How Thunder Bay Uses Self-Guided Tours to Help Visitors Explore More of the City
July 22, 2026
Helping Visitors Discover More Than the Main Attractions
Thunder Bay’s visitor experiences are spread across a large and varied city. Historic neighbourhoods, conservation areas, restaurants, murals, military landmarks, shopping districts and seasonal displays all offer reasons to explore beyond the best-known attractions.
The challenge was helping visitors find those experiences and turn them into a practical itinerary.
Travellers often relied on Google searches, printed brochures and familiar recommendations when planning their stay. Those resources could point them toward major attractions, but offered less guidance on how to explore local neighbourhoods, independent businesses and places outside the usual visitor route.
Visit Thunder Bay wanted to make the city easier to discover and give visitors the freedom to explore at their own pace.
Seventeen Self-Guided Tours for Different Interests and Seasons
Visit Thunder Bay created 17 self-guided tours covering food, history, nature, shopping, public art, neighbourhoods and seasonal events.
Visitors can follow routes featuring local food producers, murals, military monuments, conservation areas and heritage districts. Other itineraries focus on golf, outdoor recreation, romantic getaways, shopping and neighbourhoods such as the East End, South Core and Waverley heritage district.
Seasonal experiences give residents and visitors timely reasons to explore. The Halloween Haunted Houses Tour runs from October 1 to 31, guiding people through decorated residential properties across Thunder Bay. Holiday lights tours create another reason to travel through the city’s neighbourhoods during the winter season.
Each tour is built around a specific interest or occasion, helping visitors find an experience that suits their trip rather than relying on one general list of attractions.
Helping Visitors Discover More Than the Main Attractions
Thunder Bay’s visitor experiences are spread across a large and varied city. Historic neighbourhoods, conservation areas, restaurants, murals, military landmarks, shopping districts and seasonal displays all offer reasons to explore beyond the best-known attractions.
The challenge was helping visitors find those experiences and turn them into a practical itinerary.
Travellers often relied on Google searches, printed brochures and familiar recommendations when planning their stay. Those resources could point them toward major attractions, but offered less guidance on how to explore local neighbourhoods, independent businesses and places outside the usual visitor route.
Visit Thunder Bay wanted to make the city easier to discover and give visitors the freedom to explore at their own pace.
Seventeen Self-Guided Tours for Different Interests and Seasons
Visit Thunder Bay created 17 self-guided tours covering food, history, nature, shopping, public art, neighbourhoods and seasonal events.
Visitors can follow routes featuring local food producers, murals, military monuments, conservation areas and heritage districts. Other itineraries focus on golf, outdoor recreation, romantic getaways, shopping and neighbourhoods such as the East End, South Core and Waverley heritage district.
Seasonal experiences give residents and visitors timely reasons to explore. The Halloween Haunted Houses Tour runs from October 1 to 31, guiding people through decorated residential properties across Thunder Bay. Holiday lights tours create another reason to travel through the city’s neighbourhoods during the winter season.
Each tour is built around a specific interest or occasion, helping visitors find an experience that suits their trip rather than relying on one general list of attractions.
Making Local Experiences Easier to Find and Follow
Visit Thunder Bay used Driftscape to bring more than 150 stops into one digital collection. Most tours include five to ten locations, while larger seasonal routes can feature considerably more.
The tours use archival photographs, interviews, audio from local residents, directions and notifications to add context along the route. Visitors can explore independently while receiving more guidance than a printed list or static map can provide.
The digital format also allows Visit Thunder Bay to create and update short-term experiences without printing new brochures or signage whenever participating locations change.
A printed map for a one-month campaign would have added production and distribution costs while making last-minute changes difficult. With Driftscape, Visit Thunder Bay could publish the route digitally, update participating homes as needed and give visitors directions from the device they already carried.
42,769 Views Across Two Halloween Campaigns
Visit Thunder Bay’s Halloween Haunted Houses Tour provides a clear example of how a temporary self-guided experience can attract attention to residential neighbourhoods.
Between October 1 and November 1, for both 2024 and 2025, the Halloween Haunted Houses Tour generated 42,769 views.
Across Visit Thunder Bay’s wider tour collection, active tour stops generated over 110,831 views.
Clear Routes, Local Stories and Timely Reasons to Participate
Each tour is built around a recognizable visitor interest or occasion.
Someone planning an outdoor day receives a different itinerary than a couple arranging a weekend away. Visitors interested in local history can access archival images, interviews and audio stories, while residents looking for a seasonal activity can explore decorated homes across several neighbourhoods.
The Halloween Haunted Houses Tour combines a limited timeframe, community participation and a ready-made driving route. Visit Thunder Bay promoted it as an evening activity, encouraging participants to pick up a favourite fall drink and travel between the displays.
The digital format is particularly useful for a tour built around private homes. Participating addresses can change each year, and the route is active for only one month. Visit Thunder Bay can update the stops without reprinting a map, while visitors can follow directions from their phones.
Other Thunder Bay experiences use different motivations. Historical tours focus on local stories. Food tours connect visitors with producers and restaurants. The Ultimate Burger Battle adds voting and friendly competition, with more than 50 participating restaurants in 2025 and $2 from each featured burger supporting the United Way of Thunder Bay.
Across the collection, the route handles the practical work. The theme gives people a reason to begin.
"Driftscape has streamlined our workflow and made content creation an enjoyable experience. It's clear that the platform was designed with its users in mind, and we couldn't be happier with how easy it is to create high-quality tours."
-Karen Martin, Information and Marketing Officer, City of Thunder Bay
Visitor Dispersal Starts With a Clear Reason to Go Somewhere
A list of attractions tells visitors what exists. A self-guided tour helps them decide where to go, how the stops connect and why each place is worth their time.
Thunder Bay’s 17 tours group neighbourhoods, businesses, natural areas and historic sites into experiences people can follow. Directions and supporting stories reduce the planning required, while focused themes help visitors choose activities that match their interests.
The Halloween Haunted Houses Tour shows how this can work at a neighbourhood level. The results show sustained interest in a temporary community experience built around places that rarely appear in a conventional attractions guide.
For destination teams, the practical lesson is useful: local stories, seasonal traditions and lesser-known places become easier to promote when visitors can access a clear, current route from their phones.
Help Visitors Find More of Your Destination
Create self-guided tours that connect local stories, neighbourhoods, attractions and businesses.
Book a demo to see how Driftscape can help visitors explore more of your destination.