Tag: Tourism

Council Debates Fencing the Beach

John Draper

The Beach is closed for most activities but not fully closed.  So when there are crowds, it’s difficult to enforce Covid-19 social distancing, “park” rules and generally keeping everyone safe. On a recent warm weekend, there were reportedly hundreds on the beach. It doesn’t help that there are few signs – I saw a small one at the main entrance at the bottom of Division St – see photo below.  So at Monday’s Committee of the Whole (C.O.W.) Council meeting, staff suggested that fencing the beach would be useful.  It was thought that most people would then stay off the beach and the few who jumped the fence could be warned or even arrested for trespassing. But Councillors worried that… Read complete articleCouncil Debates Fencing the Beach

Progress on New Museum for Dressler House

John Draper

Marie Dressler Foundation is planning an expansion of the museum at Dressler House to include sections for the other two Canadian female Oscar winners: Mary Pickford and Norma Shearer and at Monday’s Council Meeting, the team working on this gave a progress report.  Toronto University agreed to offer the project to students in their Master program for Museum Studies and 5 students accepted: Michelle Wright, Enya Barbeau, Karen Cheung, Natalie Heaton and Emma Myers.  They presented a brief overview of what the museum will look like and talked about the great access they had to experts who are knowledgeable about the two stars plus thousands of artifacts – mostly photographs and film clips.  It appears that this will be the… Read complete articleProgress on New Museum for Dressler House

Christmas Lights Changed for 2019

John Draper

Due to popular demand, this Christmas, Cobourg will expand the lights to include Victoria Park and the lighting ceremony will be more extensive than previously.  There will be 180,000 lights stretching from Victoria Hall, through Rotary Park, along the waterfront and into Victoria Park.  The lights go on at 6:30 pm on November 22 after a countdown at Victoria Hall then everyone will be invited to walk to Victoria Park where there will be a 30 foot Christmas tree with 3000 lights and Mayor John Henderson will welcome all at the Bandshell.  Santa will then arrive for the kids and DJ Dominic will play festive music.  The walk will highlight a connection to downtown with a variety of displays throughout… Read complete articleChristmas Lights Changed for 2019

Filming in Cobourg

John Draper

With Murdoch Mysteries once again filming in Cobourg on October 30, and Netflix filming twice recently, citizens are asking “How does Cobourg win from all this?”  Most of the filming takes place in Cobourg’s historic downtown so it’s not surprising that the DBIA (Downtown Business Improvement Area) asked the same question.  At their September 5th Board meeting, the Town’s Marketing and Events Manager, Kara Euale, was asked to make a presentation on the subject and I thought others would be interested in what she had to say.  Cobourg has policies on the subject, requires approval from multiple departments and has fees that must be paid.  Basically, filming is encouraged because the Town believes it can “provide both direct and indirect… Read complete articleFilming in Cobourg

Canada Day: Cobourg – 2019

John Draper

Summer finally arrived for a perfect day to end the Waterfront Festival and celebrate Canada Day in Cobourg.  The Parade was short but sweet – it moved steadily without delays and, this year, seemed to be a showcase for our diversity – the Hispanic group seemed to be especially enjoying themselves and it was contagious.   I don’t have any way to verify it but it seemed to me that more spectators of the Parade were wearing red – yes I know that’s expected but it was more noticeable this year.  With the world’s troubles, are we happier than ever to be Canadian?  The parade finished at Victoria Park where the Waterfront Festival was in full swing.  Entry to the Lions… Read complete articleCanada Day: Cobourg – 2019

Cobourg Lakefront Properties being Damaged by Floods

John Draper

Cobourg residents with properties fronting onto Lake Ontario are asking for the Town’s help with sandbags. Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin and Director of Works Laurie Wills have responded but so far the only help offered is “Unfortunately all we can do is provide the materials but not the labour.”  The official numbers for lake levels show that the lake level is at higher levels than in 2017 and has peaked – although it has not yet dropped.  The problem is that with high winds, the shoreline is getting damaged.  Some property owners are losing land and flooding is occurring at the Marina and along the West beach boardwalk.  Average levels only tell part of the story – winds cause levels… Read complete articleCobourg Lakefront Properties being Damaged by Floods

New Tourism Publication for 2019

John Draper

At Cobourg Council’s Committee of the Whole Meeting on Monday, June 3, the Manager of Marketing Events, Kara Euale, presented the new Experience Cobourg 2019 Tourism Booklet.  It’s a noticeable improvement on previous years even though production credits are the same.   Although the cover page shows footprints on our beach, Kara said that the goal was to convey that the beach is not the only story.  Advertising is included to help defray costs but the intent was not to “scream advertising” as so often happens in these kinds of publications.  Some advertising is actually in the form of advertorials which blend in and make for interesting reading. They are based on interviews given by business owners.  Fonts are larger than… Read complete articleNew Tourism Publication for 2019

Tourism Metrics

John Draper

In March of this year, tourism contract employee Bryan Mercer presented a plan to increase tourism in Cobourg and presented a new printed guide that focused on experiences.  In June, he launched a new web site – experiencecobourg.ca (link below) and summer students were hired as “Experience Ambassadors” – one of their jobs was to conduct surveys by asking visitors some leading questions.  Other methods of collecting data were also employed and now the results have been tabulated and we have some good data on visitors and tourists.  Bryan presented this data to Cobourg Council at their meeting on October 1st and the results show that although the beach is Cobourg’s prime attraction, visitors do spend money and do come… Read complete articleTourism Metrics