Geotourism
Developing the Georgian Bay Geopark provides an opportunity for residents, community members and local businesses to clearly identify the ways intelligent and sensitive tourism can benefit the entire region, and determine ways to attract, welcome and manage visitors that help achieve these goals.
Geological tourism, one of the multiple components of geotourism, is a basic tool for the conservation, dissemination and cherishing of the history of Life on Earth, including its dynamics and mechanisms. It enables visitors to understand a past of 4600 million years so as to view the present from another perspective and project possible shared futures for the Earth and humankind.
Destination stewardship is about protecting the very qualities that make a place first and foremost a wonderful place to live, with the added benefit of being a wonderful place to visit.
It is defined by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council as a process by which local communities, governmental agencies, NGOs, and the tourism industry take a multi-stakeholder approach to maintaining the cultural, environmental, economic, and aesthetic integrity of their country, region, or town.
Developing Geotourism Tools and Standards
In focusing on the geographic and geological attributes of a region, the Georgian Bay GeoPark aims to unite its residents and visitors to continue to protect the incredible Georgian Bay, and help the region achieve truly world-leading sustainable tourism centred on destination stewardship, respect and protection of Georgian Bay.
Benefitting All Sectors
Geotourism can benefit all sectors of society, including regional and local governments, local people and communities, private sector, outdoor companies, tour agencies, restaurants, accommodation providers, agriculture sector, transportation sector, energy sector and more. Finding appropriate channels of communication, opportunities for input and support in implementation from these diverse stakeholders is essential to developing tourism standards, certifications, management practices, products, education and activities.
Tools under development by the Geopark include:
Developing the Georgian Bay Geopark provides an opportunity for residents, community members and local businesses to clearly identify the ways tourism can benefit the entire region, and determine ways to attract, welcome and manage visitors that help achieve these goals.
Code of
Conduct
For visitors, residents, cottagers, business owners etc.
GeoTourism Charter
& Certifications
For tourism operators, hotels, restaurants, guides & educators.
Market Segmentation & Strategic Marketing Strategy
Accounts promoting responsible use, visitation limits and destination stewardship.
Promoting Truth and Reconciliation
Georgian Bay has been home to a vast number of Indigenous groups since time immemorial. This deep and diverse Indigenous history has, in many ways, been lost and erased from the landscape. The Georgian Bay Geopark seeks to develop sustainable tourism that offers an opportunity for Truth and Reconciliation.
Responsible geotourism offers an opportunity to bring the truth to life, giving space to Indigenous groups to tell their stories and define the history of the region, educate visitors and residents alike, and identify the values that will direct tourism development, putting Indigenous languages, cultures and needs at the forefront.
It further provides an opportunity to direct visitors to local Indigenous businesses as a simple action, while restructuring tourism to allow access and benefits for Indigenous communities and reconcile some of the past negative actions towards Indigenous communities of Georgian Bay.
Discover the DEEP TIME geology of the Georgian Bay Geopark
DEEP TIME’ is the themed expression of how exploring and understanding the past helps create a better future. The unique DEEP TIME story and its eight geological chapters encourages both visitors and residents to know the past, celebrate the present and help create a more resilient future for the Bay and its many communities.
DEEP TIME Zone 1
The Huronian
Ocean
2.7 billion years
Sault Ste Marie to Serpent River
The ancient mineral-rich rocks of the North Channel record the breakup of the planet’s oldest supercontinent – and the birth of the Huronian Ocean.
DEEP TIME Zone 2
Continents
Collide
1.8 billion years
Serpent River to Killarney
The Group of Seven’s white rolling quartzite hills are the stumps of mountains formed when landmasses collided to form supercontinent Nuna
DEEP TIME Zone 3
The Ancient
Himalayas
1.3 billion years
Killarney to Honey Harbour
The waterscape of the 30,000 Islands exposes the deep crustal roots of the immense Grenville Mountains formed when North and South America collided.
DEEP TIME Zone 4
Tropical
Seas
500 million years
Manitoulin Island
Much of North America was covered by warm shallow seas, teeming with early marine life that left fossil-rich limestones on Manitoulin Island.
DEEP TIME Zone 5
The Limestone
Coast
350 million years
Tobermory to Wiarton
Within the last 2 million years, the Bruce/Saugeen peninsula was scoured by Ice Age ice sheets that cut deep valleys into the face of the Niagara Escarpment such as at Owen Sound.
DEEP TIME Zone 6
Ice Ages &
Early
Cultures
13,000 years
Collingwood to Wiarton
The raised beaches of glacial Lake Algonquin surround the coast of southern Georgian Bay like staircases and hosted the camps of caribou-hunting Paleo-Indians 11,000 years ago.
DEEP TIME Zone 7
The Meeting
Place
Last 10,000 years
Collingwood to Honey Harbour
The ancient hard rocks of the Canadian Shield meet the softer limestones of the ancient seas creating a stark contrast in landscapes, ecosystems, and a diverse cultural history unique in North America.
DEEP TIME Zone 8
Mindo Gami Great
Spirit Lake
4,000 years to today
Waters of Georgian Bay
In 1615 Samuel de Champlain called Georgian Bay ‘La Mer Douce’ (the sweet water sea). An early map also portrays it as Karegnondi, derived from ‘lake’ in the language of the Petun First Nation.