Fort William Historical Park Offers Great New Adventures

Fort William Historical Park continues to evolve its already fantastic programming by taking advantage of one of the city's most incredible urban park settings to improve visitor retention.

This year, the Fort is promoting outdoor adventures, including canoe and kayak rentals (Don't worry, they're new so you don't have to worry about patching birch bark). This is a great way to introduce new paddlers to the sport or cater to adventure seekers who want to pack light while touring the region.

The Fort is also promoting overnight tent and RV camping at its recently opened campground and has created nature trails on its own 25 acre island located upstream from the Fort on the fabled Kaministiquia River, a critical water trade route to the exploration and expansion into Western Canada.

And of course, with a full summer schedule of summer weekend events kicking off with Rendezvous with Italy on June 11 and 12 and the historic site open daily, there's more to keep adventure seekers here in the city longer.

Of course, Fort William Historical Park is already one of Canada's top outdoor attractions. The addition of this programming enhances that reputation and builds strength into Thunder Bay's tourism position as one of Canada's Best Outdoor Cities.

Thunder Bay KOA Owners Awarded KOA Franchisee of the Year Honours

Thunder Bay tourism industry partners Michael and Christine Kuper have recently been awarded Franchisee of the Year honours by KOA at the 2010 KOA convention held in Savannah Georgia.

If you've ever met them or toured their great campground just east of Thunder Bay, it becomes abundantly clear very quickly why. They are the embodiment of exceptional customer service and of the innovative, proactive, and entrepreneurial spirit of the tourism industry.

They have a customer first attitude, offering quality services and added value that clients look for, are full of enthusiasm and are always willing to share consumer feedback with us. I stop by a few times each year to chat with them and I am always amazed at their energy and just how much they value their clients. Having great partners like the Kupers offering quality services to their clientelle makes it a lot easier for all of us to sell the community.

In addition to the multiple wooded RV campsites that can handle the smallest to the absolute largest RVs on the road today, they offer tent camping sites, cabins and lodges for those who want the campground experience but don't own an RV.

Its the value added they offer as well. A heated swimming pool, driving range, mini putt, catch and release fishing pond and bike rentals that create a mini destination for visitors and local RV enthusiasts alike. In 2009, they played host to over 225 Texas RV enthusiasts who collectively brought dozens of RVs to the city for their annual Trophy Gardens RV Club summer reunion and this year, they were gracious lunch time hosts during our spring tourism familiarization tour for visitor centre and hotel front desk staff.

Congratulations to Micheal and Christine for being rewarded for the great customer service and hard work they put into building a fantastic visitor attraction in our community. To see their great operation for yourself, visit their website. or plan to stop by in the spring when they reopen for the 2011 camping season.

Emerging Group Tour Markets Key to Building Leisure Traffic

Thunder Bay is fortunate to be situated on the world's largest lake and as such, is part of one of the continent's best driving routes and most spectacular boating experiences. With the individual leisure travel market becoming more challenging to attract, its important to harness our position the Lake Superior Circle tour to attract the emerging leisure markets-what I refer to as the semi independent group travel.

Simply put, these are the folks travelling by individual automobiles, motorcycles, RVs and boats but in groups-some numbering in the hundreds. Often these people belong formally, or informally to a group specific to RV, motorcycle brand or automobile style. We all see them throughout the summer months and we've been getting them here for years. In 2008, Thunder Bay played host to the Wally Byam Air streamers group, this year, a large group of U.S. RV owners and in 2010, the Miata Enthusiasts of Upper Peninsula (Michigan) will be bringing in excess of 30 cars to the city for two days. As a new owner of an older miata myself, I've quickly become immersed in the group ownership culture and have come to understand first hand, the economic impact these touring groups make on a region. The itinerary and pics from the 2005 run are available at http://rainsux.dyndns.org/mals/ for those interested. If you are a Miata owner, stay tuned as new information is posted on that site for the 2010 run.

On the motorcycle touring side, Larry Lage of Excalibur Motorcycle Works (www.excaliburmotorcycleworks.com) has been instrumental in helping us understand the motorcycle touring market and with respect to boating, we communicate with the Great Lakes Cruising Club (www.glcclub.com) to promote the area to the thousands of boaters who live around the lake and the tens of thousands who live elsewhere on the Great Lakes.

Opportunities exist to better target our marketing towards these groups, using both online social media as well as building partnerships with local enthusiasts groups who play host to these groups. Its something we have worked on in the past two years and will be doing so more formally in the future. Its good for local event organizers to know that bringing in groups often ensures special rates on hotel rooms, meals and attraction admissions can be offered by many local and area tourism partners.

Attracting these groups is important on a number of fronts. As previously mentioned, its easy to reach out to them AND we are on one of the best scenic touring routes in North America. However, those who motorcycle, RV or drive sports cars are more likely to be avid travellers. They seek out the driving experience, they love to socialize with like minded individuals and are more likely to travel even when the economy is weak. They are generally of a higher education, more affluent and adventurous. In our case, we have a lot of enthusiasts in the community who act as advocates and organizers, helping reach their peers across North America more directly than we can on our own.

Tourism Thunder Bay has been providing support to such local groups who host. For those who want to host groups, Tourism Thunder Bay provides magazines, delegate packages and even the use of our roll up displays to help promote the city. Our meeting and convention planner has even been known to help source out prizes for groups who set up gatherings here. The City's event central can help provide one stop shopping for event organizers with respect to information on road closure processes, permit requirements and even equipment the City of Thunder Bay can provide to event organizers.

For 2010 we are currently evaluating the implementation of a potential sponsorship program to help sponsor some of the financial costs of hosting motor touring groups in our city.

If you are a Thunder Bay or area motor touring enthusiast who wants to host a group here, feel free to contact Rose Marie Tarnowski, our Meetings and Convention Planner at rtarnowski@thunderbay.ca and she will be happy to discuss venues, attractions and other related information.

photo courtesy of MEUP