Published on : Saturday, March 16, 2019
This presentation was headed by Alan McLauchlan, former RCMP officer, who’s been working together with Travel Manitoba from 2017 to unveil the province’s Northern Manitoba Tourism Strategy.
McLauchlan’s newest project has aggressively marketing Thompson and surrounding communities as leading snowmobiling destinations to national and foreign markets.
Many of the pieces are by now in place to make this drive a reality, McLauchlan says. Not only does Northern Manitoba have a natural benefit due to its longer winters, but a wide-ranging trail is already in place with dedicated local groups like the Thompson Trailbreakers Snowmobile Club that are willing to maintain them.
“That’s what we want to get out to the world: that we have snow, we have trails, we have destinations, we have product and we want you here,” he said. “That message is slowly getting out but we want to do this in a big way.”
The marketing approach was laid out at the time of a snowmobiling summit in Snow Lake last Nov. 15, which had representatives from Flin Flon, The Pas, Cranberry Portage and Swan River.
On the basis of recommendations brought up at the time of the summit, McLauchlan is moving into “phase two” of this project, which entails asking the Churchill Regional Economic Development Fund to assist them appoint a northern co-coordinator and set up committees that can carry out certain tasks.
McLauchlan explained that to make licenses more accessible, they are even going to make signing up since numerous Thompson residents mentioned Wednesday that it is becoming increasingly hard to renew their Snopass.
Tags: Travel Manitoba