Regional Partners Profiled for Tourism Photography at this Year's Tourism Summit

The 2009 Ontario tourism Summit has come and gone and has once again provided us with a great outlook for the future of the tourism economy, given us some insights into changing consumer behaviors and provided a look at proposed new legislative changes that will impact the industry. Its also been a chance to get caught up with friends in the industry, share our successes and learn new ideas from our peers.

One of the highlights of the annual conference is the tourism awards gala, an opportunity to celebrate excellence in Ontario tourism and learn from some of the best. While we were nominated in 2008 for best campaign under $25 000, we were not so fortunate this year (Did I mention we took home 2 gold medals at this year's Canada Marketing Awards?) However, two of our local and regional tourism partners were acknowledged with an award this year, one directly and one indirectly. They deserve to be recognized for their contribution to the Tourism economy.

Gary and Joanie McGuffin won for best tourism photography this year for their emotionally moving cover shot of the summer 2008 Superior Outdoors Magazine featuring the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area. Gary and Joanie are big friends of Tourism Thunder Bay and were important partners of the 2008 Seven Day With the Giant contest campaign. While Gary and Joanie live on the lake near Sault Ste Marie (I'm trying to convince them to relocate to Thunder Bay) their work on Lake Superior and in important Provincial Parks that the city is a gate way to, helps elevate the reputation of our city and region as a hub for some of North America's best outdoor experiences.

Equally important at the awards was the context of the winning photo in that it appears on the cover of Superior Outdoors, a 2 year old magazine celebrating the Lake Superior sustainable lifestyle that is produced right here in Thunder Bay by Darren and Michelle McChristie. This fantastic print and online editorial delight is quickly gaining attention across the North American sustainable tourism community and is, in its own right, elevating the region as a sustainable tourism destination of choice. Tourism Thunder Bay has been an advertiser in this magazine from its inception as we see the value it has in helping us reach new markets for affluent and educated outdoor seekers who are looking for experiences in and around the world's largest freshwater lake.

My team and I extend out heartfelt congratulations to Gary and Joanie for their great photographic interpretation of our great city and region and to Darren and Michelle McChristie for telling the story of Lake Superior in ways that have garnered them Provincial attention among their peers.

To learn more about the work of the McGuffins, visit http://www.garyandjoaniemcguffin.com/ To find out more about Superior Outdoors, visit http://www.superioroutdoors.ca/ or stop by Chapters in Thunder Bay to buy a copy.

2009 Ontario Tourism Summit Open Provides Positive Messages on The Road Ahead.

Tourism Thunder Bay is currently attending the 2009 Ontario Tourism Summit being held at Caesar's Hotel and Casino in Windsor Ontario.

This year's event is the fifth annual gathering of Tourism marketing professionals from across the Province and is aptly titled "The Road Ahead". Over 400 delegates from Provincial, Federal and Municipal government tourism agencies, private operators and destination marketing organizations are hearing from some of the most influential voices in tourism and marketing, networking with each other and learning from each other's successes and experiences-good and bad.

For Tourism Thunder Bay, this is the venue in which Seven Day's With the Giant was conceived, where we placed second for marketing campaign under $25 000 in 2008 and where we continue to communicate with other partners to grow our tourism industry locally and regionally.

Today's sessions focused on changing consumer behaviors that we need to recognize and capture, turning our brand equity into sales and the collective efforts of the Ministry of Tourism, Canadian Tourism Commission and the Tourism Industry of Ontario to market our experiences more effectively, develop new products that consumers want, make smarter marketing decisions based on consumer research and get updates on what our government and industry associations are doing to lobby on everything from passport requirements to the HST to the need for enhanced tourism infrastructure investments.

This has also been a chance to see the local tourism economy in Windsor, experience some of their top visitor attractions, learn about their challenges and their successes and bring some of those good ideas home.

A high note of the conference so far has been a riveting presentation from Peter Yesawich, Chairman and CEO of Y Partnership. He provided a fantastic overview on Emerging lifestyle and travel trends and their implications for marketing Ontario in the year ahead. Understanding the emotional reasons that effect consumer travel behavior, how they seek out information on new travel experiences, how to appeal to them on an emotional level and understanding changes in their values provided me personally with a lot of new information to work with moving into out 2010 and 2011 marketing strategy years. Once presentations are available online, I'll endeavour to make their content available here.

In keeping with the theme of "The Road Ahead", the conference hall was adorned with some classic automobiles courtesy of the Automobile History Museum located in Windsor. On a personal note, the chance to see an authentic Shelby Cobra is a great bonus to the learning and networking environment here.

To read the conference agenda, visit www.ontariotourismsummit.com

Ministry ot Tourism Releases Celebrate Ontario Event Support Program for 2010

The Ontario Ministry of Tourism has announced today that Celebrate Ontario, the hugely popular financial support program for the tourism event sector, is renewing funding for the 2010 year. This year, once again, sees an overall budget of $11 million to be allocated to events across the Province and this year, the application deadline has been moved up considerably to November 27, 2009, rather than in past years where the deadline was in late January or early February. That gives you approximately 2 months to pull your applications and information together. Local events to have benefited over this year to March 2010 include the Sleeping Giant Loppet, Cavendish Cup, Sleeping Giant Writer's Festival and the Thunder Bay Bluesfest.

This is a great program with an easy to follow application process and I encourage event organizers who believe their event has a tourism draw to submit their applications as soon as possible for the program. As part of the packages, letters of support from the municipal tourism association are required and as I usually get a lot of requests at the 11th hour each year, I kindly ask that you submit your request to our office no later than November 18th to allow us time to review the request and respond specifically to each individual event request. I also ask that you submit a brief description of the event, operating budget, revenue sources, other partners and the estimated tourism impact to help us assess the letter of support request.

For more information, go to www.tourism.gov.on.ca/celebrateontario

COUNTDOWN TO 2010 THUNDER BAY MARATHON - MILES WITH THE GIANT BEGINS

The countdown to the fi rst annual Thunder Bay Marathon - Miles with the Giant race
weekend began in earnest yesterday with the launch of the official website at http://www.thunderbaymarathon.com/.

The Thunder Bay Marathon - Miles with the Giant event on September 19, 2010 will feature a marathon of 26.2 miles, a half-marathon of 13.1 miles, and a 5 km race. The weekend will also include a Health & Fitness Expo, a pre-race Spaghetti Dinner, entertainment and activities around the city - along the racecourse, and at Marina Park. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to raise pledges for local charitable organizations.

Barry Streib, President and Chair of the Thunder Bay Marathon - Miles with the Giant, a not-for-profit corporation says, “We believe that this event will provide numerous benefi ts to our community by encouraging an active and healthy lifestyle, generating economic stimulus, increasing tourism, and fostering collaboration between community groups.”

The course will combine Thunder Bay North’s urban, park, and residential settings into a unique experience for participants. Runners will be treated to a spectacular view of the Sleeping Giant on their sprint to the finish down Red River Road. Half marathoners will circle the route once while full marathoners will complete the route twice. A full map of the course is available on the website.

“An event of this magnitude cannot happen without the support of the community,” says Streib. “We will be actively seeking support from the business community and from enthusiastic volunteers to assist in making the weekend a success.”

The Thunder Bay Marathon – Miles with the Giant’s mission is to create a world class marathon offering a fast, challenging course, attracting both elite and recreational runners and walkers, and a series of associated events to encourage community and corporate involvement, with a single common thread - a love of wellness and the sport of running.

For more information on getting involved as a runner or volunteer, please visit www.thunderbaymarathon.com or visit their Facebook group at:http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Thunder+Bay+Marathon&init=quick#/group.php?gid=134888051133&ref=search&sid=571295562.2675316804..1

Tourism Thunder Bay Recognized by the Economic Development Association of Canada with a Pair of Marketing Awards.

Vancouver, British Columbia - September 20th, 2009.

Tourism Thunder Bay pleased to announce that it is the recipient of two Canada Marketing Awards presented at the 2009 Economic Development Association of Canada annual conference being held in Vancouver British Columbia on September 20th.

The awards recognise innovation in community marketing through Thunder Bay’s creative use of marketing tools to build awareness of the community, drive traffic to the city’s tourism website and engage partners using cost effective and unique methods

Specifically, Thunder Bay has won for the 2009 “Seven Days With the Giant” postcard campaign that saw thousands of postcard teasers distributed through visitor centers, campaign sponsors and outdoor retailers throughout Ontario and the U.S. Midwest to pique the interest of outdoor adventure seekers and encourage them to enter online to win a $20 000 outdoor adventure of a lifetime.

The city also won an award for its monthly tourism e-newsletter, a colourful and informative trip planning tool for visitors and residents alike. The e-news lists upcoming events, hotel packages and special rates and other tourism related information that Tourism partners can list for free.

In celebrating Vancouver’s hosting of both 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as being the host city for the 2009 EDAC Conference, awards were presented in the form of gold medals.

Tourism Thunder Bay is proud to be a leader in effectively utilizing web based media tools to promote the city and integrating them with unique print media programs to extend the reach of our message through a wider range of tourism partners.” according to Paul Pepe, Manager of Tourism. “Receiving these two EDAC marketing awards is an honour and to be recognized by our economic development peers across Canada is the result of an extensive collaborative partnership involving our many tourism industry partners, Generator Advertising and the team at Tourism Thunder Bay.”

July U.S. Travel Number to Thunder Bay Continue to Show Optimism

Statistics Canada and the Canadian Border Services Agency have released the July 2009 travel statistics and we are pleased to see a continued pattern of U.S travellers entering Canada south of Thunder Bay increasing modestly over last year.

The number of U.S. Residents entering Canada by automobile at Pigeon River was 18,190 in July 2009, compared to 17,977 in 2008, a 1% increase over 2008.

While declines this year have been noted in day trips (3303 in 2008 to 2856 in 2009) and one night stays (722 in 2008 down to 667 in 2009), the growth has occurred in the two plus night travel markets which saw an increase from 13,952 in 2008 to 14,667 in 2009, an increase of 5%. The increase in longer stays is also important to note in that it increases the economic impact on the city and region with each longer stay. This also indicates that the travel was planned in advance of visitors leaving their homes rather than spontaneous day tripping.

Given the continued struggling North American economy and new Passport identification issues, these sustained travel patterns and areas of growth are an encouraging sign that shifts in tourism marketing towards U.S. experience based travel markets by Tourism Thunder Bay, OTMPC and other tourism partners are having an effect at countering the losses felt in other jurisdictions. Anecdotaly, we have heard of increased motorcycle and RV travel from area partners and believe these new touring markets represent the future growth potential for the city as part of the larger Lake Superior Circle Tour experience.

Cruise Shipping By the Numbers

With the 12th and final visit to the city for the M.V. Clelia II for 2009 this morning, we are turning our efforts to making further capital improvements to the Pool 6 lands for the vessel's 2010 return for 10 new visits and working to attract other lines to visit the community.

The total economic impact of the Clelia II in the city is estimated at $600 000 to $650 000 in 2009 and while that seems incredulous for 12 days of visits as I have been publically challenged on, the reality is that cruise shipping delivers impacts far beyond the shore tour spending of each passenger.

In addition to admission to attractions, passengers shop in retail outlets such as local galleries, dine, take taxis or rent bicycles, Motor coaches are chartered to escort them to and from attractions and musical groups are hired to entertain disembarking passengers.

But the economic impact extends far further than just the passengers. Take into account that many of the vessel's 67 officers and crew depart the vessel to shop and pick up ships supplies like cleaners, paint, cooking utensils and food supplies. The vessel empties its refuse at Thunder Bay (one of the few ports capable of taking international ship waste), and companies that supply water, security services, tug and stevedore services are also employed by the vessel stops.

Add to this the planning, marketing and maintenance of the cruise vessel terminal, the capital improvements contracted out over the course of the year and the services of Customs, Immigration and Transport Canada officials. Crew members do change over while in Thunder Bay and they fly in and out of the city and stay at hotels.

On top of this is all of the federal and provincial sales taxes generated by the purchased services.

Finally, there is the multiplier effect. For every dollar generated in the city by the cruise vessel, those dollars recirculate within the community another .6 times as the businesses and employees of those businesses in turn, spend the money earned by providing services on other local goods and services.

When all of this is added together, the result is far more than the obvious visitor dollars. Its why the development of a long term cruise shipping strategy is so important to the city's economic future and why catering to the vessel owners, crews and passengers to the highest level of quality service is imperative.

Its been a lot of fun working with the Clelia's operators, crew and passengers and we've learned a lot about the cruise shipping industry and what they require to operate successfully and enjoy their time in the community. We can't wait to see them return to the City in 2010, to see the forward movement in the capital improvements at Marina Park and the investments being made to make them feel welcome for years to come.