Girardville , Quebec , July 15, 2009 – The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of State for Canada Economic Development, is pleased to announce that Aventuraid has been awarded $50,000 in non-repayable funding through the Community Economic Diversification Initiative – Vitality for the expansion of its wolf observation park and the introduction of a new species, the arctic wolf. This project, which required an overall investment of $100,000, resulted in the creation of one new job in the area.
“Aventuraid's one-of-a-kind activities encourage visitors to come to our part of the country for a truly enriching experience. Canada Economic Development wants to support entrepreneurs in their efforts to carry out initiatives that further the economic diversification of our communities and bring in additional sources of revenue. Indeed, through Canada's Economic Action Plan , our government has granted $40 million in funding to the Canadian Tourism Commission for the development of new markets to stimulate the tourism economy over the next few years,” stated Minister Lebel.
Aventuraid's project involved enlarging the site's wolf retention areas and building three observation towers. These improvements are expected to result in a 15% increase in the number of foreign visitors to the park, thereby translating into higher revenues for the enterprise. Given Aventuraid's business alliances with other tourism players in northern Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, this project will also have a positive impact on the bottom line of numerous enterprises in the region.
Completion of this work will allow Aventuraid to considerably improve the quality of the tourist attraction while increasing its appeal to European visitors.
In addition to giving visitors the opportunity to observe wolves in semi-liberty, Aventuraid offers an array of packages and activities to a growing clientele of ecotourism and soft adventure enthusiasts, 80% of them from out of province.
For more on Canada's Economic Action Plan , see www.actionplan.gc.ca .
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Sources:
Nadia Marceau
Communications
Canada Economic Development
Tel.: 418-668-4602 or 1-800-463-9808
Cell.: 418-321-0295
E-mail: nadia.marceau@dec-ced.gc.ca
Jean-Philippe Payment
Special Assistant
Office of the Honourable Denis Lebel
Canada Economic Development
Tel.: 514-496-1282
E-mail: jean-philippe.payment@dec-ced.gc.ca
