If tourism is a major activity, how many visitors come to the Biosphere Reserve each year?


The town of Port Rowan along with various community groups stage several events over the year, mainly for the pleasure of local residents, but also for visitors. These include "swan weekend" in March to observe the early spring migration of tundra swans and other waterfowl; special fishing contests in early summer; a series of events throughout the summer at the Backus Heritage Conservation Area to highlight aspects of 19th century life; a "Tomato Fest" weekend in early September; and a Festival weekend in November. It is not clear how many visitors from outside the local community are drawn to these events; the Backus area has some 30,000 visitors per year and events such as the Tomato Fest draw several thousand people. The LPBR participates in some of these events, for example, by setting up an educational booth and preparing a float for the tomato festival parade.


Long Point Provincial Park, a 150 ha recreation park, has one of the highest visitor use of any provincial park in Ontario, in the order of 130,000 visitors/campers annually who generate in the order of $600k in gross revenue. Up to 10,000 birdwatchers visit the Long Point area each year.


National: Most


Foreign: Unknown, but likely to be mainly from nearby US states.


Type(s) of touristic activities (study of fauna and flora, recreation, camping, hiking, sailing, horseriding, fishing, hunting...).


Hunting, fishing (including winter ice-fishing), bird-watching and nature studies; sailing, water-skiing, powerboating, swimming; visitors to special events and exhibits. Boat rentals and chartered fishing excursions are also available locally.


Tourist facilities and description of where these are located.


Long Point Provincial Park has 256 campsites, 58 with electricity. Port Rowan has several small restaurants and five bed and breakfast establishments in the vicinity. The full range of tourism services can be found in Simcoe, about 40 km from Port Rowan.

Back to Table of Contents
Back to Long Point Biosphere publications index