Recreation

Tourism is the most important industry associated with the lake: approximately $200 million is spent annually on tourism and recreational activities in the Lake Simcoe watershed.

Related Tourism Events Water related recreation is a strong social and economic factor around Lake Simcoe. For three weeks in April, the Orillia Annual Perch Festival takes place, and the Georgina Annual Ice Fishing Festival occurs during the winter. The Town of Georgina, the self named 'Ice Fishing Capital of the World', hosts an annual ice fishing festival with a budget of $60,000 and attracts approximately 3,000 participants. In 1993 Lake Simcoe was the venue for an international ice fishing tournament attended by anglers and tourists from around the world. During the long weekend in August approximately 150,000 people visit the Kempenfest Arts and Crafts Festival held on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay in Barrie.

A number of services and facilities that are entirely or partially dependent on tourism are established in the Lake Simcoe region. These include:

• 10 private campgrounds
• public parks/conservation areas and boat launches
• resorts, cottages, bed and breakfasts, farm vacations
• 3 provincial parks (the largest, Sibbald Point Privincial Park has an annual visitation rate of over 300,000 people)

Private campgrounds are used by both residents and non residents. Family and group camping are popular and campgrounds are one of the primary choices of rental accommodation for summer anglers.

Public parks and conservation authority areas are also used by both local residents and visitors to the area. A few of the parks provide camping facilities, but the majority are designated for day use only.

Resorts, cottages, bed and breakfasts, and farm vacation operations are patronized predominantly by non residents for family vacations, although cottages are also a common accommodation choice for anglers. There are approximately 12,000 cottages around the lake, adding approximately 40,000 50,000 people to the region throughout the summer season. Together, these water related activities bring approximately $200 million each year into the regional economy, proving that a healthy Lake Simcoe is indeed a valuable community resource.

Recreational Boating

The size and location of Lake Simcoe and its link to the Trent Severn Waterway have made recreational boating activities very popular in the lake. Contributing to this popularity are several public boat launching and docking sites. Many cottages and homes along the shore also have docking facilities, and inland residents also use launch sites around the lake.

Estimates of boat ownership or usage on the lake are difficult to make; however, there are 29 marinas on Lake Simcoe providing a total of 4,246 boat slips. In 1990 the water of Lake Simcoe attracted approximately 11 ,500 transient boaters who passed through the Trent Severn Waterway.

Fishing Summer and Winter

Lake Simcoe receives the greatest angling effort of any Ontario inland lake. In 1990 an estimated 144,000 anglers visited Lake Simcoe, spending approximately 746,000 hours fishing. Ice fishing is extremely popular with anglers and accounts for most of the angling effort, with an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 ice huts on Lake Simcoe each winter. During the ice fishing season the two most sought after species are lake trout and lake whitefish, both coldwater species that are threatened.

This extremely large and valuable recreational opportunity is not offered by any other inland lake in Ontario.