Sault Ste. Marie: Trail Town
Ontario’s Best Adventure Town
Community of 75,000 located, between Lake Superior & Lake Huron. World-class hiking, paddling, xc skiing and fishing.
Approximately 5 hours from Detroit and 7 hours from Toronto & Chicago.
~45 km of professionally built mountain bike trails and ~60 km of winter fat bike trails.
~30 km of new trails planned.
What’s the Plan?
We’re not developing a trail system in Sault Ste. Marie, we’re making Sault Ste. Marie part of the system.
Our goal in doing so, is to establish Sault Ste. Marie as the premier four season mountain biking destination in Ontario, and inspire cyclists to stay for 2-3 nights.
We are building world-class trails and are the backbone of our marketing campaigns.
As we continue to grow, we’re looking to work with other trail communities around Lake Superior to promote the region as one of the top riding centres in North America.
Statistics
§ In 2019, there were 1.6 million cycling visits in Ontario, representing 1.2% of total visits in Ontario.
§ Cycling visitors in Ontario spent $644 million, accounting for 2% of total visitor spending in Ontario.
§ DNO has measured a dramatic increase of over 300% year over year in domestic traffic consuming cycling content on northernontario.travel - Northern Ontario’s largest consumer facing website for tourism products.
§ RTO 13 Cycling Activity Statistics showed that 97.1% visitors who took part in cycling recreation stayed for at least one night at their destination.
§ Cycling visitors generally spend more on average per trip than other visitors, $404/trip for cycling tourists compared to $223/trip for all other visitors. Cycling tourists in Ontario stay longer than regular visitors, 3.7 nights compared to Ontario’s average of 1.4 nights.
Regional Economic Impact
§ Economic benefits of trail networks can be significant:
§ CAMBA Trails NW Wisconsin: A study conducted by University of Wisconsin concluded that mountain bike trails attracted ~28,000 riders to the area and contributed $7.8 million a year in economic benefits to Bayfield and Sawyer Counties in Northwest Wisconsin.
§ Copper Harbour Michigan: ~ 52 km of mountain bike specific trails in operation and an additional 24 km new trail are under development. The town hosts over 20,000 mountain bike specific travelers each summer. Average spend is $150 USD/day, Ave of 3.5 days per visit.
§ Marquette Michigan: Over 100 km of mountain bike specific trails. The town hosts ~35,000 mountain bike specific travelers annually (winter/summer).
Events:
§ Iceman Cometh Challenge, November (Traverse City, MI) 5000+ participants.
§ Ore to Shore, August (Marquette, MI) 2000+ participants
§ Loose Moose, Ontario Cup 1998 (SSM, ON) 394 participants
Destination Development: Trail Building 101
Construction Planning 2022/2023
Destination Development
Destination Development
Trails for Everyone
Trails for Everyone
Next Steps: Trail Town Development
Next Steps: Trail Town Development
§ Marketing must be backed up by a credible trail network.
§ We use events, influencers and upper tier publications to promote our trails.
§ If done correctly, marketing spend should be reduced on a progressive basis, with the goal of achieving the most credible form of marketing – Bragging rights by friends and family.
Marketing
Regional Marketing
Quick Wins: Organic Marketing
Excluding independent travelers, mountain biking trails has generated ~$535,000.00 from earned media and events to date.
Marketing: Earned Media: Value to date ~$50,000.00
§ Tyler Good Trails, mountain biking Sault Ste. Marie – YouTube ~30,000 views.
§ Mountain Life Magazine Feature Article: ‘Bike Town: [Sault Ste. Marie] Ontario’s New MTB Hub’.
§ Awesome MTB Ontario survey – SSM ranked as #3.
§ Red Bull – 14 best of the best MTB trails in Ontario
Quick Wins: Events
Events reliant on trails include:
§ Beaver Freezer – 2022
§ Crank the Shield - 2022
§ Women’s Weekend Camp, Dirt Series, other weekend camps
*Estimated economic impact from 2022 events: $485,000.00
