Wednesday, August 25, 2010

2010 Brings more Positive Travel Media Exposure to the City

Thunder Bay is continuing to see a strong travel media presence this summer with a number of web, print, television and viral stories released and new media personalities discovering the community's experiences.

Travel media is an essential and critical component of our community's tourism marketing strategy because it extends our reach to larger markets with significant visuals and editorial content that a simple advertisement just cannot deliver. When working with travel media we like to see an end product that ultimately has a digital home and where it can be shared with readers globally.

First, let's start with some of the media we've seen released in the past month or so.

KSTP, the Minneapolis ABC Television affiliate, paid two visits to our great community back in June and early July to tape a series of segments for their evening news travel program called "On the Road With Jason Davis. While here, Jason and his cameraman, David Peterson, visited Fort William Historical Park, Eagle Canyon, Kakabeka Falls, the Amethyst Mine Panorama and experienced Lake Superior salmon fishing with Archie's Charters. These segments went to air in late July in the Minneapolis and St Paul markets and you can view them here at http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/s1655626.shtml?cat=69

The Toronto Star published a story about Thunder Bay's iconic connection to its natural environment this past July as well. Writer David Gonczol visited the community back in 2009 and spent several days exploring with SailSuperior.com, and experiencing the city's Finnish and culinary culture. You can read it here at http://www.thestar.com/travel/article/841808--a-superior-experience-in-thunder-bay

Recently, we received a note from Victoria that we got a brief mention in a story on Great Lakes Cruise Shipping. The M.V. Columbus returns to the Great Lakes in 2011 with two scheduled stops in Thunder Bay and a story about the vessel's North American itineraries made it into the Victoria daily news.

A recent story on the Thunder Bay to Sault Ste Marie touring route found its way online at antimusic.com and rocknworld.com. Kevin Wierzbicki, an Arizona based free lancer, was here in early July and published his story in mid August. Read more here at http://www.rocknworld.com/roadtrip/10/lakes/index.shtml

As the majority of writers are scoping out and researching their stories well in advance of their publication and release, some of the articles being researched now won't appear for up to a year in market. That said, we're having an incredibly busy August, with no fewer than three separate groups in the city this week alone. This includes the publishers of the annual Travel Guide to Canada, motorcycle journalists Joe and Flora Lloyd (http://www.curbsyde.com/), and a Minnesota based freelancer.

Our media footprint continues to raise the profile of the community and its experiences, helps us solidify our goal to be positioned as one of Canada's best outdoor cities and rising destination of choice for avid educated outdoor enthusiasts, sport tourism participants, convention planners and group tour operators.