We’re celebrating our 30th anniversary this month! We’ve launched the “30 Stories for 30 Years” interview series as part of the festivities, featuring former Ottawa Visitors Center Board members, and more. We’ll be doing some reminiscing, pondering the future, and discussing local tourism from throughout the years. Our birthday celebration is set for Friday, April 24th.

This entry features Julie Johnson, the former OVC Executive Director. She got us started with a recount of projects and development that she was involved in.

“I was the executive director for about a ten-year stint. At the time, just prior to being hired, Mayor Bob and the city council did a grant study. And that’s where the botanical brand came from, that was the whole ‘Pick Us’ campaign. So, I got the idea of turning the office into an advertising firm, concentrating on writing grants and attracting grant money. And then, we hired a graphic designer to have on staff, who was Curt Bedei [who eventually became director]. And so, that really kind of changed the focus, from just maybe working on events and assisting visitors, to promoting Ottawa outside the 30 mile radius, in connection and cooperation with the Chamber,” Julie explained.

“In turn, it brought investors, restaurants, downtown businesses, because they were all getting a free advertising machine to help them promote their businesses. Because, why go to a town if you’re just completely on your own? We believed in private and commercial partnership. We partnered with anybody that had an advertising budget that was tourism related. So hence, we saw the growth of all of the restaurants downtown, not having an open storefront, the Heritage Harbor project, manufacturers wanting to come here, because their wives and children had things to do and shop and places to eat,”

“So, it all turned to be kind of a quality of living kind of thing, that we started back then. And we were, I think, extremely successful. And I miss my job! It was fun,” she said.

We do have a lot of fun here! This aspect of OVC history is so exciting to get into as we look back on 30 years in the Middle of Everywhere. It led us to where we are today, so we’re forever thankful to those who Picked Us throughout the years. These accomplishments and developments truly show the power of cooperation in tourism. We discussed what tourism, in relation to Ottawa, means to Julie.

“I can sum that up with a sentence that I coined when I was at the Visitor Center, and it’s turned out to be true. And probably, the most important aspect of tourism for a town, our our size, and where we’re situated. And that mantra or motto is: ‘Every visitor is a potential resident and investor.’ If you fulfill the promise that you’ve advertised with, and give people a wonderful quality of life, then they will, in turn, invest. Whether that be in real estate, whether that be in a new business, whether that means that they’re going to stay several nights in our hotel, and pay our hotel motel tax. So, every visitor is a potential resident and investor. And I have always felt as though that really sums it up,” Julie said.

It’s uniquely interesting to hear about the perspectives and thoughts behind the people and forces that make things happen. That’s what has been so great about sharing these interviews! To look back on some more OVC history, we asked Julie her thoughts on how tourism in Ottawa has come along and evolved throughout the years.

“Well, I think it was difficult in the beginning, when my husband was commissioner, to explain or educate the public that attracting outside dollars, that don’t come out of our residents’ pockets, is the way to go. And so in the beginning, was just the concept that was difficult to get across. Because any time anyone enacts a ‘tax,’ that’s pretty much met with disdain by the taxpayer. But none of those taxes come out of our pockets, so it’s the perfect business model. It’s somebody else’s money, that’s helping to increase our quality of life. So we started there, and then the grants… I think in my tenure I did more than $800,000 in grant money to the city. Now, those are in the days when there was more grant money. available, but you were still in competition with everybody else. If you didn’t write a grant, you didn’t get the money, it’ll go to another community,” she explained.

“So, I kind of went grant writing crazy. And partnered with the Heritage Corridor, with Bob Navarro. He was definitely our partner. And we kind of gave them the big advertising idea. This was something that was a brand new concept, to take these dollars and not put on a festival, but actually do some true national advertising. Advertise that we’ve got storefronts. Advertise that we’ve got buildings for sale. Advertise that we have commercial factory property available. And all of these things, one act begets the other. And because with all of these things, there are visitors, and there are families, and there are people dining out. And there needs to be ancillary businesses to support that activity. So I really think that it’s come a long way from conception to an advertising model,” Julie said.

“So it was kind of the perfect storm. We had a mayor and a council who believed in what we were doing, and believed in advertising and promotions. We had a chamber that believed in what we were doing, and we helped promote the chamber. At the same time, we were in partnership with them. They sat on my board. I sat on their board. There wasn’t a decision that was made as far as the majority of projects that the city and the chamber didn’t invite us to sit in on. So, that we had this unique angle and ‘how can we use this and promote it,’ no matter what it was. And I think that it was a real boon time for the city,” she said.

“I think that downtown is crowded because of what we did. But that’s not going to last forever… So I hope that what the future may be, is I hope that whoever is in charge, embraces the concept of advertising and promotions, because there will come a day when that needs to be done again.”

It’s clear tourism is multifaceted, and our greatest successes happen when we work together. And as we’ve seen, there are a lot of moving parts. Events and attractions are just some of these parts in the great engine of tourism. We asked Julie if she would like to see any events or attractions from the past make a return.

“Because of manpower, both with the Visitor Center and the City, and what manpower costs, that we definitely required that the festivals that we advertised, because we were spending so much in advertising, people had to make a commitment to make sure that the festival lasted three years. You couldn’t come in with a festival and then just not do it again, so you had to make a three-year commitment. And therefore we got the city, and the Chamber and the Visitor Center, and the advertising, and the Heritage Corridor all behind the events. And then we coordinated all the events, starting with the Morel Mushroom Fest, you know, all the way through to Scarecrow Fest and Ice Fest in the fall. And we had a list of festivals that we did every single year on a regular basis, so that our advertising wouldn’t be stale. So because we were consistent in what we did, I don’t miss anything, because we were consistent in what we did,” Julie explained.

“So I just think the consistency of the events, because we’re spending so much in advertising, is probably, when you’re talking events, extremely important.”

A consistent message is a strong one! Just one of the many things that goes into events and tourism to keep things moving along. As we neared the end of our interview, Julie gave us some closing thoughts.

“But I really think that at the time, with Bob as mayor, and Boyd Palmer being at the chamber, and myself being at the Visitor Center, and all three of us being lifelong friends and working together our whole lives in other capacities, I just think that that was the sweet spot for the visitor center and it was the perfect storm. I will go on record and say this: We had a heck of a lot of fun doing what we did. And I really miss it, and I miss the people and Donna, and we really had a lot of fun doing what we were doing.”