Tourism Windsor-Essex Pelee Island wants to hear from the people who live in this area about tourism across the region and what they could do better.
TWEPI is conducting a resident sentiment survey to better understand how residents feel about tourism in their communities, including its benefits, impacts, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
TWEPI CEO Gordon Orr says the number one visitor segment coming to Windsor-Essex is from outside the area, coming to visit family and friends.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on staycations, spending local, educating residents of Windsor-Essex on what amenities we have in our own backyard,” he says. “We want to hear from them about how we can look at that and use it to our advantage.”
Orr says they want the locals to tell them what they like and get a pulse of what’s happening in the community.
“Community really helps tell our story in so many ways. They also support an industry that supports over 11,200 jobs locally,” he says. “Tourism is an economic generator and job creator. We have over $817 million injected annually as an economic benefit because we have 5.1 million visitors coming to visit our region.”
Orr says they also want to educate locals about local tourism opportunities such as Adventure Bay in Windsor or the wineries across Essex County.
“A lot of them say, ‘No, they’ve never done it.’ We want to make sure that locals know which tourism assets are here locally so that when they do have family and friends visit from outside of the market, they get them off that living room couch and away from that dining room table and get them out exploring our backyard, and in return, leave behind an economic benefit,” he says.
Click here to find the survey, which is live until Monday, November 9th, 2026, at 11:59pm.
The survey is being administered by Bannikin, an Ontario-based tourism consultancy specializing in tourism research, strategy, development, and communications.
The findings will provide Tourism Windsor Essex, its funders, and partners with a stronger understanding of resident perspectives and community priorities and will help inform how tourism is planned, developed, managed, and promoted in the years ahead.