The celebration for the Ottawa Visitors Center 30th anniversary continues, with our birthday festivities set for April 24th. As part of the fun, we have launched the “30 Stories for 30 Years” interview series, starring some past OVC Board members, and others. We’ve been reflecting on three decades of tourism, as well as pondering the future. Join us, as we look back on local tourism’s evolution, some Ottawa Visitors Center history, and a special guest’s unique perspectives.

This entry is a special one! We’re featuring Mayor Robert Hasty, as we discuss all things tourism. We first discussed the relationship between tourism and Ottawa, from his perspective as the city’s mayor.

“Well, I think where it’s most evident is in our downtown, where you see the restaurants and the stores. And the people who are there in those locations, you hear often that you’ll go and eat at one of our local restaurants, and the restaurant’s half filled with people that you don’t immediately recognize. And that has a lot to do with the fact that we’ve developed, not just a place for tourism, but for unique tourism. We have unique restaurants, unique stores, and I think that’s what gets people wanting to come back and experience. Ottawa, because we’re not just a cookie-cutter small town,” the mayor said.

The Ottawa Visitors Center is all about sharing our lovely community with tourists. If it hasn’t been obvious through this interview series, Ottawa is a special, unique town – and that’s what we love to share. Also throughout this series of interviews, we’ve been discussing on the development of Ottawa and the downtown and many of the moving pieces that helped it come to fruition. The town has come a long way, thanks to a lot of hard work. Ottawa is an adaptable, forward-looking city, so where might we go next? Mayor Hasty told us about some of the ongoing plans for tourism amenities.

“Well, we’ve got a lot of things on the horizon. The biggest one obviously being the waterfront development, with plans of an amphitheater and boutique hotel. And then we’re also in the beginning stages of the Dayton Ridge Golf Course, with plans of that being a soccer facility and long-term sports complex concept there, that bring in different types of demographics than what we currently have to our downtown,” he said.

“I’ve also been working with the Ottawa Center for the Arts, which is bringing in all kinds of content for not just our community, but for people to travel. I was at a show of theirs recently, and the folks sitting to my left were from Bloomington. The people sitting to my right were from, I believe, Shorewood. And they were just coming to see the concert that was at the Abbey.”

The Middle of Everywhere. Hopefully, you’ve seen that phrase somewhere before. Maybe you’ve seen promotional material with “Middle of the Arts” on it. With various galleries, murals, public art, music, in addition, to now an art festival, arts center, and amphitheater on the way, Ottawa’s artistic atmosphere has been a long time in the making.

And with a sports complex, one of the next posters might say something like “The Middle of Sporting” on it! We’re seeing in real time, the evolution of tourism in a forward-looking town. More spheres of interests are encouraged, offering exciting things for tourists and locals alike to enjoy in Ottawa. Of course, another events are another huge aspect of tourism, especially here in Ottawa. We asked Mayor Hasty if he had a personal favorite from throughout the years.

“Well, I’ve been an active Rotarian for over 15 years now, and so I’ll always have a soft spot for the Wine, Jazz, and as a Rotarian, we’ll add Lobster Festival,” he said. “Me and other Rotarians think back to that time very fondly, and it would be nice to have an event like that come back sometime soon.”

Ottawa’s Wine Fests were local and tourist favorites for years. It’s no surprise it’s been such a popular answer to this question! Similarly, we wanted to ask the mayor if there were any former event or attraction that he would be interested in seeing make a comeback.

“No, I’m going to flip that because I don’t think success is in recreating the wheel so much. I would like to take some of the lessons that we learned over the years with the Wine Festival and come up with something that may be unique, again, to our community,” he said.

“Building off of what I said previously, I think one of our best attributes is that we offer a unique experience. And so I think if we were to come up with a unique festival on the scale of what was the Wine, Jazz, and Lobster Festival, I think we would be on the right track there.”

With Ottawa being an ever-evolving town, only time will tell what sort of events we’ll see! One thing is for sure though, we can’t wait to keep sharing the stories of our unique community for years to come. As our interview came to a close, we asked the mayor if he had any final thoughts on the future of Ottawa tourism.

“I believe that our best days are ahead of us. The City, and Ottawa Visitor Center, and the Ottawa Downtown Association, the Chamber of Commerce are all working separately and together. And I full-heartedly believe that our best days are ahead of us. Which is saying a lot, given the accomplishments of where we’ve already been.”

Many thanks to Mayor Hasty!

Stay tuned for more interviews and tourism insights from throughout the years. It’s been 30 years in the Middle of Everywhere and we’re just getting started.