Overview
The Tourism and Wayfinding Strategy strives to honour the rich culture of the Town of Georgina by ensuring that key tourism attractions and cultural and economic hubs are easily found by both visitors and residents. A tourism wayfinding strategy is one of the pillars of enhancing the economic growth of local businesses, promoting tourist travel throughout the community, and enhancing the Town's aesthetic appeal through the implementation of clear and uniform signage.
Georgina’s proximity to the lake and its tourism assets have established Georgina as a four-season tourism destination that has a year-round impact on the local economy. The tourism sector employs approximately one out of every 10 jobs in Georgina.
Tourism wayfinding differs from traditional municipal signage in that it is meant to provide a quick, visual cue to nearby points of interest and easily direct people travelling through the area to these locations. This can be conveyed through words or symbols.
In 2022, the Town of Georgina partnered with Central Counties Tourism to develop a municipal-wide directional tourism signage strategy. This strategy outlines the need and benefits of a comprehensive community-wide wayfinding system designed to cater to the requirements of residents, visitors, and businesses. The tourism wayfinding signage intends to drive additional traffic to private/public tourist destinations and historic business areas to increase the economic impact of these visitors.
2024 Georgina Tourism and Wayfinding Strategy
On April 10, 2024, Council passed the 2024 Georgina Tourism and Wayfinding Strategy.
The Tourism and Wayfinding Strategy is expected to deliver the following key benefits:
- Boost the local economy through increased spending within the Town by directing traffic to historic business areas.
- Control the path of travel for visitors to increase the economic impact of pass-thru traffic.
- Increase visitation to key public and private tourism attractions and assets.
- Enhance the overall image of the Town of Georgina as a destination with a consistent and attractive design standard for tourism wayfinding signage.
- Improve sense of community, pedestrian safety, and place-making while mitigating interference with regulatory traffic signage
- Provide gateway signage from major corridors, including waterways, and a connection to outlying assets via scenic driving routes.
- This wayfinding does not include regulatory road signs, facility, or park signs.
Report to Council - April 10, 2024
Wayfinding and Tourism Strategy