Ontario's provincial government has redrawn the lines of its tourism regions, creating 13 new areas which will be overseen by regional tourism organizations, to be established in 2010.
Northern Ontario consists of one centre, broken down into three north-south subsections. These are roughly divided by region, including northwestern (Kenora, Thunder Bay), central (Sault Ste. Marie) and northeastern (Sudbury, North Bay).
The new regional tourism organizations will work with industry partners to grow that region's tourism products and marketing activities.
During the next two years, $50 million will be provided to assist the industry with the transition, a total which is in addition to the $40 million in ongoing annual funding as laid out in the 2009 budget.
The move was sparked by Greg Sorbara's February 2009 tourism competitiveness report, Discovering Ontario. The document suggested tourism regions "would also provide a far better model for the industry to engage the provincial government on the financial, regulatory, product development and marketing issues critical to the growth of the industry."
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