions, and almost 200 written and online submissions.

The industry indicated that the regions need to be sustainable, capture unique product clusters and integrate existing brands and partnerships. The ministry also considered factors such as the tourist's perspective, travel patterns, common markets, natural landforms and existing infrastructure.

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Map of Ontario showing the 13 different tourism regions.
 

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Regional tourism profiles

These profiles include reports on visits, visitor spending, hotel performance, and number of tourism related businesses.

If you need this information in another format, please contact tourism.research@ontario.ca. Within five business days, we will:

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Regional tourism organizations

Regional tourism organizations (RTOs) are independent, not-for-profit organizations led by the tourism sector. They play an important role in fostering competitive and viable tourism regions across Ontario.

RTOs provide regional leadership and support a coordinated and collaborative approach that maximizes resources, encourages strategic planning and investment, and results in stronger marketing with better reach.

Difference from destination marketing organizations

RTOs are responsible for tourism marketing, development and management at a regional level. Destination marketing organizations focus on developing tourism at a sub-regional level, particularly through marketing. Sectoral organizations are provincial or national in scope and focus on opportunities to improve specific sectors of the tourism industry.

The ministry expects that RTOs will work with all industry partners in their region to grow tourism. RTOs may also work collaboratively across regions and with sector-based organizations on areas of mutual interest. Regions may vary, however, in how their RTOs and existing destination marketing organizations decide to work together. Destination marketing organizations and RTOs may be able to develop long-term partnership opportunities.

Governance

The RTOs are independent, not-for-profit organizations governed by a Board of Directors. It is up to each RTO to determine its own board structure and membership. They determine if they are membership-based and if membership fees will be implemented.

The board is responsible for developing annual business plans and determining how to use the region's funding. The ministry reviews the business plans and funding is provided to the RTO in accordance with the transfer-payment agreement requirements.

RTOs are responsible for supporting tourism across their entire region to ensure that they represent all their area’s tourism business interests.

Research

RTOs may pursue regional research for planning, coordination and performance measurement.

The ministry complements this work with provincewide data broken down by region. The ministry supports RTOs with data and statistics on visits to tourism regions including:

  • regional visits, length of stay and spending
  • purpose of visits and activities
  • visits by origin (Ontario, Canada, U.S., overseas)
  • accommodation statistics

Destination Ontario, Ontario’s tourism marketing agency, has also offered partnership opportunities to RTOs to conduct social media research, brand perception and awareness research, and partnership satisfaction surveys to gain consumer insight.

Regional tourism organizations and the province

All RTOs have signed transfer payment agreements that hold them accountable to the province for how funding is used and for growing tourism in the region. These agreements include the requirement to regularly report to the ministry. The ministry can take any steps it deems appropriate if an RTO is unable fulfill its responsibilities. RTOs are also responsible to their members for results.

The French Language Services Act guarantees an individual's right to receive services in French from Government of Ontario ministries and agencies in 25 designated areas. This legislation does not directly govern the work of independent organizations.

Francophone visitors are an important market for Ontario and the ministry continues to work with RTOs to build their capacity to attract and serve Francophone visitors. Many tourism partners are already putting an emphasis on serving Francophone visitors. The ministry encourages this work to continue.

The regional tourism approach and municipalities

Tourism is an important economic driver in communities across the province, and the ministry encourages municipalities to continue supporting tourism as part of their communities' economic growth strategies.

It’s important for municipalities to work with their RTO to further local tourism growth and economic success.

Funding approach

Since 2013, each regional tourism organization (RTO) receives yearly funding. Steady funding encourages stronger partnerships and a coordinated approach to product development, regional planning and marketing. These strengths are vital to Ontario tourism’s future competitiveness.

The funding approach includes:

  • base funding to maintain the RTO’s operation and support its business plan. Due to its large area, RTO 13 (Northern Ontario) is split into three sub-regions with each one receiving its own base funding
  • proportional funding tied to its region’s tourism performance. This funding is calculated based on historical tourism data, such as overnight visits
  • partnership funding that recognizes strong partnerships and a coordinated approach. Each RTO is eligible to receive additional funds if they show that they have received funds from other sources in support of regional activities. Partnership funding is capped at 20 per cent of the proportional allocation to a maximum of $1.5 million. RTOs are encouraged to engage with multiple partners