The Tourist
During a typical summer, we all have seen vehicles on the streets of our town sporting those “foreign” licence plates. Since we are a relatively small town, we may know someone in our community who has family members or friends visiting from the mainland or the United States. These we traditionally classify as ‘tourists’. They have come to our town for a specific reason, and we know that, while here, they will eat at our restaurants, visit our museum and art gallery, buy from our local stores, and return to their homes with souvenirs and pictures to remind them of their stay, but what about those people who come to our town from neighbouring communities, or elsewhere in our province, on a regular or semi-regular basis to shop, participate in various sports tournaments and/or other community events. They may drive through our town during our Festival of Lights celebrations and marvel at the level of community participation evident in the beautifully decorated homes; they may bring their families to town for our Klondyke Concert; they may drive to the east end of our town to partake of the beautiful rugged coastline and peaceful surroundings found on the Shoreline Heritage Walk, or they may simply sit in their vehicles admiring the beauty and fury of the sea crashing on the rocks at Mad Rock. Even though we don’t often consider them as such, they too, are tourists.

THE BAY ROBERTS EXPERIENCE
As residents of the town of Bay Roberts, we often take our surroundings for granted. We don’t always realize the strengths of our community – strengths that tourists/visitors admire and speak about long after their ‘Bay Roberts Experience’. They talk about beautiful homes; unspoiled, natural beauty; hospitable people (the friendly gas bar attendant or local store clerk); clean air; the food and service they received at a local restaurant, local rest and picnic areas, and a vibrant community spirit. Those are the things that appeal to tourists and make them want to return or to tell others about our community. Unfortunately, they can also talk about unkempt properties, buildings and fences without paint or in a dilapidated condition, garbage on the sides of our roads, and these certainly do not contribute to our town being the best that it can be, but they are things that we can do something about. If we all took pride in our properties and our town, Bay Roberts could and would become a much more attractive haven for tourists.

Tourism Committee
The Bay Roberts Tourism Committee is a volunteer group, which meets once per month to discuss and advise Council on matters pertaining to our town’s tourism initiative. The group currently consists of eleven citizen representatives (Agnes Butler, Marion Badcock, Kelly Morgan, Ruth Murray, Jill Gosse, Rick Snow, Robert Craig, Karen Mercer, Wayne Attwood, Eric Jerrett and Derrick Neil) and Councillor Clarence G. Mercer, who is Council Liaison and Committee Chairperson, Ian Flynn represents the Tourism Department and is liaison to the Department’s Director, Ron Delaney.

In the past, this committee has proven to be a strong advocate for the beautification and promotion of our town through its involvement in projects such as our Community Gardens, the Visitors’ Pavilion, the development and enhancement of green space areas through the installations of benches and flower/shrub boxes, and the introduction of our Cleaner and Greener Campaign, just to name a few projects.

Over the past number of months, the committee continued its work on those projects, but has broadened its horizons and focused its attentions on projects such as the completion of the Klondyke (Many thanks to the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch No. 32, for their acquisition of funding for this project). It is hoped that, upon completion (in the near future), it will become yet another tourist attraction and the focal point of our town’s many activities.

The committee has also assisted Council with the acquisition of funding to commence the development of a trail system and lookout areas along Arney’s Pond and the Shearstown Estuary (yet another potential attraction). The Beautification Sub-Committee continues its efforts to make our town more attractive and appealing for our residents and an increasing number of tourists, while the Marketing Sub-Committee attempts to promote the town’s existing attractions and amenities on a local, provincial, national and international level, through the development of our first tourist brochure.

It is hoped that this, along with the rejuvenation of our town’s web site, can be a catalyst for increased tourism and economic development for our town.

The Future

Bay Roberts is already known as a progressive, proactive, growing community. However, when we consider the impact a major tourist attraction could have on any community, we can then begin to visualize our potential if we were to create Pigeon Inlet, a living heritage village, in our community, or if we were to pursue the development of our harbour so that we could avail of the opportunities surrounding the cruise ship industry.

"The sky is the limit’ on what the future holds for our town, but we need the full cooperation of our citizens and our business sector.

The Challenge

As citizens, we have the opportunity to make our town stand out, and we have the potential to make our town a major player in the tourism industry of our province, but we have to work together. We all have to realize that potential and become a part of making our town GREAT. We must continue to build on the growing level of pride so evident in our community. Are you doing your part?