SPRING BAY—When it comes to promoting tourism on Manitoulin Island it would be hard to top the efforts of Shannon McMullan over the years since she took over operation of Perivale Gallery in Spring Bay. Now, Ms. McMullan will be officially working to promote Manitoulin Island as a member of the Destination Northern Ontario board.
“I am very much looking forward to serving on the board of directors of Destination Northern Ontario,” said Ms. McMullan. “Being a member of the board will provide me an opportunity to help influence tourism in the North, tourist travel and marketing, particularly within the cultural sector.”
The appointment fits well with Ms. McMullan’s considerable skillset. “I personally thrive on participation in collaboration and growth opportunities with the goal to strengthen and celebrate tourism and heritage as a whole throughout the North,” she said. Adding that the appointment also provides “an opportunity to work collegially with others in that pursuit as a member of the board will be a welcome pleasure, indeed.”
Ms. McMullan notes that DNO “brings together and represents the tourism industry in Northern Ontario from Kenora to the Quebec border. It’s there to help operators, communities and destinations. It’s there to coordinate and encourage new travel to Northern Ontario, maintain existing travel, to develop tourism products and provide opportunities for growth such as training, workforce development and to provide marketing opportunities in coordination and partnership with other ministry organizations.”
In short, DNO is there to grow tourism in Northern Ontario and to encourage product development and diversification.
Ms. McMullan noted that delegates from DNO recently attended the United Kingdom Travel Tradeshow where they met with 50 tour and tourist operators interested in bringing clients to Ontario.
“We want to make sure that we have the facilities and the attractions in Northern Ontario that will satisfy their needs,” said Ms. McMullan. “There are big challenges ahead of us as an association. The key thing DNO does is working in partnership with all types of sectors and all types of government partners to help tourism businesses improve their efficiencies and train for skill sets that are sometimes in short supply.”
This is an important consideration considering the challenges facing all facets of the hospitality industry across the nation.
During her time in university, over the course of four summers, Ms. McMullan worked to promote tourism in Sudbury as a hostess in various tourist information booths located on the outskirts of Sudbury.
“After folks travelled through what was then a moonscape, it was an interesting challenge to convince them to stay and be tourists in that area,” she said. “Because I so loved the interactions I had with the visitors, I also was engaged through the Chamber of Commerce to be a travel guide on bilingual bus tours for conventions and groups visiting Sudbury.”
Ms. McMullan said that travel throughout the world has engaged her as a tourist as well. “Witnessing best practices and interacting with the locals in each country has been very enriching,” she said. “Because of my parents’ affiliation with Perivale Gallery, I continued to be very interested in tourism during the summers of my 35-year career as a teacher in the arts, when I assisted in the gallery.”
Following her retirement from teaching and taking over as owner of Perivale Gallery in 2012, Ms. McMullan said it became clear to her that it was very necessary to “drag the gallery into the 21st century.” So, she set about creating engagement through a website and social media then became a major goal.
As owner and curator of Perivale Gallery Ms. McMullan has attended many tourism conferences and summits and found she thoroughly enjoyed the networking, educational and social components of the conferences hosted by Destination Northern Ontario throughout the North.
“As a result, I have been inspired to advocate striving for consistent excellence in our approach to tourism, as our numerous TripAdvisor awards and tourism awards will demonstrate.”
Ms. McMullan said she thoroughly enjoyed being a member of the Group of Seven product team for Destination Ontario.
“For eight years, Perivale Gallery’s annual show, ‘In the Spirit of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven’ has showcased outstanding original works inspired by these iconic Canadian artists,” she said. “Our participating artists include all of Perivale Gallery artists, as well as invited local guest artists, well-known personalities and local young people who have shown great talent. This in turn, has fostered tourism as the fans of those participants travel to visit the gallery to vote in person and support their candidate for the annual People’s Choice Award.”
