City of Peterborough Seeks Community Input to Shape Tourism Strategy

The City of Peterborough is developing a tourism strategy to guide how Peterborough can grow as a competitive, sustainable, four-season destination. Over the coming weeks and months, there will be opportunities for the community to participate in conversations and other engagement activities to help shape the future of tourism in Peterborough.

The City has engaged Bannikin, an Ontario-based tourism consultancy with strong experience in facilitating the development of tourism strategies for communities and destination marketing organizations. A proposed Tourism Strategy is expected to be presented to City Council in spring 2026. Now, with the busy summer tourism season wrapping up for another year, this project will be focusing on community engagement activities, including connecting with tourism-sector businesses and the broader community.

“Tourism is vital to the City of Peterborough – it enhances quality of life, generates economic returns for businesses, and creates jobs for community members,” shares Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal. “This new Tourism Strategy will provide a road map for collaborating on tourism development, management, and marketing.”

Opportunities for community input

Meaningful community engagement is at the foundation of this tourism strategy development work and several opportunities for community participation are built into this project across fall 2025.

An online survey is now open, and responses will be accepted through to the end of October. Additional information and updates, including dates and times for in-person ‘community café’ sessions, will be available in the coming weeks will be published on the Connect Peterborough website at connectptbo.ca/tourism-strategy. An overview of engagement activities is included below:

• Online Community+ Survey throughout the month of October
• Virtual Key Informant Interviews throughout October
  • To engage selected voices from the community, including elected officials, City staff, local partners and collaborators, and leaders from Hiawatha First Nation and Curve Lake First Nation 
• Virtual Focus Groups in early to mid-November
  • To engage representatives of key interest groups and representatives of tourism business clusters
• In-person Community Cafés in mid-November
  • To engage with residents, including re-engaging with those who have participated in other engagement activities like the online survey

Strategy will define how Peterborough is positioned as a destination

“The City has had some incredible wins since bringing tourism service delivery in-house, including successfully landing the Women’s Major Series Lacrosse Tournament, the TELUS Cup, and securing media coverage like CP24 Breakfast. The new Peterborough Tourism Strategy allows for us to play to our strengths, develop opportunities, collaborate with businesses and community organizations, and ultimately, define how we position our destination for visitation and sustainable growth in 2026 and beyond,” says Brendan Wedley, Strategic Communications and Service Peterborough Director.

The development of this comprehensive, city-focused Tourism Strategy is the latest initiative that has been undertaken by the City of Peterborough since tourism service delivery was brought ‘in-house’ at the beginning of 2025. Other initiatives undertaken by the City’s destination marketing program include several successful sports tourism bid opportunities coming to Peterborough in 2025 and 2026, media hosting including a live broadcast with CP24 Breakfast, the launch of a new year-round Visitor Centre operating out of the Peterborough Memorial Centre, and a suite of digital and print marketing pieces.

For more information on opportunities to participate in the development of the Peterborough Tourism Strategy visit: connectptbo.ca/tourism-strategy