Tourism high on agenda.

• Author: ROSS, IAN

For many vacationers travelling the Highway 17 corridor between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, the North Shore is simply viewed as drive-by country.

But to cottagers and recreational boaters, the North Channel is one of Ontario's best kept secrets, second only to the Greek Islands for its natural beauty and scenic splendor.

While highway four-laning has proved a blessing for local commuters over the years, it has removed much of the tourism signage and scenic lookouts, leaving motorists with only fleeting glimpses over the trees and rock cuts of some of the hidden treasures of the North Shore.

A new tourism marketing initiative to be launched this summer through the Blind River-based Community Development Centre for East Algoma intends to aggressively promote the region's natural attributes and heritage to a greater international audience.

Dubbed 'Trails and Tours,' the tourism development strategy to be managed by the Blind River-based Community Development Centre for East Algoma is geared to market the area's world-class boating, wide open spaces and inland tourism opportunities through the soon-to-be unveiled Huron North Partnership Marketing Plan.

Stoney Burton, the CDC's marketing manager, says although tourism represents a $10 million to $15 million industry regionally, the number of tourism-based businesses has been steadily declining in the last decade.

Many of the area's more established tourist lodges enjoy repeat clientele year after year, but there is a larger set of small and medium-sized wilderness operators with little opportunity to work together to brand the North Shore as a tourism destination.

Burton says poor marketing co-ordination and a lack of a regional identity have resulted in the North Shore missing out on some substantial opportunities to become an international playground.

The plan is designed to provide some leadership and direction in collectively drawing together tourist operators to come up with a steady flow of ideas on how to best package and promote complementary tourism products and services.

To date, they have rounded up about 50 like-minded...