Municipality taking over Taste the County

Taste the County will wind up operations by month-end and its duties of destination marketing, branding and messaging will be taken over by the municipality.

Interim CEO Lynn Sullivan made the announcement in a statement. Sullivan’s and office staff contracts will end effective April 30 and as of May 1st, a volunteer staff, under the guidance of the board of directors, will remain to ensure transition is completed by year’s end.

Its signature events included Maple in the County, Taste Community Grown, Countylicious, Taste Trail and Arts Trail.

“Over the next few weeks, we will be working with the municipality and the Community Development Department to plan a smooth transition of all destination marketing services,” Sullivan said. “Next week, Neil Carbone, Director of Community Development, will present some initial  recommendations to the Community Development Commission that will start the transition process.
Neil has been a real champion of organizational partnerships, the creation of a centralized destination marketing model and has worked closely with us to develop a good transition plan that will be seamless to the visitor, our most important client.”

For the tourism sector, Sullivan says a centralized marketing function will enable a stronger and wider message.

“As we know there are limited dollars businesses can afford to contribute co-operatively for effective tourism marketing. By working with the municipality, we can ensure that the County message is heard loud and clear while individual stakeholders can direct their own marketing budgets accordingly.

Taste the County was a marketing and quality enhancement organization established in 1999 as an incorporated not-for-profit organization with the ability to apply for funding in order to fulfill its mandate to stimulate agricultural and tourism economic growth through sustainable event marketing and project management in Prince Edward the County.

Funding formulas for tourism changed in 2009 with regional organizations gaining the province’s support. The County is included in the much broader Great Waterway Region. Funding from the County was also changed from a lump sum to project and task basis.