“We are great at bringing people in, showing them a great time and then sending them along their way. The awesome thing about Nova Scotia is that it’s really easy to travel within the province. Once you get here, you can kind of be-bop around and feel fully immersed in Nova Scotia culture.” With this in mind, Kentville has carefully crafted its tourism offerings to appeal to a variety of interests throughout the year. “Once winter hits, it’s a very specific type of traveler that we would be hosting, and those would be all in the category of outdoor enthusiast,” details Young. She adds that outside of winter, Kentville sees three main types of visitors, outdoor enthusiast, arts and culture enthusiast, and “foodies”, and the town has built in ways to draw in and appeal to each of these. BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS FOR LONG TERM SUCCESS Kentville’s growth and progress are fueled by partnerships with organizations like Build Nova Scotia, the Valley Regional Enterprise Network— whose primary focus is bringing investment opportunities to the region—and the many local businesses and organizations that help move the community forward. “We do have a really strong standing recreation department, and all of their programming tends to be done in partnership or collaboration with nonprofits or community groups. We have a strong relationship with post-secondary institutions, particularly Acadia University, and their students, supporting the work that we do, or research, or sometimes co-op students 179 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 12 KENTVILLE, NS
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