International visitations to Timmins multiply: City on track with projections for Shania Twain Centre visitors. (Timmins and Cochrane).

The City of Timmins is gaining international exposure for exporting something other than gold.

Barely three months after opening the Shania Twain Centre, the $l1-million interpretative museum dedicated to the Timmins-born country singer has quickly become the cornerstone attraction of the local tourism industry.

The city's tourism and attractions manager, Will Saari, says the centre is on track to meet their revised projection of 20,000 visitors in their first full year of operation.

Opening on the Canada Day long weekend, the museum had attracted 8,000 visitors as of mid-September, averaging between 150 and 200 patrons a day with about 60 per cent coming from southern Ontario and the remainder from the northeastern U.S. and international markets including Great Britain, France, Germany and the Benelux countries.

"We're seeing a considerable increase in international visitations," with many visitors driving across Canada on Highway 11 and making the 35-minute detour to Timmins to tour the centre, says Saari.

The 972-square-metre interpretative centre, which is jointly administered on the same site as the Hollinger Gold Mine Tour, houses a donated collection of the country singer's memorabilia valued at more than $1 million. Besides being a repository to her fame, the centre is also a tribute to the area's. local mining heritage and serves as public venue for receptions.

The development of the centre involved a collaborative effort of funding partners for capital construction including the provincial heritage fund ($4.98 million), the City of Timmins ($2 million), FedNor and Human Resources Development Canada ($1.6 million) plus the value of land donated by Kinross Gold, Saari says. The building is basically mortgage-free, he adds.

Run by a non-profit board of directors under the city's tourism department, the combined attractions of the Shania Twain Centre and the gold mine tour is a self-sufficient operation that is "well on its way" to breaking even in revenues, he says.

The idea was born about five years ago when the province offered a $60-million pot as an incentive for northern communities to build regional destination attractions. In mulling over several proposals to inject new life into the stagnant gold mine tour, tourism officials were considering a mining theme park, casino arid hotel just as Twain's singing career rose to superstar status. Out-of-town queries began pouring in asking for souvenirs and tours of her hometown.

"It was like alight came on," says Saari. "Here's some good market research right in front of us. We've got people calling and asking for a product."

The centre's staff dedicated a bulk of this year's activity towards getting the operation up and running for the peak tourist season. Now with vacationers headed home, Saari says their new step is fine-tuning their promotion in preparation for the Christmas season by developing new merchandise and updating their Web site for e-commerce.

Saari says the Shania Web site has received "tens of thousands" of hits from fans wanting bumper stickers, key chains, postcards and apparel.

Aside from supportive media exposure from country music television, industry trade magazines and the entertainment industry, the singer's Internet fan clubs have been their best ambassadors in promoting the centre to the world, says Saari.

"Right now we feel the best bang for our buck to reach a larger audience is through the Internet. As a result we're constantly updating our Web site, and we're working on a redesign right now."

To keep the centre in the regional eye, they have partnered with Cochrane and Kapuskasing in cross-promoting other regional attractions such as the Polar Bear Express and the Lumberjack Festival. A graphic design wrap is being featured on Ontario Northland buses and the communities are working on package tours with operators throughout northeastern Ontario. They intend to work put tour packages with other communities, incorporating other tourist attractions across northeastern Ontario.

This winter, a snowmobile access trail will cross the site to give the attraction added exposure to out-of-town travellers.

"We know the snowmobile market has good potential for crossover," says Saari. "We're counting on visiting snowmobilers coming back with their families for vacation."