Reflecting on the Successes of 2011.

I'm Back!

I've taken a six month hiatus from my tourism industry blog while I stepped back from my tourism role to undertake a development assignment with the City's Waterfront Development Office. Its great to be back at my tourism desk and getting caught up on my blogging has been something I've looked forward too. It was an amazing opportunity to be part of tourism's capital development side of things and provided me with a greater appreciation of the work that goes into building something world class.

With the year ending, its always a good time to reflect on the past year in the local tourism industry and celebrate milestones and successes. Where to start?

Tourism Thunder Bay unveiled its new Meeting, Convention and Incentive Travel (MC & IT) program branding Thunder Bay as the "Unconventional Convention" destination by focusing on our connection to our natural environment as a more inspiring meeting location with unique meeting alternatives, focus on culinary and interesting corporate retreat and "off site" visitor experiences to stretch the corporate visit. The new look, punctuated by spectacular imagery, struck chords with meeting and conference planners immediately. Given our air connectivity to Canada's major centres, we're becoming a meeting location of choice in the health care, mining, government and NGO sectors.

Industry performance was driven by growth in a number of segments, most notably the sport tourism, conference and group travel markets. The Ontario Winter Special Olympics gave our winter hotel occupancy and attraction attendance a boost. The Harley Owner's Group Rally in July brought some 600 out of town riders to the community for a extended weekend event and we welcomed the M V C.Columbus and a total of over eight hundred European visitors to the new Pool 6 Cruise Terminal for two visits. We also played host to thousands of Northern Ontario residents this past summer as forest fires threatened their remote communities. All combined, we enjoyed Ontario's highest hotel occupancy rates right into the fall.

On the travel media side of things, we had unprecedented volume of media familiarization tours. We welcomed National Geographic's Andrew Evans, who spent a few days exploring everything from Fort William Historical Park and Hoito to a fly in Fishing trip with Tip Top Lodge and a visit to the proposed National Marine Conservation Area. We hosted Power Boat Television in August for the taping of a segment to air later this January and welcomed travel journalists from the Minneapolis area, Germany, France, South America, Southern Ontario, and western Canada. We were also featured on ESPN Sports Radio in the US midwest and in numerous on line blogs.

In June we hosted representatives from five international cruise shipping operators, seeking information on the region to aid them in developing new itineraries and markets. It was also the year we won the rights to host the 12016 Can Am Police and Fire Games that will see thousands of participants and their families from across North America enjoy our "Superior by Nature" hospitality.

This was also the year we launched, in collaboration with other strategic Provincial partners, two development initiatives that will change the way visitor discover, plan and experience their trip. The first was the creation of "Ride Lake Superior" in collaboration with Algoma Kinnewabi Travel Association from Sault St Marie. Starting with a series of motorcycle tourism readiness workshops that gave local attraction and accommodation providers tips on welcoming motorcycle visitors. The plan has quickly drawn interest from the U.S. side and promises to morph into a truly - and frankly long overdue - bi national product development and marketing initiative to position the Lake Superior basin as North America's most epic ride destination.

Secondly, our team participated with OTMPC in the unveiling of the online trip planning tool designed to enhance destination development for the motor sport and RV touring segments and help consumers navigate the region more effectively using their hand held devices.

This was also the year that the RTO began to find its legs as we developed new regional collaborative partnerships that will grow the tourism economy by working smarter and leveraging our human and financial resources. There's a long way to go but we've come a long way in only a shiort time and have made the tough decisions necessary to move the industry forward beyond our geopolitical silos.

A lot of great things happened this year in what is still overall, a tender global tourism economy and our city's tourism industry partners have every reason to be proud of their role in achieving those successes. We have great local partners who have invested in their visitor experiences and supported our strategy. We're not, by any means, at the top of the stairs yet. We'll keep climbing as an industry, into 2012 and beyond.

Thunder Bay's Hotel Occupancy Ends 2010 on a High Note.

The December 2010 hotel performance numbers are in and Thunder Bay continued to show improved performance right to the end of the year, particularly interesting given how difficult December traditionally is to fill hotel rooms when convention traffic winds down prior to the Christmas holidays and Christmas leisure traffic generally stays with friends and family.

Thunder Bay's hotel occupancy rate in December was 55.4%, up 5.2 points over the previous year and we reported the highest occupancy for the entire country. Average daily rate increased 4.6% to $95.48 and revenue per available room shot up 15.3% to $52.91. The average Canadian occupancy rate for December 2010 was 44.8%.

Year end results continue to support growth in the hotel segment, with the city posting a 70.5% occupancy rate, up 5.2 points from 2009. The City saw modest growth of 1.1% on Average daily rate, and a 9.2% increase in RevPar to $68.81. By contrast, the Canadian industry posted a 60.3% occupancy rate for the year.

This data is from PKF Consulting Trends Report. For tourism partners seeking more detailed information, please contact PKF at www.pkfcanada.com for their range of services to the tourism and hospitality industries.

Early Summer Performance Identifies Opportunities and Trends

With summer behind us, we turn our attention to reviewing this past year's leisure market performance. While the North American economy still has a long way to go to a full recovery, we are seeing positive signs of growth - and shifts - in the local tourism economy.

Hotel performance to the end of June points to a strong recovery for the city in both leisure and corporate travel. June occupancy rates in the city were 79.7%, up a whopping 12.4% over the previous June. RevPar rose 22.3% to $78.21 per room. For the year to date ending June 30th, overall annual occupancy rose 4.4% to 66.4% and RevPar rose 8% to 63.86. The national YTD average occupancy rate was 57.3%. (sourced from PKF Consulting Inc. We encourage our tourism partners seeking more detailed occupancy performance data to contact PKF directly at http://www.pkfcanada.com for their range of consulting products and services)

We're still a ways from a full recovery in the North American corporate travel markets as organizations continue to send fewer delegates to meetings but we seem to have seen an increase in the number of meetings held in the city this year, albeit with fewer participants per meeting.

Despite some 2009 and first quarter 2010 stability in the US markets, we seem to have struggled a little in May and June, with decreases to the end of June in the 12% range. these are the latest numbers we have on U.S. residents crossing into Canada and we are certainly waiting to see the July and August stats before fully evaluating and commenting on the US travel market. However, given what we've seen from the travel centres and the hotel performance, we are observing a shift in travel motivators from our U.S. guests. While the traditional angling market has fallen off (with demographics aligning with some of the hardest hit economic regions) a growth in the touring market, primarily motorcycle and RV, has offset some of that decline. The lesson here is simply this, we cannot discount the US travel markets but rather start marketing to emerging markets using new tools.

Attractions performance also seems to have stabilized with modest increases reported by some attractions partners. Overall, however, we're not hearing anyone in the city cry that the sky is falling, but rather hearing some positive trends and optimistic outlooks to future performance. One thing is certain and that is that we all, as an industry, have to keep moving forward constructively, positively and productively to take advantage of the changes in the consumer travel motivators so as to keep this upswing going.

With performance data for July and August still outstanding, we'll be preparing a seasonal wrap up sometime in the coming months to coinside with the development of our 2011-2013 strategy.

September Hotel Performance Lower but Still Ahead of National Trends

September's hotel performance statistics are in and while room demand is moderately down over September 2008, the city remains one of the least adversely affected Canadian markets in 2009.

Room demand is down 5.9% over September 2008. Occupancy levels have dropped to 73.7% from 79% a year ago and average daily room rates have increased from $94.64 to $98.18. Within this time frame an additional 1% of room capacity has been added to the 2288 rooms in the district inventory largely through expansion of existing properties. In essence, while occupancy and room demand is down, it appears that increased revenue through the increased average daily room rates could offset the room demand drop. Theoretically, properties aren't necessarily taking in any less gross revenues than last September

For the year to date, hotel performance is down 2.1% compared to the end of Q3 2008. While down, it still remains the 3rd strongest hotel market for 2008 after the red hot Regina/Saskatoon market and Quebec City. Its important to look at the performance within the context of the environment we're all operating in and compare to other national markets to identify the true opportunities and threats. The truth remains that for our urban tourism industry, the sky is definitely not falling. We do, however, have to remain vigilant, know our performance, understand our markets and respond pragmatically.

This September's decrease over 2008 is likely tied to a number of factors including poor weather that impacted fall touring in the leisure segment, a constriction of corporate overnight meeting and convention travel and the fact that the end of September 2008 saw 450 participants beginning to arrive in Thunder Bay for the Canadian Armed Forces SAREX competitions.

However, its also important for us to review this data, identify low periods and plan adjustments to our future tourism marketing and promotion strategy to help rebuild market share. Our recently released new meeting and convention attraction program and a larger hands on presence at Canada's leading convention planners industry showcases, the introduction of the inaugural September 2010 Thunder Bay marathon and adjustments to our participation in Lake Superior touring promotion are all underway to rebuild traffic for next year.

To follow national hotel performance trends yourself, visit http://www.hvs.com/Library/Articles/?ac=canadian%20lodging

Canadian Lodging Outlook has Thunder Bay Market holding Steady

There's no doubt that 2009 ranks up there as one of the most challenging years facing the Canadian travel industry, especially in markets that rely on U.S. visitors.

While I previously reported that Thunder Bay's hotel performance to the end of May was steady (0.0% change over y.t.d 2008), June saw performance dip slightly, ending up the first half of the year with a -0.6% change. Given passport requirements, slow U.S. economy any high Canadian dollar value, this decrease in demand should not be cause for too much concern. Given that every hotel market in Canada was down for the first 6 months of 2009 except Windsor (+4% change), Thunder Bay's room demand decline was still the most modest of every urban market in Canada.

Thunder Bay's 6 month average occupancy rate for 2009 is 62.3%, up from 62% in 2008. Average daily room rate is $93.13, down from $93.98 in 2008 and average revenue per room is $58.02, down slightly from $58.27 in 2008.

Individual July weekly performance in Thunder Bay has been mixed, with some declining weeks and others in the positive category but it appears overall, that our summer leisure traffic season appears to be weathering the industry's changing demographics remarkably well.

Our prediction for the remainder of the year sees a stable meeting and convention market kicking in late September to early December that will keep hotel demand steady and we anticipate Porter's (www.flyporter.com) arrival in the City at the end of June may help contribute to a strong fall corporate travel market.

To follow hotel performance, visit www.hvs.com/library.

March Hotel Performance

HVS, part of the Smith Travel Research group, has released its March Canadian lodging performance statistics for the Thunder Bay area. The month showed encouraging local performance in both the occupancy rates and revenue per room. March occupancy rates averaged 63.3%, posting an 11.13% gain over March 2008. Revenue per Room (REVPAR) posted gains of 14.65%, finishing the month off at an average revenue per room rate of $59.00

Strong corporate and spring break regional family traffic is being credited for the strong month, a remarkable achievement considering the lacklustre performance of other juristictionsin in both Canada and the U.S.

Full national lodging performance can be found at: http://hvs.com/Library/Articles/?region=1