Huron County's Tourism Development Officer says the Federal government is providing $500M over the next two years to help kick start the country's tourism industry recover from the pandemic.
Rick Sickinger says “The fund helps tourism sectors get back operating normally and to help offset costs with re-opening and implementing measures to ensure public safety".
Sickinger adds the funds are not directly available to individual tourism operators, it would be the Regional Tourism Organizations that would make an application, or in our case, it could be Huron County that does county-wide tourism marketing, or destination Stratford, those kinds of things. It's more of a tourism body that is eligible for the Tourism Relief Fund.
Sickinger points out, Huron County is part of RTO4, which includes Huron, Perth, Waterloo and Wellington, noting “It would be the RTO that would make an application, or in our case, its Huron County that does county-wide tourism marketing, or destination Stratford, those kind of things, it's more of a tourism body that is eligible for the Tourism Relief fund".