A slow start led to a strong finish for tourism in Grey County for 2009.
Tourism Manager Bryan Plumstead says that’s the wet weather made for a slow start to the season with summer not really starting until late July.
Plumstead says the county ended up having a great fall season as the idea of staycation seemed to hit home in these economic times.
He adds though that the overnight ventures seem to be down as people took staycation to heart and made Grey County a day trip — rather than an overnight trip.
Plumstead says the numbers seem to pretty much have plateaued with last year but are not down as they were in early summer 2009 where the numbers dipped 10 per cent.
He says Grey County also is known as a great winter vacation destination with the Blue Mountains so he expects a stellar start to 2010.
Plumstead says he hopes for better weather for 2010 and a newer focus on advertising in Kitchener and in Brampton will bring more families into the area.
He remains cautiously optimistic for tourism in 2010.
He says its going to be a slow drawn out recovery for tourism on the whole with the economy but says as a day trip Grey County is very reasonable.
Plumstead hopes their new tourism spokesperson — former Canadian Alpine Ski member and Crazy Canuck Todd Brooker — will add life to their advertising as well.