Gravenhurst could make huge gains in the tourism industry this decade – if so desired
For the past fifty years in Muskoka, economic development committees attached to local municipal government, have been attempting to find diversification in the local economy, such that one day they could proudly state, with statistics to back them up, that no longer is tourism the number one industry in our region.
While I have always appreciated their widely supported and substantially funded mission, to seek out the kind of investment in industry that would provide an outrigger should tourism ever diminish, my feeling generally is that the effort has only ever been partly successful. The mission for example to draw Corning Glass to Bracebridge in the late 1960’s, early 70’s, was monumental for the economic development interests of the time, just as it was a staggering blow when it was announced the plant was about to close only a few years later. While there has been much more industrial interest in Bracebridge and the wider region, there have been some heart-wrenching failures. They aren’t extraordinary failures but rather what you should expect of small satellite plants in the ever changing dynamic of a global economy.
I’ve been preaching this for decades now, to anyone who would listen….and there have been a scarce few of those…… but despite the poor audience, I will make the claim once again. Tourism. It’s our number one industry. It has been our number one industry for well over one hundred years, with the exception of a brief period of lumbering buzz which cleared away huge swaths of our forests during the late 1800’s.
I have found myself in hundreds of debates over the years, with local self-assumed experts who stubbornly claimed manufacturing in Muskoka could be a serious challenger to the domination of the tourism sector, as the leading money maker for the region. I could spend hours on the topic and undoubtedly write my way to a cyber space moon, and still fail to impress upon local pundits that they’re wrong to believe we can support ourselves now or in the immediate future on the revenues and investment of local manufacturing. I think it dates back to the development of tourism generally, and the “master-servant” relationship that manifested initially from the necessity to assist a local population’s economic survival. Many Muskokans with family ties back to the pioneer economy of this Ontario frontier, are understandably sensitive about the “master-servant” reference, and with some validation….., it does still hurt to think of our tourist economy’s beginnings as a luxury for some, a hardship for the hosts.
Settlers to Muskoka had no choice but to find immediate solutions to the very real questions of pending starvation. Many settlers pulled out of Muskoka after their first winter homesteading because of the harsh environmental conditions. If we had accurate statistics on the number of homesteaders who fled out of frustration and failure, we could get a better understanding what a settler and family had to face in this newly opened Ontario bushland of the 1860’s. The reality pioneers embraced economic incentives from those who wanted to attend the hinterland to enjoy sport and leisure, is early proof invention was born of necessity. As far back as the 1860’s, it was obvious that while homesteaders were hacking out farmsteads, well off sportsmen were angling in local lakes, in need of lodging, food services, and guiding. While this is not to suggest every pioneer supplemented their family income by catering to the tourist class, they most certainly participated in secondary interests, such as the surging lumber industry. Many struggling pioneers headed out to the winter logging camps, leaving their families to struggle for survival on the homestead until spring. Thousands of homestead fathers and brothers never came back. Even today logging is a dangerous occupation. Think about it back in the 1880’s, without medical assistance any where close. When the logging industry began to decline, tourism was already beginning to blossom. Instead of going to lumber camps, to supplement their incomes, many more struggling familes found work with tourist homes and the early Muskoka resorts, from doing the carpentry work to supplying produce. Henry Longhurst Sr., of Windermere, used to delight in telling me (as a fledgling historian), about his work ethic as a young man, rowing his boat of farm produce around Lake Rosseau in the summer, cottage to cottage, including resorts, in order to make extra money from the family farm. This was not an anomaly but the benefit of having a budding tourism industry side by side, and there are few of us today with local roots who would deny the advantages of this historic industry association..
I do feel as I have for some time, that there is a festering resentment about the reality we had to do someone else’s chores, facilitate another person’s vacation in order to survive. I also think that in some ways this desire to diversify away from tourism has generated a growing over-confidence in our own sustainability…… the mission to rise above dependence on the desires of our visitors, which as sheer economic diversification makes sense, just not as a “we’ve finally come of age” half-maturity, turning our backs on the economic engine of our region……, hoping our manufacturing and business enterprises will rise in triumph.
In the next decade, despite any amount of economic diversification added to the mix here, tourism will still rank as our number one earning industry. The most significant danger to the tourism industry in Muskoka, is plain old neglect. Add to this environmental challenges, and we really do have a lot to think about, in order to keep this industry alive and thriving. Our industry and our local economy generally, has suffered many times throughout history when national and international crisis prevailed. Tourist investment in our region dropped during both World Wars and through the hard years of the Great Depression for obvious reasons. When the world has been stung with recession, it has been noticeable in Muskoka’s coffers. Major events do affect us here, from the catastrophe of 9-11 to the chaos and adverse publicity associated with the SARS outbreak in Toronto several years ago. Like all industry and all economies, blips can become serious downturns in a matter of moments under the right circumstances. It doesn’t help in our region when local movers and shakers forget the importance of maintenance on our old and faithful tourism sector.
If I see any sleeper gain for Gravenhurst, it’s a much heartier, sustaining embrace of the tourism industry; a revamped mission of discovery, to determine a. how much we’ve let it decline over the decades, and b. what we can do to make it as significant as it once was to our region.
I have never once heard even one tourist applaud the initiative of urban sprawl in the place they like to call paradise. I haven’t heard one tourist in all my years of reporting suggest that they can’t wait to get to Muskoka to shop at the local strip mall, or even box store. The fact they might shop there is one thing, but to believe they don’t have many more significant options in their home regions and enroute here is rather absurd generally. To say we have over-retailed in Muskoka, just a tad, is a huge understatement. When we should have been seeking out developers interested in building hotels for our visitors, we’ve been boldly hoping for the next great advancement in the retail shopping experience and seeking out evasive large scale industrial investment. I’ve long been of the opinion that retail investors with roots in Southern Ontario mega-communities, will give Muskoka a sized-down version of what they have in other locales, simply because population availability doesn’t warrant otherwise. So how many visitors to our community can possibly be wowed by a hinterland box store? To think they built these mega stores for our consumption only, local pundits are sadly mistaken. The seasonal surge does impact these stores. If they weren’t there, visitors would shop in a smaller store, and possibly be more comfortable doing so.
If I was asked my opinion where Gravenhurst should look to a more secure and prosperous future, it would be to re-visit the tourism industry and find more investment opportunities to provide even more accommodation and hospitality services, including local entertainment venues, to take advantage of the industry potential other communities are presently half-ignoring. Being an environmentally concerned community, and proving this beyond mere face dressing, could be the start of a beautiful relationship for us all. This is where the visionaries need to step up and lead based on fact not on wishful thinking.
We have an important cottage (second home owner), seasonal-resident contribution in this region, we largely take for granted. In company of tourism visitation and support of our region, and the money they bestow generously upon local business enterprise, we have much to be thankful for despite those who suggest the contrary. We have only begun to understand the potential of the tourism industry despite over a hundred years that should prove otherwise. Just when it was assumed by all the industry experts, we knew it all about making the most of our number one industry, here comes this blogger to tell them “it just isn’t so.” We need to be more innovative, more diversified in the tourism sector, and we need to welcome our guests; acknowledge how important their patronage is….. a declaration that has become pretty thin over the past decade, as if we simply endure their investment and little more.
For the past fifty years in Muskoka, economic development committees attached to local municipal government, have been attempting to find diversification in the local economy, such that one day they could proudly state, with statistics to back them up, that no longer is tourism the number one industry in our region.
While I have always appreciated their widely supported and substantially funded mission, to seek out the kind of investment in industry that would provide an outrigger should tourism ever diminish, my feeling generally is that the effort has only ever been partly successful. The mission for example to draw Corning Glass to Bracebridge in the late 1960’s, early 70’s, was monumental for the economic development interests of the time, just as it was a staggering blow when it was announced the plant was about to close only a few years later. While there has been much more industrial interest in Bracebridge and the wider region, there have been some heart-wrenching failures. They aren’t extraordinary failures but rather what you should expect of small satellite plants in the ever changing dynamic of a global economy.
I’ve been preaching this for decades now, to anyone who would listen….and there have been a scarce few of those…… but despite the poor audience, I will make the claim once again. Tourism. It’s our number one industry. It has been our number one industry for well over one hundred years, with the exception of a brief period of lumbering buzz which cleared away huge swaths of our forests during the late 1800’s.
I have found myself in hundreds of debates over the years, with local self-assumed experts who stubbornly claimed manufacturing in Muskoka could be a serious challenger to the domination of the tourism sector, as the leading money maker for the region. I could spend hours on the topic and undoubtedly write my way to a cyber space moon, and still fail to impress upon local pundits that they’re wrong to believe we can support ourselves now or in the immediate future on the revenues and investment of local manufacturing. I think it dates back to the development of tourism generally, and the “master-servant” relationship that manifested initially from the necessity to assist a local population’s economic survival. Many Muskokans with family ties back to the pioneer economy of this Ontario frontier, are understandably sensitive about the “master-servant” reference, and with some validation….., it does still hurt to think of our tourist economy’s beginnings as a luxury for some, a hardship for the hosts.
Settlers to Muskoka had no choice but to find immediate solutions to the very real questions of pending starvation. Many settlers pulled out of Muskoka after their first winter homesteading because of the harsh environmental conditions. If we had accurate statistics on the number of homesteaders who fled out of frustration and failure, we could get a better understanding what a settler and family had to face in this newly opened Ontario bushland of the 1860’s. The reality pioneers embraced economic incentives from those who wanted to attend the hinterland to enjoy sport and leisure, is early proof invention was born of necessity. As far back as the 1860’s, it was obvious that while homesteaders were hacking out farmsteads, well off sportsmen were angling in local lakes, in need of lodging, food services, and guiding. While this is not to suggest every pioneer supplemented their family income by catering to the tourist class, they most certainly participated in secondary interests, such as the surging lumber industry. Many struggling pioneers headed out to the winter logging camps, leaving their families to struggle for survival on the homestead until spring. Thousands of homestead fathers and brothers never came back. Even today logging is a dangerous occupation. Think about it back in the 1880’s, without medical assistance any where close. When the logging industry began to decline, tourism was already beginning to blossom. Instead of going to lumber camps, to supplement their incomes, many more struggling familes found work with tourist homes and the early Muskoka resorts, from doing the carpentry work to supplying produce. Henry Longhurst Sr., of Windermere, used to delight in telling me (as a fledgling historian), about his work ethic as a young man, rowing his boat of farm produce around Lake Rosseau in the summer, cottage to cottage, including resorts, in order to make extra money from the family farm. This was not an anomaly but the benefit of having a budding tourism industry side by side, and there are few of us today with local roots who would deny the advantages of this historic industry association..
I do feel as I have for some time, that there is a festering resentment about the reality we had to do someone else’s chores, facilitate another person’s vacation in order to survive. I also think that in some ways this desire to diversify away from tourism has generated a growing over-confidence in our own sustainability…… the mission to rise above dependence on the desires of our visitors, which as sheer economic diversification makes sense, just not as a “we’ve finally come of age” half-maturity, turning our backs on the economic engine of our region……, hoping our manufacturing and business enterprises will rise in triumph.
In the next decade, despite any amount of economic diversification added to the mix here, tourism will still rank as our number one earning industry. The most significant danger to the tourism industry in Muskoka, is plain old neglect. Add to this environmental challenges, and we really do have a lot to think about, in order to keep this industry alive and thriving. Our industry and our local economy generally, has suffered many times throughout history when national and international crisis prevailed. Tourist investment in our region dropped during both World Wars and through the hard years of the Great Depression for obvious reasons. When the world has been stung with recession, it has been noticeable in Muskoka’s coffers. Major events do affect us here, from the catastrophe of 9-11 to the chaos and adverse publicity associated with the SARS outbreak in Toronto several years ago. Like all industry and all economies, blips can become serious downturns in a matter of moments under the right circumstances. It doesn’t help in our region when local movers and shakers forget the importance of maintenance on our old and faithful tourism sector.
If I see any sleeper gain for Gravenhurst, it’s a much heartier, sustaining embrace of the tourism industry; a revamped mission of discovery, to determine a. how much we’ve let it decline over the decades, and b. what we can do to make it as significant as it once was to our region.
I have never once heard even one tourist applaud the initiative of urban sprawl in the place they like to call paradise. I haven’t heard one tourist in all my years of reporting suggest that they can’t wait to get to Muskoka to shop at the local strip mall, or even box store. The fact they might shop there is one thing, but to believe they don’t have many more significant options in their home regions and enroute here is rather absurd generally. To say we have over-retailed in Muskoka, just a tad, is a huge understatement. When we should have been seeking out developers interested in building hotels for our visitors, we’ve been boldly hoping for the next great advancement in the retail shopping experience and seeking out evasive large scale industrial investment. I’ve long been of the opinion that retail investors with roots in Southern Ontario mega-communities, will give Muskoka a sized-down version of what they have in other locales, simply because population availability doesn’t warrant otherwise. So how many visitors to our community can possibly be wowed by a hinterland box store? To think they built these mega stores for our consumption only, local pundits are sadly mistaken. The seasonal surge does impact these stores. If they weren’t there, visitors would shop in a smaller store, and possibly be more comfortable doing so.
If I was asked my opinion where Gravenhurst should look to a more secure and prosperous future, it would be to re-visit the tourism industry and find more investment opportunities to provide even more accommodation and hospitality services, including local entertainment venues, to take advantage of the industry potential other communities are presently half-ignoring. Being an environmentally concerned community, and proving this beyond mere face dressing, could be the start of a beautiful relationship for us all. This is where the visionaries need to step up and lead based on fact not on wishful thinking.
We have an important cottage (second home owner), seasonal-resident contribution in this region, we largely take for granted. In company of tourism visitation and support of our region, and the money they bestow generously upon local business enterprise, we have much to be thankful for despite those who suggest the contrary. We have only begun to understand the potential of the tourism industry despite over a hundred years that should prove otherwise. Just when it was assumed by all the industry experts, we knew it all about making the most of our number one industry, here comes this blogger to tell them “it just isn’t so.” We need to be more innovative, more diversified in the tourism sector, and we need to welcome our guests; acknowledge how important their patronage is….. a declaration that has become pretty thin over the past decade, as if we simply endure their investment and little more.
PLease vist my other blog http://thenatureofmuskoka.blogspot.com/
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