There is so much to experience, and explore in Kawartha Lakes. For all your needs to plan a trip, visit the Explore Kawartha Lakes tourism website. Here you will find information on our towns and villages, places to stay and eat, and great activities to enjoy in our communities year round.
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If you are a tourism operator, visit the Economic Development section of our website for information on how you can get involved and grow your business.
Kawartha Lakes Knapsack Signature Experience Program
Do you have a new or existing tourism idea that, with some refinement, could become a Kawartha Lakes Signature Experience?
The Knapsack Signature Experience Program
Knapsack is the City of Kawartha Lakes experiential tourism training and recognition program. It leverages being different, and teaches tourism businesses how to make and share memorable moments of travel.
Knapsack supports the development of new tourism experiences and it recognizes and promotes these best of the best developments. It acknowledges the tremendous effort put into creating and delivering transformative guest experiences and rewards those efforts by helping to develop ideas into successful visitor experiences that gain attention on a regional, provincial or national level.
Graduates of the Knapsack program share the recognition with other peers whose commitment is to deliver best in class tourism experiences.
What is a Signature Experience?
Defining something as “signature” implies that it is part of a group and is one of the best items offered. A signature experience is a highly anticipated, highly memorable activity or activities delivered by a skilled and knowledgeable person with a direct connection to the local community it takes place in.
Other Signature Experience Programs
Destination Canada: Promotes a collection of once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences found only in Canada that features over 200 experiences representative of all provinces and territories.
Destination Ontario: Promotes a collection of incredible, world-class experiences curated by the province of Ontario, and includes many experiences that are also Canadian Signature Experiences selected by Destination Canada.
Goals of the Knapsack Signature Experience Program
- Create economic opportunity for the City of Kawartha Lakes through tourism
- Build strong relationships with innovative and engaged tourism operators, mentoring them to think differently, challenging them to leverage their unique attributes as well as those of the Kawartha Lakes region, and to think beyond current trends
- Create 2-3 new Knapsack signature experiences each year with the end goal of ensuring that the City of Kawartha Lakes has a supply of quality, memorable experiences to attract visitors
- Define the Knapsack signature experience program parameters and requirements for operator participation
- Gain recognition and visitor attention for Kawartha Lakes, becoming well known for delivering emotional connections to the region through signature experiences
- Help you to create amazing experiences that attract people to the region, and may have the ability to qualify as a Signature Experience
- Ensure visitors create a deep connection to the area through experiences that are memorable and authentic
- Focus on developing new high yield, small group experiences vs mass market low yield offers
2026 Knapsack Program Intake
The 2026 Knapsack Signature Experience Program will open in January 2026 . For more information contact Laurie McCarthy, Economic Development Officer - Tourism at lmccarthy@kawarthalakes.ca
Knapsack Graduates and Kawartha Lakes Signature Experiences
Visit the Explore Kawartha Lakes tourism website to learn about the Knapsack Graduates and to book one of the Kawartha Lakes Signature Experiences.
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