Published on : Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Tegan Legge, the Forest’s general manager, tourism and recreation, said this nomination reaffirms what the staff and management have been doing for years.
Haliburton Forest represents a 100,000-acre property with 100 lakes and a diverse collection of trees and wildlife. It is host to educational programming and sustainable forestry, which draws tourists, students and forestry professionals year round.
This nomination has been long in coming for Haliburton Forest, which has operated for 50 years.
The Forest’s sustainability practices are tied to recycling and use of local food.
Instead of taking food waste from their restaurant, The Cookhouse, to the dump, for example, they use it to feed the resident pigs.
The Tourism Industry Association of Ontario board reached out to the Forest to “highly recommend” they put their nomination forward, Legge said.
She plans to attend the Ontario Tourism Summit where the winners will be announced on Oct. 24 at the Caesars in Windsor. Staff and management would be “over the moon” if they won, she said.
The other nominees in the category – Cowbell Brewing Company and the Windmill Lake Wake and Eco Park – were both great businesses, she said.
Legge said the award boosts their profile to the public and within the industry.
It helps with standing out at the upcoming tourism conference, Rendez-Vous Canada, which draws close to 2,000 people, 600 sellers, representing 13 province and territories and more than 600 buyers from 29 countries.
Two years ago Barrie Martin of Yours Outdoors won this award.