City council will discuss a request from the Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) to hand over its tourism responsibilities to the city on Wednesday.
On Nov. 3, REAL announced that it would be seeking to give up tourism responsibilities, citing unanimous approval from REAL’s board of directors in October and a third-party review of the organization that was conducted earlier in the year.
REAL also said it was looking to shift its focus on solely running operations and facilities on its property.
If the proposal is approved, the transition of civic tourism responsibilities to the City of Regina would be complete by the end of the year.
Administration has laid out a total of six recommendations in the meeting’s agenda, with the top one reading that council removes the destination, marketing and promotion of tourism services for Regina and region from REAL.
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At least two city councillors have already said they feel a transition of tourism responsibilities is the right thing to do.
“I think it’s a sensible request on their part,” Coun. Dan LeBlanc said in a City of Regina news release. “It really flows from the whole Experience Regina fiasco. The George Cuff report after, as I read it, says one of the contributing causes of the marketing flub to put it mildly was REAL had too much on its plate and maybe one of those things was tourism,” LeBlanc also said.
The infamous Experience Regina rebrand of the city’s tourism website received worldwide backlash for several slogans that many felt sexualized the city’s name and the fact that it rhymes with vagina.
If the city were to take over tourism responsibilities, Coun. Cheryl Stadnichuk said she feels it’s an opportunity to revitalize the industry.
“It gives us a chance to kind of refresh what we’re doing with Tourism Regina and ultimately we want to create campaigns that give civic pride,” she said in a release.
Regina’s City Manager Niki Anderson said if council agrees to REAL’s request, administration is already prepared for the added responsibilities.
-- With files from Caitlin Brezinski.
