Rural Routes: Driving Tourism Through Community-Led Collaboration and Promotional Events
Attracting visitors to Durham Region is a vital part of the local economy, especially in rural areas where tourism supports small business sustainability and fosters community identity. To amplify rural tourism and support local entrepreneurs, Durham Tourism launched a coordinated promotional event and campaign highlighting four rural business-led tourism routes: A Country Path, Backroads of Brock, Sideroads of Scugog, and the Leaskdale Loop. Located within the Townships of Scugog, Brock, Uxbridge, and the Municipality of Clarington, these routes showcase artisan businesses, farms, cultural sites, and natural attractions that together offer authentic rural experiences.
The primary goal of this initiative was to generate awareness and increase visitation by supporting and unifying these grassroots tourism efforts under a regional umbrella. While the routes have traditionally relied on minimal participation fees and word-of-mouth marketing, this project provided professional-level support and visibility that would otherwise be out of reach.
To centralize the campaign and improve user access, Durham Tourism launched a dedicated Rural Routes landing page at www.durhamtourism.ca/ruralroutes. This resource enables potential visitors to explore all four routes in one place, discover local businesses, and plan custom rural day trips—enhancing the overall user experience and driving measurable web traffic.
A cornerstone of the promotional event was a familiarization (FAM) tour with 12 influencers from the Toronto Bloggers Collective. Hosted on the Town Trolley, the tour allowed content creators to experience the routes firsthand and share authentic, engaging content with their large online followings. The campaign generated over 17,000 impressions, 16,000 video views, and 3,400 social media engagements across platforms. Feedback from the Town Trolley team confirmed this was their most successful tour to date in terms of visibility and return.
To reach diverse cultural audiences, Durham Tourism placed full-page ads in Ming Pao Toronto, a leading Chinese-language lifestyle publication (translated into Traditional Chinese), and Grapevine Magazine, targeting affluent leisure readers. These placements helped extend the campaign’s reach into new markets, encouraging cultural tourism and inclusivity.
One of the primary challenges of this initiative is quantifying direct business impact from online visibility. While specific visitor conversion data remains difficult to track at the business level, the campaign laid important groundwork for future measurement strategies, including exploring tools and training to help local businesses track visitor origin and engagement.
This initiative reflects a sustainable and scalable approach to rural economic development. By investing in shared marketing infrastructure, promotional partnerships, and influencer content that lives on beyond the event, Durham Tourism has helped rural tourism partners achieve greater reach, resilience, and visibility. The project supports long-term community vitality by increasing economic activity, preserving local culture, and promoting agriculture-related entrepreneurship.
Through creative partnerships, inclusive outreach, and a highly coordinated regional approach, the Rural Routes promotional event brought new energy to Durham’s countryside and reinforced the value of working together to build thriving, sustainable rural economies.
