Episode Seventeen: Brandon Pickard

Brandon Pickard is with the Region of Durham Tourism. Brandon knows how important it is to drive tourism to rural towns, how arts and culture can impact a community, and what makes small towns special. Brandon explains how businesses, community organizations, farms, and artists can collaborate to create a unique visitor experience. He touches on some of the pushback that can be presented by a small community when promoting tourism to new demographics; and how that mindset can be shifted to create new opportunities that pull people into experience a new place. Brandon also describes the popular Durham is Home apparel and souvenir collection created by Durham Tourism to celebrate exploring your own backyard — available at Scugog Arts! Thank you to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for helping make this podcast possible! Learn more about Durham Tourism, here: https://www.durham.ca/en/tourism/index.aspx