The Sunset Country Travel Association is planning to attend as many as five sportsmans shows in the United States this winter.

It’s in a bid to attract visitors back to northwestern Ontario.

Gerry Cariou is the executive director and says it’s been a challenging couple of years for the tourism industry in northwestern Ontario.

Now, in addition to vaccination status and crossing the border, he says visitors have another factor to consider.

“The price of gasoline is a perceptual and a real barrier for some people, “Geez, it’s going to be very expensive the travel,'”  says Cariou.

“What helps us is the quality of the product.  That helps us but these other things are the headwinds that we have to overcome.  Really high inflation…what it is, seven percent right now?”

Cariou says the good news is interest in coming to Canada is strong and that bodes well for next summer.

(File photo)