From giant tractors to fancy toilets, small towns getting creative to draw visitors

Does your business have the ‘wow’ factor?

Australian consultant Peter Kenyon believes every business or community needs to capitalize on what makes them unique — the ‘wow’ factor — to pique curiosity and draw people in.

The best way to do this, he said, is by telling a story.

“Through storytelling and creating experience, you can begin to not just reinvent businesses, but also reinvent the town,” Kenyon said during a recent webinar.

Kenyon is the founder of Bank of IDEAS, a consulting firm that helps develop sustainable and enterprising communities and local economies. He was speaking March 31 at the invitation of the Rural Ontario Municipal Association and the Ministry of Rural Affairs as part of their Teeny Tiny Summit series.

“You don’t get a second chance at a good first impression,” Kenyon said.

When you look at it every day, it’s easy to become blind to what’s holding back a business or town, he said.

Tired or dated signage, dilapidated infrastructure and abandoned buildings, empty main street shops, and faded murals all send a negative message to potential customers.

It’s important to look at your town or business with fresh eyes and do an honest assessment of what needs changing, he added.

Creating experiences, interest and fun is a great way to create that ‘wow’ factor, Kenyon noted.

In the 1970s, he said, the town of Beechworth in Western Australia had seen better times. The former mining town was known only for its jail and asylum, and property owners couldn’t give land away.

That changed a decade later, thanks to the efforts of one local businessman, Tom O’Toole, who moved to town determined to change its fortunes.

He bought and renovated the local bakery, trained local workers, and it’s now celebrated as a top tourist destination in Western Australia.

In a town of 3,000 people, he employs 74, and roughly eight million people annually travel from all over to visit the bakery.

“It is an amazing story in business reinvention,” Kenyon said. “And I love what they’ve actually achieved.”​

​People don’t visit Beechworth Bakery just to buy pastry, he added. They go for the experience.

On Sundays, a jazz band entertains patrons, and the business’ activities frequently spill onto the street where employees dress up in costume and people gather to watch pie-eating contests.

“Community-building needs to be fun and we need to engage people,” Kenyon said.

That especially means focusing efforts on people and not cars, he added.

“I’m amazed at how many town leaders want to talk about parking as if that is the critical issue,” Kenyon said.

“Always, to me, it is about the fact that we’ve got to design our main streets and our businesses for people, rather than for vehicles.”

Simple ways to do that might include streetscaping with trees and flowers, allowing sidewalk cafés, installing more public art, or setting up giant picture frames so visitors can take selfies.

It also helps if these areas are dog-friendly, he added, since so many people, especially of younger generations, want to bring their canine pals with them wherever they go.

These additions are “simple but effective in terms of creating spaces where people want to be,” Kenyon said.

He calls storytelling a “critical skill” that’s essential today to running a business or community. People will forget data and statistics, he added, but they’ll always remember a really good story that can both appeal to outsiders and instill local pride.

In 2024, the Town of Carnamah, in the middle of Western Australia’s wheat belt, finished construction on the world’s largest tractor.

The bright-orange behemoth, measuring 11.5 metres high and 16 metres long, is a replica of a Chamberlain 40K tractor, just like the one that was first built in Carnamah nearly 80 years ago.

Since its completion, people have flocked to see and take pictures with the roadside attraction.

“It’s just become this amazing selfie attraction,” Kenyon said. “It detours people from the main highways into this particular town and it’s simply a way of capturing something unique, but turning it to economic benefit.”

Creativity can stir curiosity, he added, and the Town of Kawakawa in New Zealand is a good example of this.

That’s where Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a famed Austrian architect known for his mosaic work, owned a farm and spent four months of the year.

When he offered to design and construct a building for the community, the town agreed, but with a caveat: what they really needed were public toilets.

Hundertwasser fulfilled their request, and in 1999 construction was completed on the colourful building, which reflects his signature style.

“You wander into the toilet and it is kind of like an art form that attracts, on average, one and a half million visitors a year that come to this little tiny town of Kawakawa just to go to the toilet,” Kenyon said.​

​Other tips Kenyon offered include using humour in signs and slogans as well as key words to engage visitors.

People love to take advantage of “free” samples or “discount” prices, he noted, as well as supporting anything that’s “locally” made.

The shop-Canadian movement of the last year is a good example of this, because it appeals to customers’ values and emotions, Kenyon added.

“These are things that people will respond to, from an ethical and a values point of view,” he said.

For his final tips, Kenyon said businesses and towns shouldn’t be shy in bragging about their achievements — having the best bread in town or reaching a milestone anniversary — and, above all, they should offer “positively outrageous customer service.”

In a national study on Australian retailers, Kenyon said, 68 per cent of people surveyed said they changed their retail habits because they objected to the way they were treated; specifically, they resented the indifference of staff that served them.

Though that survey was particular to Australia, it’s a good lesson for business owners and communities everywhere.

“Customer service is critical.” -swnewswatch.com

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Thunder Bay needs a ‘big thing’ for tourists to come and check out.

Something like Chicago’s Bean, Sudbury’s Big Nickel, the Vegreville egg  and so on.

I feel this was am opportunity missed during the planning and construction of Prince Arthur’s Landing. It could have also been applied to the north core urban upgrade that was recently completed.

Big thins seem to be linked to communities and become icons.  Something for people to see when traveling  through the city on their way east or west or even south.

What would an appropriate big thing for Thunder Bay?  I am sure their are experts in this city that can easily figure it out. Run a contest. Survey the population.

My ideas are not popular with the city’s Tourist Department.

Things like giant crumpled take-out coffee cup, discarded bicycle with broken spokes and a missing wheel, a feral shopping cart or a giant crushed plastic water bottle.

These are things that I am sure that tourists already associate with the City of Thunder Bay.

There could be a giant figure that interacts with people.  The figure could ask people for spare change or a smoke.

The possibilities are endless.