The lore and mystery of Lake Superior has always been an incredible draw for tourists.
Driving down Red River Road toward Thunder Bay's waterfront with the Sleeping Giant peninsula and Superior's deep blue water looming in the distance, it's not hard to feel the magnetism of the one of the world's largest freshwater bodies.
“I feel it too,” said Gregory Heroux, owner of Sail Superior Yacht Charters.
For a decade, Heroux has been operating a combination excursion and sail instruction business on Pier 3 at Marina Park.
He specializes in daytime and evening harbour tours, bobbing the waves on one of his three sailboats that takes visitors beside the grain elevators and freighters or out past the breakwater toward the Welcome Islands.
“Among our clients are ones that are stuck in a convention all day long and want an evening out. They bring their spouses along and want to find things to do. We get a lot of spinoffs that way and when these conventions come, I can see myself getting quite a lot busier.”
Heroux offers a variety of packages including an eight-hour corporate day excursion, private charters and team-building trips with extended cruises out among the Slate Islands.
“It depends on what the client wants. Do you want to get to just get out for a few drinks, talk and sail on Lake Superior? That's for a majority of people.”
The lure of the lake called to Heroux at age 10 when his father purchased a sailboat.
“Sailing's always been in my blood. I was raised on the waterfront.”
After graduating from university, Heroux travelled and sailed the world before settling down in Thunder Bay to raise his family.
To avoid that “land-locked feeling,” a friend suggested he start a sailing business on the waterfront 10 years ago since no one else was doing it.
Along with some stand-by captains, his staff includes his two teenaged daughters who are training to become captains in the next couple of years. He has access to four vessels for excursions and sail training, including his 40-foot sloop.
The interests and the range of his clients also means acting as a harbour and North Shore tour guide for first-time visitors.
“We've also had a number of weddings,” with ceremonies performed either onboard or with the wedding parties dropped off on a pebbled shore of an island.
This summer, Heroux has a booking from a Las Vegas couple travelling north just to witness the beauty of Lake Superior. He was preparing to take them for an authentic North Shore experience with a three-day excursion to Thompson Island, Silver Islet and Otter Cove.
Sailing and boat charter operators in Thunder Bay are doing more of a brisk corporate business every year as the city makes headway in attracting mid-sized meetings, conventions and staff retreats.
For Archie Hoogsteen's fishing charter business, about 60 per cent of his bookings last year were corporate charters.
And it only stands to get bigger with more conventions coming to town, especially if the city decides to build a multi-million-dollar Multiplex events centre near his slip at Marina Park.
This year, he's only booked a handful of charters, largely because of the massive waterfront reconstruction to make way for the Prince Arthur's Landing development. Hoogsteen said it's driven away much of his walk-up traffic.
Archie's Fishing Charters offers four and eight-hour excursions to catch lake trout and Chinook salmon from the May long weekend to mid-October.
Depending on where the fish are, he can cozy up to the Sleeping Giant peninsula or can take groups out for sightseeing, photography and lighthouse cruises around the nearby islands.
Hoogsteen started a masonry company in Thunder Bay with his brother in the 1970s before deciding to spend more time on his 30-foot Bayliner, which is outfitted with radar, fish finder and downriggers.
His charter business is now in its fourth year of operation, but he's spent more than 25 years fishing the waters of Thunder Bay.
“It's not a profitable thing for me, it's more of a retirement package,” said Hoogsteen, 56.
“There was no one doing charters in Thunder Bay and there were enough inquiries from people coming down (to the marina) and wanting to get on the lake, and I thought, hey, I'm a people person.”
In mid-December, he segues into ice huts on Lac Des Milles Lacs with Sugar Shack Rentals, a thriving weekend business offering fully-outfitted sleeper huts with lights, cook and wood stoves.
The city's convention attraction strategy is to be decidedly unconventional.
Tourism Thunder Bay has taken the initiative to steer delegates and event planners beyond the conference facilities and out into the community to explore what northwestern Ontario has to offer.
“We've really tried to focus on the quality of the environment you're going to get for your convention,” said Paul Pepe, manager of Tourism Thunder Bay.
“Every meeting room is identical in a travel guide,” said Pepe.
With a re-issued convention guide, they underscore the calibre of experience to events planners and delegates on what's unique about the Thunder Bay district.
“As we're coming out of the recession, companies are starting to travel again for business and conferences and they want to try something different,” said Pepe.
“We focus on food, unique venues and the pre- and post-convention activities people can do.”
Many conference delegations arriving from southern Ontario can have trepidations about coming to the North, Pepe said, but Thunder Bay's hospitality and natural beauty always seems to impress.
