Northern Manitoba Tourism Strategy Progress Report
Manitoba encompasses Treaty 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Territories and communities who are signatories to Treaties 6 and 10. Manitoba is located on the ancestral land of the Anishinaabeg, Anishininewuk, Dakota Oyate, Denesuline and Nehethowuk Nations and is the Homeland of the Red River Métis. Northern Manitoba includes lands that were and are the ancestral lands of the Inuit.
Travel Manitoba respects the spirit and intent of Treaties and Treaty Making and remains committed to working in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in the spirit of truth, reconciliation and collaboration.
Background
Last updated in 2021, the Northern Manitoba Tourism Strategy supports recovery of the northern tourism visitor economy by leveraging the natural assets of the region as well as established world-class wildlife viewing, hunting and fishing sectors. The strategy focuses on retaining and expanding the visitor experience base in the North, enhancing consumer marketing and building community leadership. Implementation is supported by the Northern Tourism Advisory Committee.
Northern Manitoba is defined, for tourism purposes, to be the region of Manitoba north of the 53rd parallel. It is a vast territory comprising 60 per cent of the land area of Manitoba and has a strong foundation in tourism thanks to world-class wildlife viewing in Churchill and established hunting and fishing operators across the region. The natural assets include thousands of lakes, vast boreal forest, major tracts of Laurentian Shield and a sub-Arctic region bordering Hudson Bay.
The purpose of this annual report is to provide an update on the progress made towards the strategic initiatives outlined in the Northern Manitoba Tourism Strategy. This report highlights the major accomplishments and key performance indicators for the 2024-25 fiscal year. By documenting these achievements and identifying areas for improvement, this report aims to ensure continued progress with the overarching objectives of the strategy.
Major Accomplishments
STRATEGIC GOAL: LEAD BRAND AND MARKET POSITIONING
Key Initiatives:
Align messaging and marketing initiatives under the umbrella of the Canada's Heart is Calling brand.
ACCOMPLISHMENT
Distributed a total of 100,500 Northern Lure direct mail brochures in fall of 2024 and the spring of 2025 to key markets in Manitoba.
Generated 11 million impressions with a click-through rate of 1.25 per cent, significantly higher than the industry standard of 0.06 per cent, in Travel Manitoba’s Spring Summer 2024 digital and social media campaigns.
Garnered 3.5 million digital and 1.1 million social impressions in Travel Manitoba’s Fall Winter 2024-25 leisure campaign. The click-through rate on social media posts was 1.57 per cent. The click-through rate on Francophone social media posts was an impressive 4.74 per cent on 603,000 impressions.
Promoted Churchill through an innovative sponsor package with the Winnipeg Sea Bears during the 2024 season, including in-game promotional spots, video ads in Manitoba and Saskatchewan arenas and online broadcast. We also provided a package trip for four to Churchill through Heartland International for the ‘See the Bears’ contest.
Presented Churchill tourism activities to a small delegation hosted by Polar Bears International including Northern Ontario Indigenous tourism operators and Norwegian tourism industry representatives gathered to discuss polar bear safety, conservation and tourism.
Hosted a familiarization (FAM) tour with U.S. tour operators specializing in fishing and outdoor products at Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge in July.
LEAD
Travel Manitoba
Travel Manitoba, Winnipeg Sea Bears, Heartland International
Travel Manitoba, Polar Bears International, Assiniboine Park Zoo
Travel Manitoba
Coordinate joint marketing initiatives with place brand communities.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Partnered with the City of Flin Flon to launch the Explore Flin Flon Trail. This brand-new Manitoba Experience Pass features twenty-one points of interest throughout the vibrant mining community, promoting regional tourism and demonstrating the power of collaborative marketing.
Conducted an analysis of visitor mobile phone data to the Flin Flon-Denare Beach-Creighton (FDC) area to determine which key markets are visiting the region and how to better target similar individuals going forward.
City of Flin Flon, Travel Manitoba
Travel Manitoba, FDC Regional Economic Development Commission
Develop photo, video and other content assets for northern communities.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Captured new photo and video content depicting a diverse range of visitors at over a dozen businesses and tourism attractions across four northern Manitoba communities. Content included winter activities like hiking, downhill and cross-country skiing, as well as culinary experiences.
Created Hunt Fish content videos with influencers featuring northern Manitoba locations and tourism operators, including Wekusko Falls Lodge, Laurie River Lodge, All Terrain Bear Hunts, Kaska Goose Lodge, Gangler’s North Seal River Lodge, Bakers Narrows Lodge and Viking Lodge.
Travel Manitoba, Northern tourism businesses
Travel Manitoba
Communicate the value of tourism to business leaders, government and the general public.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Released the results of a comprehensive economic impact study on the value of Churchill’s tourism industry which was conducted by Probe Research. In 2023, approximately 25,800 visitors contributed $99.8 million in GDP to the Manitoba economy, which generated $21.9 million in tax revenue and sustained 1,395 jobs in Manitoba. Probe Research delivered a first-hand look to Churchill operators that participated in the study and then a second presentation to 46 general industry and community members in December.
Presented alongside Indigenous Tourism Manitoba (ITM) at the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce Economic Development Tour in The Pas/OCN and participated in the University College of the North’s Linkages Conference in October.
Travel Manitoba, The Town of Churchill, Churchill Chamber of Commerce, northern tourism operators
Travel Manitoba, ITM, Manitoba Chambers of Commerce
Maintain and enhance the Manitoba North section of Travel Manitoba website.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Updated the snowmobile section of the Manitoba North website to reflect recent changes and the opening of the new Cranberry Portage to Snow Lake trail.
Travel Manitoba
Aggressively promote northern lights as a third season for travel to Churchill.
ACCOMPLISHMENT
Partnered with Fresh Tracks to promote northern lights experiences and generate bookings for partners resulting in 196 room nights, 34 bookings and $609,600 in revenue.
Partnered with Destination Canada, Northwest Territories Tourism and Travel Yukon to target high-value guests in key U.S. locations promoting Canada as the best place in the world to view the life-changing northern lights. This campaign resulted in 165 million total impressions, 9.4 million views, 18,000 clicks and 470,000 webpage views, including 34,000 on Travel Manitoba properties.
LEAD
Travel Manitoba, Fresh Tracks
Travel Manitoba, Destination Canada
STRATEGIC GOAL: BUILD COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
Key Initiatives:
Develop plans for communicating and advocating on key issues to municipalities, chambers of commerce and business leaders.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Hosted a tourism industry reception in The Pas in March. The event was attended by three dozen tourism operators, government representatives, northern agencies and residents who enjoyed networking and learning more about Travel Manitoba’s efforts to promote tourism in the region.
Measure northern attitudes toward tourism.
Travel Manitoba, Northern Tourism Advisory Committee
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Surveyed 112 Churchill residents (approximately 10 per cent of the total population) on their attitudes toward tourism as part of the Churchill Tourism Economic Impact Study. Almost 80 per cent believe that tourism is very important to the economic well-being of the community.
Travel Manitoba
Collaborate with the Northern Tourism Advisory Committee to implement a strategy and coordinate initiatives.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Organized and funded two in-person meetings and one virtual of the Northern Manitoba Tourism Advisory Committee. A Tourism Industry reception was held in The Pas in March with members from Community Futures, Communities Economic Development Fund-Look North, ITM, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) and northern tourism operators invited to network and learn more about the value of tourism.
Established terms of reference for the Northern Tourism Advisory Committee based on feedback from members and a previously conducted survey of agency partners.
Manitoba
Travel Manitoba, Community Futures, Communities Economic Development FundLook North, ITM, MKO, northern tourism operators
Travel
Document positive impacts of the tourism strategy and celebrate successes.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Supported the Cranberry Portage–Snow Lake Snowmobile Trail official grand opening in February which was possible with previous financial and new in-kind support from Travel Manitoba, as well as government partners and the Churchill Regional Economic Development Fund. Travel Manitoba prepared a media release on behalf of SledMB53 and the project partners which generated positive coverage in radio and print media throughout Manitoba.
Travel Manitoba, SledMB53, Community Futures North Central Development, Snoman
STRATEGIC GOAL: ADVANCE DESTINATION MANAGEMENT
Key Initiatives:
Develop tourism-readiness checklists and training tools.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Travel Manitoba launched a new tourism industry website with online business and community development tools. Select industry partners reviewed the site and now the wider industry can access information on training and workforce development, destination development and marketing.
Travel Manitoba, tourism operators
Develop winter tourism plans for key opportunity areas including ice fishing and snowmobiling.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Provided funding to the City of Flin Flon to develop an innovative “Snow Lodge” winter experience. A pilot project testing the feasibility of design was conducted in Riding Mountain National Park in the winter of 2025. The City is identifying potential sites for the proposed Phase 2 of the project which would take place in Flin Flon and build upon the learnings of the pilot study.
Travel Manitoba, City of Flin Flon
Address labour and skill shortages and develop training programs to mitigate challenges.
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
Drove traffic through the This Is Tourism awareness campaign to a landing page on huntfishmanitoba.ca with resources and tips to help people land their dream job working in the fishing sector. The campaign generated 3.29 million video views on YouTube, 18.2 million impressions and 602,000 clicks.
Funded and participated in the delivery of experiential tourism training throughout the fall and winter with Tourism Saskatchewan. Two Manitoba-based operators completed the program and are actively developing new tourism products in the areas of health and well-being and the arts.
Provided training to the Tourism and Hospitality Work Readiness Program held in Churchill during the fall and winter. Graduates from the program obtained the necessary skills required for entry-level employment in the tourism sector.
Travel Manitoba
Travel Manitoba, Tourism Saskatchewan, FDC Regional Economic Development Commission
Partner with ITM and Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) to increase the number of Indigenous market- and export-ready businesses in the North.
ACCOMPLISHMENT
Elevated four northern businesses to Business Ready status and an additional three businesses to Export-Ready status under ITAC's The Original Original accreditation program. ITM is coaching another 18 businesses on a pathway towards future accreditation.
Provided tourism demand-related data to Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) to support tourism development and a meeting with the Honourable Nellie Kennedy, Minister of Sport, Culture, Heritage and Tourism, the Honourable Mike Moyes, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Honourable Jamie Moses, Minister of Business, Mining, Trade and Job Creation. We also provided an economic impact analysis produced with the Manitoba Bureau of Statistics.
LEAD
ITM
Travel Manitoba, Paskwayak Business Development Corporation
ACCOMPLISHMENT LEAD
In March 2025, ITM provided training to seven exportready Indigenous businesses to prepare them for Rendezvous Canada, Canada’s signature international tourism marketplace held in Winnipeg in May 2025.
Beyond Boreal Expeditions received funding from ITAC’s Indigenous Tourism Destination Fund in 2024-25. The small photography tour company based in Churchill received $25,000 to enhance their visitor experience and improve market-readiness.
Conclusion
Travel Manitoba and its partners have made significant advancements towards industry-wide recovery since 2020. Churchill’s northern lights tourism has grown substantially to represent a true third-season offering and investments in advancing our understanding of the economics of snowmobiling and the Churchill economy will establish benchmarks for future tourism development.
Building upon the strengths of the Northern Manitoba Tourism Strategy in the coming year, Travel Manitoba will:
• Incorporate valuable feedback to strengthen the Northern Tourism Advisory Committee
• Leverage the results of the Churchill Economic Impact Study to support the community’s desire to become a true four-season destination.
• Expand experiential tourism product offerings in the north by partnering with organizations like the Flin Flon–Denare Beach–Creighton (FDC) Economic Development Commission.
• Foster the continued development of regional place making initiatives in Thompson, Flin Flon and The Pas/Opaskwayak Cree Nation.