If the City of Estevan hopes to see the maximum benefit from its various tourist attractions, it will need to do a better job letting people know exactly where those attractions are.
That was one of the messages delivered by the Estevan and District Board of Tourism, Trade and Commerce at the Sept. 20 regular meeting of city council.
Michel Cyrenne, who is the TTC's community development manager, and tourism and marketing co-ordinator Kevin D'Souza, conducted a signage review earlier this year throughout the city.
Cyrenne said although Estevan has a lot to offer visitors in terms of tourist sites and sporting facilities but does not do a good enough job of directing visitors to those locations.
"A primary concern identified is that there does not seem to be a strategic plan within Estevan to direct visitors to the various attractions," said Cyrenne. "We are very fortunate here in Estevan to have a broad range of high quality events and attractions not only for our visitors, but for our residents. However, in order for people to attend, see and participate they need to one: know that it exists and two: know where it is located."
Cyrenne said Estevan receives a significant amount of drive-by traffic but because there is not proper signage in place, many of these drivers simply pass through the city because they are unaware there are numerous reasons to stop.
"We are also attracting a significant amount of new residents to the community and these residents are finding it difficult to find the amenities they are looking for due to, in some cases, a lack of even minimum basic signage."
Cyrenne noted that he and D'Souza performed a basic signage audit and came up with a number of conclusions such as: there is a lack of signage for some of the area's most popular attractions including the Estevan Motor Speedway, Boundary Dam, Rafferty Dam and the Trackside Motocross Park.
"There have been people who have gone (looking for Boundary Dam) and come back to (the Visitor Information Centre)," said D'Souza. "There is particularly limited signage on Highways 47 North and Â鶹ÊÓƵ."
D'Souza also pointed out that much of the signage currently in the city is far from ideal. For example, he noted the signs to find the Estevan Police Service office look like a regular street sign and are too few in number. Other signs are blocked by trees or are placed far too high to be readily visible to drivers.
"There have been people who have come to the Visitors Information Centre and have been surprised by what we have here," said D'Souza. "For example, Roche Percee, Souris Valley Theatre, Woodlawn Regional Park, Boundary Dam if we can direct them there without any confusion people would stay and spend more money in town.
"We have a lot of sports and recreational facilities but they aren't being highlighted. Nobody knows where the baseball diamonds are, where the soccer fields are. All this needs to be highlighted, not just for visitors coming to town but for people who have moved here."
D'Souza said the TTC recommends that the City look into hiring a professional consultant with experience in the field to look into the signage issue. They would also like to see a number of the affected stakeholders involved in the process.
The TTC presentation was warmly received by the members of council and they agreed to set the matter over for the 2011 budget deliberations which will occur later this year.
