Oxford Fresh Program



Oxford Fresh is a collaboration between Tourism Oxford and the Oxford County Federation of Agriculture to promote local food producers, through a map, sign program and website. The next map printing will be in 2026. Businesses that meet the criteria can apply for a free website listing or to purchase an Oxford Fresh laneway sign.

March 21, Community Employment Services and partners hosted the largest career fair ever held in Oxford County with over 300 employers on site. The Oxford County Career Expo took a unique approach to maximize exposure and raise awareness of career opportunities in Oxford County. During the daytime the Career Expo welcomed 3000 students from high schools in Oxford County. Students were exposed to a broad number of sectors for employment, career awareness and volunteer opportunities. In the evening the venue was open to all looking for career opportunities in Oxford County. Participants could also go online in advance to search current job opportunities.

Tourism Oxford was please to join local economic development teams o supporting the Expo by volunteering and promoting business participation. Thank you to CES for hosting this event. Numerous Tourism sector companies participated and reported excellent outcomes from the event including: expanding volunteer lists, career education, and sharing employment opportunities. 

Learn more about Community Employment Services wide range of services to support employers. This includes specialized training programs, funding, hiring and promotion of employment opportunities. Visit their YouTube page to learn more about all of their services.

Thank you to the 5 new businesses who took advantage of having a free listing on TourismOxford.ca for 2024 and the 27 who invested in an Enhanced Listing.

Any business, that meets the eligibility criteria, can have a free listing on TourismOxford.ca. Tourism Oxford also offers enhanced listings which provide a professionally written blog highlighting your business. You can use this blog in your marketing and Tourism Oxford shares it as well on social media and in consumer newsletters.

In 2024 Tourism Oxford launched a new partnership program called Your Next Stop that minimizes travel time while maximizing fun for visitors. The partnership brings together tourism attractions in close proximity to each other to promote visitation to all stops though easy to use trip itineraries. The itineraries are promoted on TourismOxford.ca, through advertisements and signage at participating locations.

Your Next Stop trips itineraries launched in 2024 include: Rural Ramble in Blandford Blenheim, Gravel Travel in the Gunn's Hill area and Southern Slowdown in Southwest Oxford. Twenty businesses are collaborating on this program.

The program experienced significant positive outcomes and demonstrated that Your Next Stop is fulfilling a consumer need for ready to go trip ideas.

• Full page advertisements promoting the routes were featured in 3 issues of the Daytripper with a total circulation of: 100,000
• Digital ads resulted in 595,856  impressions and 15,718 link clicks.

After years of people craving comfort in the home, we realize now more than ever we all need to connect and build our relationships.

Therefore in 2024 Tourism Oxford, Ontario's Southwest and Downtown Woodstock BIA partnered to offering events with networking and education about the amazing tourism attractions In Oxford County.

Thank you to the 40+ tourism operators and hospitality workers that came out for Speed networking at Thames River Melons and the Discover Dundas Hospitality Hop.

Watch for 2025 networking event announcements in the industry newsletter.

Oxford Tourism Awards

May 2024, the Oxford Tourism Award recipients were announced. Congratulations to all of the nominees and the following winners. Recipients included:

• Responsible Tourism Award, Golspie Dairy
• Tourism Partnership Award first recipient, SixThirtyNine, Thames River Melons and Canada Grills
• Tourism Partnership Award second recipient, Indigo Lounge Wellness and Eatery
• Best New Tourism Product, Orange Door Acres

We like to thank the representatives from Ontario's Southwest, the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario and the Culinary Tourism Alliance for being the panel of external judges.

We encourage local businesses to consider applying in 2025.

Marketing campaigns were run in all 12 months resulting in over 41+ million digital impressions and 143,000 reach. Advertising highlights include:

• Built off 2023's success sharing winter trip ideas, Tourism Oxford partnered with Ontario's Southwest and Destination Ontario for a 2024 winter campaign
• Advertisements were placed with Daytripping, Dine Magazine, Ontario By Bike and Stratford Festival Review newsletter
• A holiday campaign was run promoting events and shopping local
• Printing of a new lure brochure and the 2024 Cheese Trail brochure
• December bus shelter ads were placed in Woodstock.

2024 saw a large increase in digital impressions, as part of a Destination Ontario and Ontario Southwest US marketing campaign with 17 million impressions. This ad drove traffic to an Ontario's Southwest landing page, featuring Oxford County and other regions.

In 2024, TourismOxford.ca had 315,000 website sessions, a 48% increase over 2023. Website statistics can fluctuate from year to year based on marketing partnerships and spend. New marketing partnerships with Destination Ontario likely contributed to this significant increase in sessions. These partnerships also likely explain the increase of new visitors to the site, showing we’re reaching a new audience. This growing audience includes potential visitors from the GTA, nearby urban centres (Kitchener, Hamilton, London) and Oxford County (demonstrating our visiting friends and family campaigns are working).

Top pages to visit on TourismOxford.ca include events, experiences, rest and relaxation, trip itineraries and the Cheese Trail. These results align with consumer trends for transformative, relaxation and culinary travel. It also demonstrates that Tourism Oxford is on track with meeting consumer demand for more trip itineraries through the launch of the Your Next Stop program. Tourism Oxford looks forward to further expansion of Your Next Stop across Oxford County in 2025.

As for how people visit the site, mobile phones are supreme (72%). This aligns with consumer trends and demonstrates the importance of mobile friendly websites. Tourism Oxford looks forward to launching an updated website that will improve navigation (including mobile), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and time spent on the site. When a website is revamped, it can expect to see a dip in SEO but this is followed by a rebound and improved website traffic as the site is catalogued by search engines. The new website is forcasted to launch in July 2025.

Develop Surveys and Reports to Improve Measurement, Monitoring and Reporting of Tourism Related Data

Implement annual surveys of businesses, residents and visitors. Reports will measure the economic, social and environmental impact of the tourism industry, including over-tourism. Report the results and use in tourism planning.

Complete Implementation of Your Next Stop

Bring together local tourism attractions to develop new trip itineraries promoting visitation between compatible nearby attractions. Market these new itineraries through the Your Next Stop program increasing the number of businesses involved from 19 to 30. Your Next Stop is a component of Oxford County’s FedDev Southern Ontario Tourism Growth Program grant.

Develop a New Visiting Friends and Family Ambassador Program

Launch a marketing campaign to increase local resident awareness, visitation and civic pride in local tourism attractions. This program will target key times of the year including holidays and summer months when individuals may be looking for tourism opportunities. This program will work in partnership with local businesses

Investigate New Partnerships with Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show

Partner with Canada’s Outdoor Farm show to work on new initiatives to extend stays and increase visitation

Improve Communication with Businesses, Resident and Consumers on Sustainable Tourism

Increase tourism businesses awareness of opportunities and demands for sustainable travel solutions sharing resources and training opportunities. Expand information on TourismOxford.ca to support consumers in planning sustainable travel to Oxford County including highlighting local attractions with certifications and sustainable practices