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What We Do

“The key to successful tourism destination development is highly engaged communities that take an active role in shaping their collective future. The best destinations have engagement across a broad spectrum of tourism stakeholders; business, public, financial, political and a host of others, not just tourism and marketing entities.”

Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4) was incorporated in October 2010 pursuant to the Ontario Ministry of Tourism’s request to create “an organization that will coordinate the diverse interests of the tourism industry to build and support a competitive tourism region through marketing and destination management.” Our region (Ontario Tourism Region #4) encompasses Huron County, Perth County, Waterloo Region and Wellington County.

RTO4 follows a ‘goal-strategy-measurement’ model to create, implement and assess the tools and tactics that are the most appropriate for growing the tourism economy in this region.

Region DNA

Ontario Tourism Region 4 encompasses Huron County, Perth County, Waterloo Region and Wellington County

RTO4 Coverage Map Showing Huron County, Perth County, Waterloo Region and Wellington County

Guiding Principles

RTO4 follows a purpose-built model based on a process of ‘goal-strategy-measurement’ to create, implement and assess the tools and tactics that are the most appropriate for growing the tourism economy in this region. The team operates on five guiding principles:

  • Hygiene First – a critical focus on working with stakeholders to identify and fix those things that impede tourism growth
  • Destination Network – a holistic view of destinations that engages multiple stakeholders in shaping a community’s collective tourism future
  • Shared Story Brand – redefining brand in the modern media world as the sum total of shared stories and experiences about a given destination
  • A relentless focus on the visitor experience
  • Enabling Engagement – working with stakeholders to strengthen their ability to engage consumers
Guiding Principles Info Graphic See text description along side for accessibility

Destination Development Process

The goal of the RTO4 Destination Development process is to create vibrant destinations by emphasizing capacity building, a culture of innovation, and the transfer of key skills to Destination Network partners, as well as unlocking co-investment from traditional and non-traditional stakeholders; in essence, a virtuous loop of continuous destination improvement.
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phases

RTO4 Destination Development Process

Phase one – align and engage the Destination network:

  • Destination Network – Identify and align a diverse group of Destination stakeholders
  • Destination DNA – Develop consensus on the essence of a place and it’s people

Phase two – Collaborative Destination network projects focusing on DNA and Visitor Experience:

  • Hygiene – Identify, fix and enhance physical and digital experience issues
  • Animation – Create and enhance experiences that align with the DNA
  • Storytelling – Increase the efficacy of DNA storytelling and amplification

Why We Unbrand Ourselves?

RTO4 is not a brand.

A look at the successes and failures of previous regional models in the province points to the fact that the umbrella branding of RTOs caused consumer confusion and friction with branded destinations and operators. Therefore, instead of consumer-facing assets, RTO4 focuses on using resources to enhance existing demand generators and amplify, disseminate brands within the RTO4 region that are provincially significant.

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