Old Theatre Finds New Life as...a Movie Theatre

This past weekend, a new business opened up in the downtown Port Arthur core offering a new spin on a familiar architectural face.

The Paramount Theatre (www.paramounttheatre.ca), located at 24 South Court St, has reopened the second floor theatre (originally the balcony for the one screen venue) after a number of years laying dormant. Wiggles n Giggles, the popular indoor Children's play enter and a great attraction for area families in its own right, (www.wigglesngiggles.ca) has and still does, occupy the main floor theatre. The Theatre, originally opened in 1948 has retained much of its architectural charm and the combination of family uses within the building are a welcome addition to the business core. It also strengthens the North Cores' place as a centre of cultural, entertainment and performing arts.

What makes the theatre unique is in the way its being programmed. They mix inexpensive admission ($3.50) to see watch the classics such as Casablanca, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds and modern popular classics including Legend and The Princess Bride. The center also offers live theatre for families and improv workshops, creating a flexible use space.

While aiming at the local market, there is no doubt that this concept will also add to the attractions in this community for visitors to enjoy as well. The more options exist in the city for visitors-even seemingly modest ones- the greater the chance of visitor retention and increased economic impacts. Hats off to the owners of the Paramount Theatre for bringing this idea online. Its great to see old architecture preserved and reprogrammed than torn down to make a parking lot.

To learn more about upcoming film and theatre events at the theatre, http://www.paramounttheatre.ca/ If you are wondering what your tourism business can do to help promote this, simply let your guests know about film and theatre showing options because with more of us acting like tour guides, the greater the economic benefit to the community.

Unique Culinary Spin Featured in Westjet's Up! Magazine

Building Thunder Bay as one of Canada's best- and hippest -outdoor communities to visit gives us a lot of material to work with, especially when courting new visitors who are looking for sustainable tourism experiences. Its also a chance for us to weave sustainable tourism experiences with more traditional urban experiences to create memorable vacations.

Working with Lois Nuttal at Lake Superior Visits (http://www.superiorvisits.com/), a fun little package called "Loaves and Fishes" took on a life of its own this spring when former Senior Managing Editor of Up! magazine (http://www.up-magazine.com/), Eric Rumble, heard about it from me over coffee in Calgary. Eric loved the concept and had to write about it.

This 3 day epic adventure combines outdoor experiences, culinary and unique accommodation options to encourage visitors (and our tourism partners for that matter) to explore the city in exciting new ways. The core of Loaves and Fishes is essentially collecting local ingredients for your own dinner - even if your cooking skills involve burning water. A stay aboard the http://www.sailsuperior.com/ floating bed and breakfast and at the iconic McVicar Manor Bed and Breakfast, a lake superior salmon and trout fishing excursion with Archie's Charters (http://www.archiescharters.com/), visits to Thunder Oak Gouda (http://www.cheesefarm.ca/), Both Hands Bread and other local food producers fills ones' basket with fresh, locally made ingredients while taking in the city's iconic land and water scapes. The day ends at the spa while The chef's at Lot 66 (www.lotsixtysix.com ) cook it all up and pair it with worldly wines to create a memorable dining experience.

At the end of the day, Loaves and Fishes demonstrates creativity in product and experience development that consumers are looking for, weaves urban and outdoors together and builds upon our mandate to build Thunder Bay as a urban sustainable tourism leader.

Don't take my word for it. Read Eric Rumble's mouth watering take on it in the September edition of Westjet's (http://www.westjet.com/) Up! Magazine. You can read the online version on page 53 and 54 at:

http://www.soulintegrated.com/up/

How Will Greyhound's Departure Affect Local Tourism

With today's announcement that Greyhound Canada will discontinue service in Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba, there is some speculation on what this departure, and the removal of a traditional form of ground transportation, will have on the city.

While hard to pinpoint the exact numbers of travellers to the city who use Greyhound, the effect will be negligible for a number of reasons. Many of the people utilizing Greyhound through the city are doing just that - going through the city - and their stop here is only a matter of stretching for a few minutes, grabbing a meal and getting on with their journey. Those that do start or end their journey here are taking the bus because their point of origin is not serviced by air, that the bus is cheaper (in theory) than air or they are afraid to fly. Where we anticipate a reduction in visitation, albeit a minor one, is the youth budget cross Canada market. These groups are generally on a budget and have a big country to explore so they won't stay in the city that long, nor leave a large economic impact. That said, the local industries that I predict may be affected by this travel segment would be the hostels, basic level accommodation providers and in some cases, even campgrounds.

The air corridor and fear of flying reasons are both sound reasons but on the topic of expense, a look at the Greyhound website shows 14 day advance bookings at $93.75 each way from Toronto and a last minute non refundable ticket at $195.10. A refundable ticket will set you back $216.10 each way. These rates are not that much less than advance airfares on the three major Canadian airlines that service the Thunder Bay to Toronto corridor and add to that the 2 hour travel time by air versus the 24 hour travel time by bus, the time saving alone is worth the extra airfare cost.

Given the emphasis we have placed on the motor coach attraction market, our focus has been on the specialty firms that offer packaged destination experiences and not scheduled transportation carriers like Greyhound. In fact, we see those charter operators continuing to serve Thunder Bay and some that provide trans Canada touring routes could even pick up some of the slack albeit a minimal amount. With respect to Tourism Thunder Bay's marketing focus, most of our efforts in the leisure market caters to the independant adventurer, arriving by car, RV or motorcycle. Our corporate market caters to regional auto travel or air travel and our sport tourism markets will generally utilize charter coaches or air travel.

However, I don't see the absence of bus travel to and through Thunder Bay lasting long at all. Within the city we have 4 great locally owned motor coach operators. Caribou Coach (www.cariboucoach.ca) has already assumed previously abandoned Greyhound lines extending from Fort Frances to Hearst and is growing to meet growth opportunities in the charter field. Other local players include Winning Streak Charters (www.winningstreakcharters.com), Norcan Tours (www.norcantours.ca) and Happy Time Tours (www.httours.com) While there is no telling, who, if any pick up the routes, the opportunity could exist for a local or regional solution to link Saskatchewan and Southern Ontario.

The bottom line is, while a concern for those in rural Northern Ontario, the departure of Greyhound will not have a huge or lasting negative impact on tourism within the city of Thunder Bay. If efforts to restore a traffic corridor were to be undertaken through the region, I'd rather see efforts made towards the return of passenger rail.

The McGuffin's Launch a Great Quetico Commerative Book

Anybody in Canada and the United States who appreciates wilderness photography and conservation knows the names of Gary and Joanie McGuffin. They have done a lot to bring attention to the natural beauty of Northern Ontario through their stunning photography, epic annual adventures and leadership in conservation based causes to ensure our natural environment remains a tourism treasure for generations to come. I'm also proud to call them friends of mine and I credit them as being an instrumental part in of launching of the "Seven Days With the Giant" platform in 2008.

This morning, Gary and Joanie released a new book of images and stories to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Quetico Park. I have to admit I have never paddled Quetico but have flown over much of it in a float plane and educated myself at their visitor center. A read through their latest work uncovers the layers and depth of what is one of the world's great natural environment parks that encourages me to explore it by water, up close and personal. It also reminds me that we in Thunder Bay are fortunate to be a gateway community to this renowned wilderness area and our strategy to build Thunder Bay into one of Canada's great outdoor cities needs to integrate with such a gem.

The book is available at Chapters here in Thunder Bay and it makes a fantastic gift or a great educational keepsake for yourself. I think more local tourism partners should learn about this gem and what they can do to link themselves to it in some way. To learn more about these wonderful folks, visit http://www.garyandjoaniemcguffin.com/

New Meeting and Convention Planner Capitalizes on the "Unconventional Convention" Destination

We recently introduced our stunning new meetings and convention planner, a colourful and informative guide in both print and online versions that gets prospective convention and meeting planners thinking about Thunder Bay in a whole new way.

In keeping with our strategy to position Thunder Bay as one of Canada's best outdoor cities, we're weaving our unique meeting and convention locations with great outdoor, culinary and cultural experiences to improve our position within the increasingly important meeting and convention market. We've introduced the term "the unconventional convention" into our lexicon to get meeting planners seeing the city as a unique, affordable and memorable destination rather than a carbon copy of any other mid size city in Canada

The new 28 page guide is easy to follow and provides all of the information our meeting planners have told us they want to see - without the unnecessary filler. Information on accommodation, meeting rooms, unique meeting location, convention supply partners and transportation information are all available in one source.

Our increased commitment to to growing the meeting and convention market is based on our strategic location and world class air corridor coverage that makes Thunder Bay a convenient and stunningly different option for regional, Provincial and National corporate retreats, and small to medium sized conventions. We're also integrating opportunities to tie attractions and culinary experiences into our convention strategy as a means to increase visitation to our partners that are traditionally focused on the leisure market. By encouraging organizers to offer side trips such as visits to cultural attractions, off site meals and outdoor activities such as angling, kayaking and skiing, we extend the opportunities for other partners to become part of the convention market. We'll even place visitor services staff at large gatherings to help delegates plan their evenings, off time and "hooky" excursions. After all, how many of us have travelled to conventions and never seen more than the hotel and airport? I can tell you, it reduces the fun of convention travel.

Getting the planning tools into the hands of planners is being undertaken through a strategy involving industry showcases across Canada, print and online meeting and convention planning media and through a new twist on the VFR campaigns by providing local businesses, organizations and media planners the tools and advice they need to successfully bid on events that attract their partners to the city. Thunder Bay's major meeting and convention sectors have been identified as Health Sciences, Education, First Nation, Mining and Government groups, all segments with a reason to meet in Thunder Bay.

In keeping with our foundation statement to become a leader in sustainable tourism and a growing movement in the meeting and convention market to pick "green destinations", we have our sights set on standing out with our connection to the natural environment around us.

If you or your organization want to host a conference in the city that will bring in visitors, contact our Meeting and Convention Planner, Rose Marie Tarnowski at rtarnowski@thunderbay.ca

New Marketing Sales Kit Helps Tourism Businesses Grow

Recently, we released our 2010 Media partnership sales kit to help our tourism industry partners reach new markets effectively.

Our 2010 Sales Kit provides an overview of print and online marketing opportunities that partners can purchase to help strengthen their position in the marketplace and drive new business to their doors. Our marketing shift towards experience based online and print media has allowed us to raise the profile of the city as one of Canada's Great Outdoor Cities, weaving spectacular and iconic outdoor landscapes with unique and fascinating culinary and cultural urban experiences, a move that is generating international media attention and allowing us to buck some of the downward trends facing the Canadian tourism industry this year.

Our annual Thunder Bay Experience magazine has catapulted in popularity as a must have resource for visitors and local residents alike and is credited by many of our tourism partners for increasing visitation and revenues. with 120 000 copies in print, distributed throughout the Lake Superior basin and over 40 000 downloads annually, its become the most important tourism fulfillment resource for the city and area.

Our newly revamped www.visitthunderbay.com site has replaced our 1-800 number as the main call to action for visitors seeking more information. With over 425 000 visitors using the site last year to help them plan their trip. Free listings and paid banner advertising is available and some of our partners report anywhere from 15000 to 30 000 click throughs annually from our site to theirs.

A sales kit has been mailed out to over 400 local tourism partners and the order forms are available online. However, if you want to learn more about advertising opportunities, contact Rose Marie Mancusa, our Marketing Coordinator, at rmancusa@thunderbay.ca