Webinar: Wednesday, May 7 | 10:00 - 10:30 am EST

View the recording | Download the slide deck

Join OHTO's Director of Industry Development and Certified Professional in Sustainable Tourism, Kasey Rogerson, to learn how to "Wander Sustainably with Ontario's Highlands” and the many ways small actions towards sustainability can make a profound difference in your business and community.  

In this webinar, you'll learn about the following new opportunities being offered by OHTO to its membership:

1. Wander Sustainably with Ontario's Highlands course available in the OHTO Member Portal (powered by Whereabouts);
2. Free and simple four-question assessment to understand what you are already doing for sustainable best practices and identify any new opportunities to take action; and
3. With the completion of the course and assessment, members can book a free 30-minute consultation with OHTO staff, who have an expertise in sustainable tourism.
4. And for those who take advantage of all opportunities, OHTO will recognize you as a Wander Sustainably champion in Ontario’s Highlands and showcase your commitment to a responsible tourism approach.

Webinar: Thursday, April 3 | 10:00 - 11:00 am EST

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Join us for a webinar on how multi-use trails can become catalysts for community development. This webinar brings together two leading experts who will provide actionable insights and real-world examples of successful trail-oriented development.

What You'll Learn:
Discover the transformative "trail town" model that helps communities strategically connect to nearby trail systems and maximize benefits for its residents and local economy. Learn why and how to become more trail-friendly and capitalize on outdoor recreation opportunities.

Featured Presenters:
Amy Camp, Founder, Cycle Forward 
Amy will present the proven "trail town" methodology that has revitalized communities across North America. She'll share concrete strategies for businesses and municipalities to better connect with trail users and transform recreational infrastructure in community development assets.

Richard Allen, Manager of Economic Development, Frontenac County 
Richard will showcase the Eastern Ontario Rail Trail Loop Partnership project — a regional initiative that is leveraging the 350-kilometre off-road rail trail network to create a new signature tourism experience in Eastern Ontario. Learn how this initiative will be leveraging municipal and private investments to develop a signature tourism experience while creating valuable linkages between communities and trails.

This webinar is essential for economic development officers, tourism professionals, small business owners, and municipal leaders who want to unlock the potential of local trail infrastructure to generate positive community benefits.

Webinar: Thursday, March 27 | 10:00 - 11:00 am EST

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Join Ontario's Highlands Tourism Organization's (OHTO) Digital Marketing Specialist, Finn Hogue, for an insightful session on how to effectively integrate user-generated content (UGC) into your marketing strategy.

In this webinar, participants will learn about:
- Leverage User-Generated Content: Discover how to encourage and curate authentic content from visitors and locals to showcase the natural beauty, outdoor activities, and vibrant communities of your tourism destination.
- Implement a UGC Strategy: Learn how to create a structured UGC strategy that fits into your overall marketing plan. This includes identifying the best content sources, setting clear goals for what you want to achieve with UGC, and how to encourage your audience to contribute content that supports your brand’s message.
- Enhancing Audience Engagement: Gain practical strategies for featuring UGC on social media platforms, including Instagram, and how to engage more potential visitors by creating a sense of community and excitement around your destination.

By the end of this session, you'll have valuable insights into how UGC can amplify your marketing efforts and create a deeper connection with your audience.

Webinar: Thursday, January 30 | 10:00 - 11:30am EST

View the 2025 recording  | Download the 2025 Insights Report in the OHTO Member Portal via the Learner app

Join OHTO's Marketing Director, Luisa Sorrentino, and Director of Industry Development, Kasey Rogerson, as they share the latest tourism data and trends that can help you prepare for the 2025 tourism season.

Highlights include:

• Welcoming remarks from Nicole Whiting, Executive Director of OHTO and Ontario's Highlands' approach to accountability and transparency through public engagement, monitoring and reporting, external audits, and continuous improvement.
• Luisa uncovered the insights on visitors, including their demographics, spending patterns, length of stay, and travel preferences.
• Kasey discussed the state of the tourism industry, including challenges related to labour market, digitization, inflation, climate change and environmental impacts. She also explored the value of tourism - the social, cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism in addition to economic indicators - and understand the impact of a responsible tourism approach.
• In her closing remarks, Nicole revealed the interconnectedness of tourism and communities, and the need to position tourism as part of overall community development.

View the 2024 recording | View and download the 2024 Insights Report

Curious about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potential to help personal and business productivity in tourism? Us too!

Join us as we learn insights and expertise from Emily Baillie, digital marketing and AI consultant, as she demystifies AI technology and tools, making them more approachable and relevant to tourism.

AI training is designed to complement human talent and unlock more potential in the industry. In this session, you'll explore:

• AI in marketing and its role in tourism
• Popular AI tools and technologies and demonstrations
• Examples of practical applications of AI in tourism
• Navigating the ethical considerations and concerns in AI
• Future trends in AI

This AI training is designed to be friendly, inclusive, and easy to understand.

View the recording 

Content and user experience play a key role in delivering value to your visitors by providing relevant product and trip planning information, as well as mobile-friendly and easy-to-navigate experiences that help drive leads.

Join the Destination Ontario Content & UX team as they highlight the wins and lessons from their website redesign journey, including web writing best practices, content planning and SEO tips, user experience lessons and AI tips.

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In 2024, your business has committed to improving diversity and disability inclusion in the workplace. But where do you start? How can you implement lasting change?

Introducing, Ontario Corporate Training Centre (OCTC), a new project empowering business with the tools, knowledge, resources, and confidence needed to embrace disability-inclusive hiring, and foster diverse workplaces. The project aims to support businesses within the hospitality, healthcare, skilled trades, or manufacturing industries.

In this session, you will learn about:

• the Ontario Corporate Training Centre
   
• gain understanding of its scope, objectives, and the transformative impact it aims to achieve
   
• gain insight into the current labour market landscape
   
• how collaborating with OCTC can drive your business’ growth and success
   

Whether you are a business owner, an HR professional, or a decision-maker, we encourage you to attend. Register today to be part of the conversation that propels your workplace into a more disability-inclusive future!

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Tourism spans multiple industries, making its economic impact challenging to measure. The Tourism-Related Economic Impact Model (TREIM) addresses this by quantifying tourism's contributions to Ontario GDP, employment, and tax revenues, providing comprehensive insights that enable informed decision-making within the tourism sector.

Join Tim Swinarton, Senior Tourism Research Officer, and Sina Motamedi, Team Lead of Research, at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, to learn about this important tool for operators and communities can help with evaluating tourism activity, events or investments.

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Join OHTO's Digital Communications Specialist, Finn Hogue, to learn about how you can leverage short-form video as part of your marketing tactics on social media.
In this session, participants will learn about:

• Crafting Compelling Stories: How to tell engaging stories that fit into short videos, helping you share the exciting aspects of your tourism business and destination effectively.
• Hands-On Video Tips: Practical tips for making great short videos, including filming and editing techniques. Discover ways to add creativity that will capture the interest of your audience.
• Connecting with Your Audience: Strategies to get more people interested in your tourism business on platforms like Instagram, with a focus on Reels. Find out how to connect with potential customers who are curious about what makes your business and destination special.

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Join Ange Defosse, entrepreneur and creator of Harlowe Green, as she leads you through actionable steps to get you started on your sustainability journey. Ange has years of experience helping a myriad of people work towards sustainable habit changes, and some key roadblocks to getting started are quite common.

This session will address ways to overcome the common obstacle of getting started and where to begin:

• Explain the sustainability trend and the fundamental shift in consumer expectations happening now
• Present concrete strategies for getting started with a waste audit or GreenStep assessment, or a business process/procedure that you’re hoping to update
• Provide the necessary background information for understanding how to make sustainable decisions on the fly, in everyday situations, and in rethinking home and business processes
• Demonstrate the shifts that can be implemented with clear examples to help you understand things on a functional level
• Show some ways that you can make these changes work for you, and how to bring your customers, clients, staff, and operations into the spotlight for your work in this area
• Dispel the stress of getting it right, right away

View the recording

Join OHTO's marketing team, Marketing Director, Luisa Sorrentino, Content Specialist, Amy Hogue, and Digital Communications Specialist, Finn Hogue, for a discussion about how to engage with OHTO's marketing platforms. 

In this session, participants will:

1. Discover the benefits of partnering with OHTO for marketing.
2. Better understand how to engage with OHTO's social media platforms.
3. Understand why operators should share information about their experiences and offerings with OHTO.

WATCH THE RECORDING

VIEW THE PRESENTATION SLIDES

Join Nicole Whiting, Executive Director of OHTO and Dr. Jessica Ng, Director of Policy & Government Affairs at Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO).

In this session, participants will:

• Better understand the pathway of advocacy.  They have an issue… now what?
• Better understand TIAO as an organization – their role in advocacy.
• Add TIAO to their list of newsletter/emails to pay attention to.

WATCH THE RECORDING

VIEW THE PRESENTATION SLIDES

Learn about TIAO's membership benefits and the resources they offer, check out last year's session with Carol Greenwood, Vice President, Membership & Business Development - View the recording here

*OHTO is a proud member of TIAO and we strongly encourage our members to become members too!

Ride The Highlands has turned the Ontario’s Highlands region into one the best motorcycle destinations in Ontario. After years of building the brand and routes, and working with operators to engage riders, Ride The Highlands has finished its 10th year stronger than ever.  

Interested tourism operators who are located on or close to Ride the Highlands’ motorcycle loops, are invited to learn more about this niche program and how to become a Ride the Highlands motorcycle-friendly business. 

This session will be facilitated by Kristin Schaab, Communications & Digital Marketing at BC Hughes Tourism Consultants, and will cover: 

• Why Ontario's Highlands attracts the riding community
• Motorcycle Market Readiness: What you can do to prepare and become a Ride the Highlands rock star
• How to become part of the program 

WATCH THE RECORDING

VIEW THE PRESENTATION SLIDES

Managed by the Culinary Tourism Alliance, Feast On® is North America’s largest and longest-running local food certification program, recognizing businesses across the food tourism value chain that are committed to sourcing Ontario-grown food & drink. In this session facilitated by Kshitij Ratan, Programs Coordinator, and Zain Alkhouri, Marketing Specialist, participants will learn about:

1. The ins and outs of the program
2. The current network
3. The marketing benefits
4. The benefits of getting certified

WATCH THE RECORDING

VIEW THE PRESENTATION SLIDES

Discover a pathway to boosting your bookings with the collaborative initiative between Ontario's Highlands Tourism Organization (OHTO) and Tourism Technology Co (TTC). 

This webinar is tailored for tourism entrepreneurs keen on expanding their business within the Ontario's Highlands region and don't have an online booking engine in place. 

In this session facilitated by TTC's Matthew Thomas, CEO and Caeli Callaghan, Customer Success Specialist, participants will get a closer look at Booker, the new booking software available to OHTO businesses, and explore real-world examples showcasing how it has helped other businesses in Ontario. 

Learn how aligning with OHTO can enhance your online bookings. 

WATCH THE RECORDING

Join facilitator Christine Luckasavitch, owner of Waaseyaa Consulting, for this discussion-based workshop to better understand how to be good allies to Indigenous Peoples in an industry-based context.

This webinar will answer Indigenous Allyship questions like:

• what does it mean?
• what can it look like?
• what might be harmful?
• how can I actually do it?

This is a safe space for dialogue. All are welcome. 

WATCH THE RECORDING

*OPTIONAL: In advance of this session, we recommend watching our Expand Your Knowledge webinar recording featuring special guest, Aimee Bailey (Màmiwi Anishinàbikwe, Sturgeon Clan) from the Circle of Turtle Lodge, who provides a brief history of the Indigenous People of Canada, the History of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, a comparison of Indigenous & Western Values and the chance to develop your Land Acknowledgement Statement - View the recording here

Join the GreenStep Sustainable Tourism team, Adam Kunis, Sustainable Tourism Specialist and Matt Weller, Senior Sustainability Project Manager, for a two-hour session on sustainability action planning.

In this session, the GreenStep team will be:

1. Guiding businesses and destinations through a simple process including using your baseline measurement to select goal areas and associated actions, to help you to improve your performance over time
2. Introducing a sustainability strategy, as a part of your regular operations, will help to build resiliency, competitiveness, and improved cost savings. 

Attendees will leave the session with a process that can be implemented immediately, as well as a detailed action planning guidebook from which to implement their learnings. 

WATCH THE RECORDING

VIEW THE PRESENTATION SLIDES

Looking to broaden your knowledge of sustainability? We recommend watching our Expand Your Knowledge webinar recording with GreenStep Solutions which covers how to get started on your journey to improve your sustainability performance while reducing financial risk to your business - View the recording here

In this informative webinar facilitated by GreenStep Solutions and their Sustainable Tourism team, learn how your business and the planet, can benefit from assessing your business' sustainability performance.

This webinar is for any business owner or manager who is interested in broadening their knowledge of sustainability while seeking ways to get started on their journey to improving their performance while reducing financial risk to their business

View the recording here

Featuring special guest, Aimee Bailey (Màmiwi Anishinàbikwe, Sturgeon Clan) from the Circle of Turtle Lodge. 

Learn a brief history of the Indigenous People of Canada, the History of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, a comparison of Indigenous & Western Values and the chance to develop your Land Acknowledgement Statement.

View the recording here

Not 9 to 5 is an industry-specific nonprofit organization that acts as a resource for the hospitality and food service sector.

Featuring Hassel Aviles, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Not 9 to 5, to learn about the organization and what you can do to improve workplace mental health support in your establishment.

View the recording here

Sign-up for the CNECTed Certification course for free

Featuring special guest Carol Greenwood, Vice President, Membership & Business Development at Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO).

Hear about the many ways TIAO has been actively advocating for the industry and the many resources they have available, and learn about the membership benefits and the ways you can connect with TIAO for support.

OHTO is a proud member of TIAO and we strongly encourage our members to become members too!

View the recording here

There is a great deal to consider when you're building a new website or redesigning an existing one. This beginner workshop, featuring Nicole Mickelow from Camp Tech, covers everything you need to know, from choosing and registering a domain name, to building the website itself, to making sure it's secure. 

View the recording here, enter password: RTO11websites

Download the Reference Guide

Social media can be a very powerful tool for business growth, but first, you need to know what it is and how it works! In this interactive workshop, facilitator Kristy Guthrie will look at the basics of today's popular social media channels - including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest - and decide which are right for you. You'll develop a social media plan that will drive business results without a big investment of time and energy.

View the recording here, enter password: RTO11websites

Download the Reference Guide 

You don't need a big budget to get noticed on the web - you just need a little creativity! Savvy businesses are using bootstrap digital marketing techniques to amplify their message online. In this session, facilitator Tara Wilkins-McClune from Camp Tech will provide a high-level overview of the digital marketing landscape, and tricks and tools to consider when marketing your business.

View the recording here, enter password: RTO11digitalmarketing

Download the Reference Guide