Canadian tourism is down. Mounties, moose and mountains are to blame.
So says Rod Seiling of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association, anyway. Bruce MacMillan of Tourism Toronto puts a finer point on it: he says Canada’s got a reputation as dull. (Toronto: such a happy place. Filled with such positive people.)
The brunt of the loss — 4.6 percent fewer US travellers crossing the border in 2005 than in 2004, according to the same February 2 Chronicle-Herald story Seiling and MacMillan are quoted in — is being felt in…wait for it…Toronto, where, oddly, I’ve never seen a moose, a mountain or a Mountie. But US travellers are shunning Canucks from west to east. At home, Nova Scotia tourism is down about five percent, according to the most recent figures from the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia.
Shouldn’t the Mounties-moose-mountains brand work? The three Ms make me think of ruggedness, activity and strength. Stir those swelling feelings together, add a Bob Seger melody, and you get an SUV commercial. And while SUV sales on the whole have slid as gas prices have climbed, those behemoths of the motor world are far from excommunicated from our autophilic culture. General Motors released its January sales figures last week boasting a 23 percent spike in sales of large SUVs.
If SUVs are being well served by their branding as rugged (by name alone, consider the Blazer, the Escape, the Forester, the Mountaineer and the Navigator), why isn’t it working for Canada?
Brand Canada, on the Internet, is more rugged than a gay cowboy in buttless chaps. Visit any province or territory’s tourism site and you can practically hear the crunching snow, feel the waters lapping at your Blundstones and smell the caribou steak grilling on your campfire.
The Canadian Tourism Commission’s official tagline is “Canada: Keep Exploring.” Tourism Saskatchewan’s official site reels ’em in with a picture of an RCMP flag-raising ceremony and a lone fly fisher. Ontario’s tourism ministry entices visitors with snowshoeing, snowboarding and snowmobiling. There are also two people dining. (Where’s the snow? Must be outside.)
These are the kinds of places you’ll run into Johnny Canuck; where you’ll need a toque, because it’s cold, but the kind of cold that’s not too bad because you’re sweating at the same time. At night, you’ll eat a meal — possibly something you’ve stalked and shot yourself — and fall dead asleep in a comfy log cabin. It’s ruggedness if I ever saw it. So how come SUVs can make it work and Canada can’t?
Because when your Chev Tahoe is leaving greasy tire marks on piping plover nests you’re not actually being active. You’re just sitting on your fat ass. Or, you’re sitting on your fat ass on the couch, confident in the knowledge that your monster truck-sized SUV — the one in the driveway that costs $120 to fill — could take you off-road any damn time you fancy.
Rod Seiling and Bruce MacMillan are right. Canada needs a new brand. How about: “Canada: No no, sit there. I’ll bring you a beer.” No. I’ve got it: “Canada: You could go get some fresh air, but Trailer Park Boys is on.”
Got a better way to sell Canada? Email: lezliel@thecoast.ca
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2006.