More tourists travelling to Thunder Bay

Tourism in Ontario is on the rebound and Thunder Bay is seeing the increase in traffic.

Industry and government officials say business has rallied since the 2008 recession — and that’s good news to Paul Pepe, manager of tourism for the city. He said there have modest gains in traffic in the last four years and the trend continues this summer.

"We're seeing some strong hotel performance," he said. "[And] we're seeing a lot of observational data at this point, in terms of where the [licence] plates are coming from."

He noted that more people are visiting Thunder Bay on motorcycles, thanks to the Ride Lake Superior initiative. Pepe said he’d like to see more effort put into promoting the city's connection to the lake and the touring corridor along the lakeshore.

Tourists are still flocking to traditional attractions, however.

For Angela Bernoski and her daughters, the Terry Fox monument was the first stop in Thunder Bay as they travelled to the northwest from Kitchener-Waterloo to attend a family wedding.

"We specifically wanted to come see the Terry Fox statue," she said. "When I was a kid, when I was about [my daughters'] age, I saw Terry Fox at the end of his journey. So, as we were coming to Thunder Bay, I told them about it … it's important for them to see it because they learn about it all the time at school."

And while they’re in the area, Bernoski said they want to enjoy the outdoors.

"[We want to] go fishing … go out in the lake swimming and just kind of visit with the family … hang around the cottage and the lake."

Helping tourists feel comfortable

The rise in tourism across the province comes in part from visitors to the province from countries like India, China, and Brazil.

"Emerging markets have been very significant," said Ronald Holgerson, the head of the government agency that promotes Ontario tourism.

Holgerson noted it's important to make those travellers comfortable.

"I think if we increasingly welcome tourists from foreign-language countries, we probably need to enhance our capacity to provide service in multiple languages," he said.

Despite the increase in visitors from other countries, Holgerson noted about 80 per cent of Ontario's tourism is still done by travellers from within the province.