Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
The town’s elected officials have decided to make an investment in the local tourism sector after hearing a presentation at a meeting on Monday night.
Chelsea Omness, the recreation manager for Kindersley, and Anna Polsfut, a communications clerk for the town, teamed up to make a presentation to council on Oct. 22 to highlight a new way to promote tourism in the community. The staff members gave a Power Point presentation.
Polsfut, who worked as one of two tourism advisors at the town’s tourism information booth at the Kindersley & District Plains Museum in the summer, began by telling council there has been a name change for the space at the museum.
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She noted that the space is now referred to as a centre instead of a booth to give the space a more appropriate name. Polsfut spoke about the operation of the Tourism Centre and other aspects of what happens in the space. She told council about the centre’s annual budget of $1,500 for supplies and events.
The communications clerk highlighted the events she and her fellow tourism adviser helped to facilitate at the museum, and also the duties, tasks and projects they completed. She said she expanded her creative abilities and spent hours working on creative projects.
Polsfut spoke about the importance of advertising and how she created posters to help promote events such as the community’s Canada Day celebration at the museum. She also mentioned an Instagram account she set up to promote tourism.
The two staff members were at the meeting to sell the idea of advertising the town in the Southern Saskatchewan Tourism magazine. Omness said a spot in the magazine would help the town to promote a wide range of things going on in the community through 2019.
According to an administrative report, the magazine has a wide circulation and it promotes attractions in cities and smaller communities including places in and around the west central region. The report adds that the administration is asking council to approve the purchase of a two-page spread in the publication.
Omness said the town has new developments on the go including the new aquatic centre and several annual events that will draw people to the community, so it would be nice to get a spot in the magazine to promote a range of items.
She noted that a designer at Southern Saskatchewan Tourism magazine drafted an ad to provide local officials with an example to see. Omness showed the draft to council members and she also had a copy of last year’s publication. Council heard that there are options for the layout, but the draft provides eight spaces to promote different items.
The recreation manager said Polsfut would have handed out several copies of the magazine to tourists this past summer. The publication highlights various destinations, and Omness said the town has a chance to be in the magazine and to “be the destination.”
Omness said it would only be a matter of determining what town officials want to highlight in the ad. A councillor asked how often the ad would run, and Omness said the publication is circulated for a full year and the ad just has to be ready by December.
“I think it would be worth our investment this year,” she told council, recognizing that she believes it would be a good investment for 2019 because there are plenty of attractions to highlight and it could be re-evaluated in the future.
Council heard that it costs $1,700 for a one-page ad in the publication, so the estimate for a two-page spread is $3,400. A council member pointed out that a two-page ad is what really helps to grab somebody’s attention.
Mayor Rod Perkins asked how many of the magazines are printed and he was told they are free for tourism centres, so workers at centres across Saskatchewan and in neighbouring provinces just have to ask for the publication and the company sends a shipment. The mayor said it could be a worthwhile investment.
“This $3,400 would probably be money well spent,” Perkins said, noting that the town had surplus funding from its community grant program after both intakes and the unused grant money will cover the cost of the promotional advertising.
Omness said she would check with council before the final version is approved to see if there are specific items members want in the ad. Polsfut told council about ideas for the local Tourism Centre going forward. Council members commended the two staff members both on the presentation and, in the case of the tourism advisors, over the summer.
Other meeting highlights
Council has passed a resolution to direct local officials to enter into a land sale agreement with the federal government for a future construction project.
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