REGINA - Tourism Regina is coming back under the city of Regina’s fold.
By a 9-0 vote, council voted on Wednesday in favor of amendments to the Unanimous Member’s Agreement respecting Regina Exhibition Association Ltd., clearing the way for the City of Regina to take over responsibility for destination marketing and tourism services for Regina and region. The full changeover will be complete on or before Dec. 31, 2023.
REAL had been in control over Tourism Regina since June 2022, but their time overseeing the organization has been a troubled one marked by the botched rebrand of the organization into Experience Regina, complete with sexually-suggestive messaging and slogans such as “show us your Regina.”
The rebrand in March landed with a thud with the public and prompted an apology from their CEO Tim Reid just days into the launch.
The result was a name change back to Tourism Regina, as well as an independent investigation by George Cuff and Associates into what transpired.
In the aftermath of their final report, the REAL board made the recommendation that control be transferred back to the city.
On Wednesday, Ahmed Malik, Kenric Exner and Cathy Warner representing the REAL board took responsibility for the botched brand launch.
“What we can all agree on is that the brand launch was a failure,” said Malik. “The brand launch included slogans that were offensive and not representative of our wonderful city. The launch itself fell short of the standards that our board and our organization does and should hold itself to… on behalf of our board I would like to say sorry to this Council, and to our community.”
Council were unanimous in favor of the recommendation, but the comments were wide ranging especially when it came to the REAL board.
“In football and in life, the measure of performance is not just the fumble, but it is as much the recovery,” said Councillor Bob Hawkins, who said the REAL board’s “level of expertise, level of professionalism, and especially the level of integrity, displayed by the real board, displayed by the CEO, and by employees is amongst the highest that I have ever seen.”
But Councillor Terina Nelson was highly critical. She said she had served on volunteer boards “have never ever let something like this slip through the cracks as far as overseeing what is done by any executive team or people underneath us.”
“I am disappointed in the board. I’m disappointed with the kind of shame this brought my two daughters when they are walking to a boardroom, trying to make it in the corporate world, and the disrespect and the laughter that they were shown by men at the table when they said they were from Regina. I want you to sit with that in your head and think about that.”
In speaking to reporters afterwards, Mayor Sandra Masters said Tourism Regina’s move into the City of Regina would see “the focus on brand and stakeholder engagement, potentially an advisory committee, to work on establishing a city of Regina brand, and to understand what our local attractions, our events, conventions. trade shows, restaurants and retail (need) — we depend upon visitors to our economy. We do really good at a lot of these things, but what do they need and how can we help promote what is happening in the city of Regina.”
