Re: Tourism industry battens down hatches, by Laura Severs, Business Edge, Feb. 22, 2008 and online at www.businessedge.ca As an American citizen recently immigrating to Canada, I have to disagree with the strategies being taken by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada and others mentioned in your article to entice U.S. citizens to visit Canada.
First, I have never read or seen advertised any tourism articles or commercials, etc., for Canadian excursions. Canada is beautiful and has a lot to offer to U.S. citizens who do not want to leave the security of the Americas.
This is the time to drive hard into the U.S. market - not wait and see. I would be interested to see where and how much money has been spent to entice Americans. The reason - I missed it all over a period of 40 years.
There is now one television channel in the U.S. that has some Canadian television, but it is not tourism-based. A focus on coastal cities and states would be premium because those people typically don't want to go to the Caribbean or be enticed by warm weather and water - they have those things practically year round. They want the frontier, the inland adventures.
Don't focus on northern states bordering Canada. They know it's there and they share the same weather and terrain so why go even further north? They want the hot weather and cool oceans.
Who is travelling in the U.S.? The seniors. The children want to go to Disney and people with children don't usually have passports for their children and therefore, if they can't take them or want to take them, then they are not a good market.
Teresa Burgess-Ogilvie, Mississauga
