Response to "Baseline" Published October 9, 2025

The recent editorial entitled "Baseline" asks an important question: How do we know whether Prince Edward County’s economy is healthy, and whether the dollars spent on economic development are working?

The short answer is that data is hard to find. The long answer is, we are actively and urgently working on it.

Historically, Prince Edward County’s small population has meant that we are often rolled into larger regional datasets, such as those for the Bay of Quinte Region. That makes it difficult to extract meaningful, County-specific economic indicators. The lack of local data isn’t because of disinterest; it’s because small communities like ours simply don’t show up in most national or provincial datasets.

The new Four-Season Economy Strategy is a unique opportunity for all of the local organizations that have paid staff working toward economic development goals, including the municipality, Visit The County, the Chamber of Commerce, the Picton BIA, and County Arts, to collaborate in a more coordinated way. Together, we can identify areas of opportunity, eliminate duplication, and maximize the funding we receive. Each of these organizations has between one and three staff members, working with limited budgets but very large mandates. Pooling our efforts and resources allows us to invest in tools, including data collection technology, that would otherwise be out of reach.

For example, we are exploring an investment in Moneris data, which costs upwards of $10,000 per year. This data will help us establish a baseline for local spending in retail establishments and restaurants, providing real insight into visitor and resident spending patterns year over year.

This is just one piece of the puzzle. AirDNA, which we already use, provides useful information about short-term accommodations, but it doesn’t include hotels. Since Prince Edward County has only small, independently owned boutique hotels, there is currently no single source for hotel capacity or occupancy data. We are working on a solution, but it takes time and collaboration.

We have also begun a Visitor Experience Survey pilot, where local accommodators include a survey link in their checkout emails. The goal is to learn more about who is staying here, where they are from, how much they are spending, and how they perceive their experience. The full, “always-on” version of this survey will launch early in the new year, giving us continuous feedback from visitors throughout the seasons.

In addition, Visit The County is developing a Tourism Scorecard to measure key performance indicators such as marketing ROI, sustainable tourism practices, seasonal variation, partnership collaborations, website traffic, online reputation, overnight visitors, and the overall economic impact of tourism. This scorecard will be presented to Council in January.

At present, we do collect data but our available sources are limited and imperfect:

1. AirDNA – monthly reports on short-term accommodations (excludes hotels).

2. Environics Gateway Data – helps identify visitor origin but relies on opt-in app data and isn’t reliable year over year.

3. TREIM (Tourism Regional Economic Impact Model) – provides provincial estimates but is outdated and often inflates local impact.

4. Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT) Reports – we are actively working with municipal staff to improve data collection and sharing.

5. Sandbanks Provincial Park Gatehouse Data – not publicly available since 2022; we have requested more detailed reporting.

6. Canadian Tourism Data Collective (Tourism Scapes) – aggregates data from Statistics Canada and other sources but does not distinguish PEC from the broader Bay of Quinte Region.

In short, we agree that good decisions require good data. That is exactly what this collaboration and funding request aims to achieve.

Visit The County’s mission is to enrich the quality of life in Prince Edward County through responsible and sustainable destination management and marketing. Tourism provides a clear economic benefit to residents, including employment, and we are committed to collecting and reporting the data that will demonstrate that benefit.

Building this foundation will take time, but the work is underway. An actionable initiative like the Four-Season Economy Strategy is definitely the right next step for a smarter, more resilient local economy.

Sarah Fox

Executive Director
Visit The County