November 22, 2021
Destination Red River Region
Destination
Red River Region
What is Destination Red River Region?
Destination Red River Region is a team of 15 people from throughout Region 4, Manitoba, and the State. This team is determined to enhance all aspects of where we live, work and play. Destination Red River Region encourages you to embark on this mission and to join us in developing a regional action plan that will provide a clear direction on how and what we can be doing to strengthen our efforts to attract people, both visitors and future residents. The Red River Regional Council is serving as the project manager.
Roger Brooks
Roger Brooks is one of the nation’s leaders in helping to create amazing communities and destinations. Roger and his team were chosen to assist in this project based on his wealth of experience, energetic approach, and his ability to transcend our communities’ potential scope.
Roger is currently working with the Destination Red River Region Team which began with a monthlong, on-the-ground assessment in October 2021. Roger began with a pre-visit assessment as well as conducted a secret shopping of our region with perspectives of a visitor, site selector, meeting planner, future resident, and business owner.
Roger has since provided workshops of his secret shopping findings, as well as thousands of photos from every assessed community.
Click the icon to access thousands of pictures for public use
Click the icon to view your community’s secret shopping results
Click the icon to access the Destination Development & Marketing Action Plan (edits under way)
Secret Shopping Assessment at a Glance
41 Communities Assessed
All incorporated cities in Region 4
2,000+ Photos Taken
RRRC has created a public online library (click to access)
Recreational Areas Visited
State, county and city parks, dams, lakes, Pembina Gorge, and Frost Fire
Four County Workshops Held
150+ observations and suggestions provided 200+ attendees (click to access)
Five Focused Conversations
Walhalla, Grafton, Frost Fire, Rendezvous Region, Large Employers/Elected Officials
Do you want to learn more about first impressions of your specific community? Check out the presentation slides from the fall 2021 workshops here. The findings and suggestions for each community are reviewed. Download the file below before clicking on YouTube link above to watch the recording from the workshop.
(The presentation files are large so may take a few minutes to view/download.)
Download County Assessments
These PDFs are large files.
View or download using links below.
Opportunities & Obstacles
Attitude
Why do we talk so poorly about living here and have a resistant attitude towards amenity development and investment?
One Shot
Marketing gets visitors one time and product (what we offer) ultimately concludes if they come back or not
Create Community Living Rooms
Welcoming places to gather, have fun, programmed 250+ days/year, retail follows where people are
ND Ranks Low for Public Lands
Limits recreation development comparatively
Quality of Life
Leading factor in economic development today, small towns can capitalize on this
Lack of State/Region Identity
ND has the lowest state tourism/marketing budgets in the country
Immediate Suggestions
- Safety
- Good education system
- Engaged community
- Signs of positive change happening
- Life after 6:00 pm and on weekends
- Top notch recreation
- Quality healthcare
- Ample amounts of walking and biking trails
- Affordable, available, and quality housing
- LAST – JOB – a complete shift from previous generations
- Increase retail and hospitality spending and fills “leakage” when residents shop elsewhere
- Front door for possible new residents – everyone visits before relocating or investing
- Visitors have a low impact on community assets
- Monetize visitor trips by creating itineraries
- Promote the best of what you have – AND DELIVER
- Businesses – hours of operation, invite back, prominent and legible
- Cities
- Wayfinding
- Trails
- Informational
- Update/Create websites
- Claim Google listings
- Add hospitality and lodging to online travel sites
- Encourage ratings and respond to customers
- Create local destination development groups to champion
- Cross-representation of government, nonprofit, private sector, and young people
Funding Partners:
