Circle Tour captures culture, adventure, beauty of region.

Anyone who has traveled through Northern Ontario is awestruck by the rugged beauty of Lake Superior country with its glacially formed lakes and towering landforms.

It is that beauty that is the focus of the Lake Superior Circle Tour.

The three-day, 2,300-kilometre self-guided tour through the Northern Superior and Algoma regions of Northern Ontario, as well as the States of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, is now benefiting from stakeholder efforts, including tourism operators, travel associations and government. The tour has created a unified marketing approach for tourism in the area.

"From our perspective, the Lake Superior Circle Tour is a very positive opportunity to promote a fantastic part of Ontario," says lain Mettam, director of the Great Lakes Heritage Coast project.

The Circle Tour encompasses nearly two dozen attractions, parks and scenic sites, as well as numerous communities both directly on the lake, such as Wawa, Thunder Bay and Marathon, and in surrounding areas such as Manitouwadge, Beardmore and Kakabeka Falls.

Tourists visiting the region will find traditional tourism attractions, which include hunting and fishing, as well as numerous cultural experiences and ecotourism opportunities. It is a self-guided tour, and therefore allows visitors to stop and enjoy destinations of choice.

"Ecotourism offers more of an appreciation of the landscapes, hiking, nature appreciation, kayaking and canoeing," says Mettam. "We are working towards a strong focus on adventure and ecotourism as a direction we can go in the future."

NOSTA executive director Bruce Fallen says NOSTA and the Bi-National Lake Superior Circle Tour Advisory Committee, chaired by Tim Lukinuk, received funding from the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corp. (OTMPC) northern office and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) Great Lakes Heritage Coast Project.

The money was used in late October and early November last year to conduct a series of five workshops in each region surrounding the lake, including the United States, to find out what issues most concerned tourism operators and what was needed to bring more attention to the tour.

The workshops attracted about 125 participants and the results of their input are being compiled in a report, expected out by March.

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"The intent of that was to get feedback and direction from the private sector and the various municipalities," says Lukinuk, owner of the Amethyst Mine Panorama. "They were very constructive and we generally heard the same message that Lake Superior is a world-class destination and worth promoting. They recommended more promotion of the Circle Tour and more activity on the water itself, and the hub-and-spoke approach. That came out loud and clear.

"The tourism sector around the lake is looking for a more strategic plan for promoting the Circle Tour," he says. "Our association, some years ago, did promote the Lake Superior Circle Tour, but for whatever reason, perhaps a lack in focus, the ball got dropped a bit. So we are trying to refocus and do more promotion of the tour."

The workshops identified key marketing focuses, including the unique cultural differences and history of the region, the area's outdoor experiences and the region's attractions. There was also the "unsurpassed beauty" and landscape vistas, the accessible wilderness, ecological diversity and the Northern Ontario communities and people.

There were recommendations of more signage and improvements on the Circle Tour's Web site. Certainly emphasized, however, was the need for a more "co-ordinated approach" to ensuring the success of the circle tour, says Lukinuk. It was also pointed out that a water-based tour would be as important as the land-based tour and there should be "linkages" to areas outside the tour.

"They call it a hub and spoke," says Fallen. "The hub being the lake and the spokes being the highways up into the different regions. Once the report is out, we are going to take it to the bi-national committee, probably some time in May.

"We need to work on identifying what can we do together and what things we should be doing by ourselves," he says. "Ultimately, our objective is to increase and enhance tourism visits to the Lake Superior region. In essence, to bring more visitors here, thereby increasing expenditures and economic development and therefore increasing economic development in the region."

"We've done work over the last three or four years with community consultations, key stakeholders, non-government and government agencies to identify what needs to be done to realize the opportunities associated with the coast," says Mettam, director of the Great Lakes Heritage Coast Project.

A considerable amount of work and capital expenditures are also underway in various parks and communities to improve existing services such as the Gateway Trail Centre at Pigeon River and an interpretive centre at Agawa Bay.

The goal is to "connect the park and picnic areas to the tourism traffic that goes by, and create new experiences and opportunities for people to come and enjoy themselves," says Mettam.

Also furthering the group's efforts was the recent publication of a 76-page travel magazine spotlighting the area's attractions, says Fallen.

A new Web site, www.lakesuperiorcircletour.info, is also under development, and is expected to be up and running in March.

www.lakesuperiorcircletour.info

www.amethystmine.com

www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/glhc/

www.nosta.on.ca