Adam Prudhomme
Editor
As travel restriction continue to loom over the country, Lennox and Addington County’s economic development department has come up with a creative way to get residents to explore their own backyard.
Late last month they launched the Be A Local Tourist initiative which includes six pre-planned itineraries that highlight attractions across the county.
“We wanted to find a way to help support our local businesses that have experienced such a difficult time over the past 15 months,” explains Rob Plumley, economic development officer with L&A County. “By focusing on travelling locally this summer, the themed day-trip ideas found in the itineraries will encourage our community members to travel locally and support our attractions, businesses and restaurants.”
Each itinerary can be downloaded, for free, at www.NaturallyLA.ca.
Itineraries include L&A Flavours, which directs people to local breweries and vineyards, Sun and Stars, which highlights the Dark Sky Viewing Area and Bon Echo Provincial Park, Barnyards, Bees and Birds which focuses on local farm trips, Community Vibes provides suggestions of things to do in Greater Napanee, Stone Mills, Loyalist and Addington Highlands and for the more adventurous there are completely spontaneous packages that give suggestions for a fun filled day in either the north (rural) or south (urban) region of L&A with a bit of mystery involved.
“Several themes came together while we were building our new NaturallyLA.ca website, and our “Be a Local Tourist” itineraries are an extension of that work,” said Plumley. “Whether you’re looking for family-friendly experiences, brewery and winery tours, nature outings or shopping day-trips, we think that there are a lot of ideas here that will be of interest to our community members. We’ve also created two fun ‘surprise day’ itineraries that keep the stops along the route hidden until the itineraries are downloaded. We expect these ones to be especially popular. The response so far has been very encouraging and we look forward see what the uptake is as word spreads.”
With more people expected to ‘staycation’ closer to home this summer as opposed to overseas, appealing to local tourists made sense for the county.
“We’re a big county, and there are a lot of really cool spots here in Lennox and Addington that appeal just as much to local residents as they do to visitors from outside the area,” said Plumley. “We think we’ve been able to highlight many of the well-known attractions and businesses in these itineraries, and have added many under-the radar locations that people will also enjoy visiting. For people that don’t feel comfortable travelling outside the area this summer, there are many great options right here in L&A.”