Attractions being reviewed
Posted By RON GRECH, THE DAILY PRESS
Posted 3 months ago
Having seen a 60% decline in visitors to the city's two main tourist attractions in the last seven years, Timmins is looking to revamp the way it markets the Shania Twain Centre and Gold Mine Tour.
The Timmins mayor says this could mean concentrating on Northeastern Ontario and other areas, where most of the visitors seem to be coming from.
He said there's a desire to work more closely with local sports organizations that host events that draw competitors and teams to the city.
"From a tourism/recreational perspective, we are restructuring," Mayor Tom Laughren told The Daily Press.
"We are going to put a lot of our focus into sporting events going on in our community: Bringing in hockey tournaments, cross-country skiing and track. We're going to try to work a little more with these people. We know we have 'X' amount of tournaments and events in the community. Maybe we can utilize those to benefit tourism in our city."
In 2002, combined tickets sold at the Shania Twain Centre and Gold Mine Tour was more than 14,500. This past summer, that number was down to 5,200 people, which Laughren said was an improvement from the previous summer's 4,600 total.
Laughren said "the Gold Mine Tour and Shania Twain Centre attractions will be evaluated and a new business plan prepared for the site."
He added city staff are "brainstorming" and "looking at what has been working in other communities."
The fact the number of visitors was up this year is something of an achievement in light of the current downturn in the global economy, the mayor added.
However, Laughren said he would like to see the annual number of visitors for the two sites build up again to at least 10,000.
"In the past, our proximity to the U. S. and the advantages with the dollar (exchange rate) saw many Americans coming north to places like Timmins, but that has dried up now," Laughren said. "We need to switch our focus."
He said the "bulk of our visitors are coming from Ontario and if we looked more closely, we'd probably find they're coming from the Northeastern region."
Laughren said it may make sense to focus on attracting visitors from within the region and other parts of Ontario, where people seem to be coming from.
He expects a new business plan for the tourism sites and some recommendations from city staff to come forward to council during budget talks within the next month or so.
