THUNDER BAY -- City council has signed on to a five-year plan that will overhaul local signage to improve tourism.
The Thunder Bay Wayfinding Plan calls for the construction of an entire system of signs to usher tourists to attractions through the city. It will replace and enhance five different sign templates built over four decades, some of which point motorists to destinations that no longer exist.
Thunder Bay tourism manager Paul Pepe values the local urban economy at $173 million a year. He said if increased and improved signage can help business attract just one more per cent, that equates to $1.73 million in growth.
"When a visitor can find their way around a community easier, they see more, they do more, they spend more and they leave feeling happy," Pepe said. "They go away telling their friends, 'wow, it was very easy.'"
The first phase will see a series of kiosks erected at gateway attractions like Historic Fort William, the Terry Fox Monument and Prince Arthur's Landing (see photo gallery above).
Signs will then trace vehicle paths through business districts between the highway bypass and the waterfront. Their template will be the pantone reflex blue and white like those the province uses, which also matches the city's corporate colour scheme.
Pepe said although the tourism department is committed to ensuring tourists can engage through apps, social media and Google Maps, tourists are still equally engaged in hands-on directions.
"It's part of a suite of tools We do a print map in our visitor guides and people love them. people are ripping them out and carry them around with them and we hear really good feedback on them," Pepe said..
"Even in this digital age, there's still this tactile desire from consumers to have something in their hands or when they're driving, visually to see something. It's not one or the other. It's about having a broad mix of all those tools working together."
Council's approval commits the city to spending $50,000 on the project in 2017 that will meet matching provincial funds. Annual requests of $200,000 per year until 2021 will require further approval through the budget process.
While council unanimously approved the measure, Westfort Coun. Joe Virdiramo reminded Pepe the plan needs annual approval and he wasn't prepared to commit to it in the long term.
"Knowing that each year it will come I will support this in year one but when it comes on, we'll have an opportunity to vote for it again in the budget," Virdiramo said, pointing to growing needs over the quality of local soccer fields.
"Knowing we have other needs in the city money needs to be expended on, I will vote yes, knowing that maybe next year, depending on what the needs are, I'll have to rethink."
