The Huntsville/Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce and its partners the Town of Huntsville, the Township of Lake of Bays and Algonquin Provincial Park are well on their way to developing a strong marketing plan with a solid foundation of financial support.

The marketing initiative is important to our community first and foremost. Currently, we are not the primary destination in Ontario for tourism.

“The goal of this initiative is to put Huntsville and Lake of Bays on the map,” said chamber general manager Kelly Haywood. “We have made quite a name for ourselves to date, and we have a lot to be proud of. What we want to do is draw more business during the shoulder season. Many of our local businesses spend a great deal of time, money and resources marketing the uniqueness of Huntsville as part of their marketing plan. We are fortunate to have supportive municipalities who have helped us in our efforts. We have passionate and committed people in our community who can make this work.”

The chamber’s proposed initiative involves a tourism partnership plan, as explained by Jeff Suddaby, chair of the external marketing committee, at the chamber’s annual general meeting in January.

Suddaby explained that if local businesses pull together, along with public support, our marketing dollars will be leveraged, strengthening our message externally and enabling our committees to look at larger projects going forward. Partnerships are available by purchase through the chamber.

The total projected amount of private partnerships dollars in this year’s community marketing budget is $104,000.

Six levels exist, and partners will be highlighted on the chamber’s new website: www.huntsvilleadventures.com along with great exposure in the Huntsville/Lake of Bays and Algonquin Park visitor’s guide.

Suddaby explained, “Our new website has been launched. This website will be marketed through the media, using a publicist bringing in more traffic to the site and viewing our area. In addition, through the event tourism initiative, the community will be able to tag along with events to create free media coverage to promote the website.  

For example, by arranging to have an ironman athlete on Canada AM and a mention ‘for more information go to www.huntsvilleadventures.com’, we will create more traffic, since Canada AM’s viewers are over a million people across Canada.”

The community marketing initiative, led by the chamber, has secured three partnerships to date, and encourages local businesses to get involved.

“Competition versus cooperation exists as a paradox today within our businesses, and we have the momentum to pull together collectively and learn to compete externally versus competing internally against each other.” said Joseph Klein, general manager of Deerhurst Resort. “We will benefit immensely from supportive and organized community marketing of our destination and all that we have to offer. A community that presents itself well to all of our markets, promoting all we have, and the people here to make it happen is key to our success let alone our community’s success.”

“This is about sustainability,” Haywood said. “I am confident that our business community can see the impact that events like Pond Hockey and Ironman bring us, short and long-term. Now, we are looking for support to maintain our momentum.”

The Huntsville/Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce is a membership driven business organization whose mission is to support the economic and social growth of our members through networking, public awareness and community promotion.