Winter Writing watching “As the World of Tourism Turns”

Winter or summer we enjoy all seasons

It has been a few weeks since we last talked online. Not the usual waiting period between blogs.. I must apologize… bad Greg. But as some of you already know… we try to blog regularly most of the year – 4 to 5 times a week… so I am hoping you will cut us some slack.

It is not as if we were out there doing nothing… nope, far from that… we have been busy little Canadian beavers building, writing and developing more EH Tourism websites for our CanadaEH.net Travel Network. In the near future we will be sure to let you know when you can view them online.

Things have been busy here at the writer’s retreat on Prince Edward Island on the east coast of Canada . The scenery is dreamy and ideal for creativity. The noise… well… there is none. That is a good thing.

Our backyard is a winter wonderland post card. The snow is now sticking around for days and nights. Snow shovels, snow blowers and snow plows are out almost every day. There are icicles hanging like daggers off eaves troughs of homes. Tree branches look tired, fighting the weight of the snow, as if trying to touch their toes. The bay is iced over now – have not ventured out and tested it yet but excited to do so. And yesterday we saw our first ice fishing shack on the far side of the bay. How cool is that!

In the world of tourism lots is happening… some good, some not so good. This is the season of trade shows, tourism awards and tourism reports in the Canadian tourism industry. It is an opportunity for associations and organizations to throw their own party, give themselves awards and look good at it while publishing statistical reports.

The reports coming out of the tourism circles suggest that visitors from China will be coming to Canada in far bigger numbers this year since getting recognized as an approved tourism destination last year by the Chinese officials. Lets not forget about the other emerging markets like India and Germany which also look promising. While in the US and Europe numbers coming to Canada will be lagging again as the economy is slow to recover.

So where does that leave the rest of us in tourism… well.. pretty much on our own. Like we have stated since day one… tourism, anywhere in the world, is not going to be won and lost waiting for organizations and associations to get their act together.   So many tourism markets missed, so many opportunities lost, so many mismanaged ideas.

There are endless examples of tourism spending big and doing little. They like quick fixes not long term results. They tend to think in spending dollars and not in common sense. And they run together in packs, rewarding themselves in false praise. Tourism should be for the love of the country, for the love of the community and for the love of sharing our backyard with the world.

Canada enjoys some of the best tourism destinations in the world for natural and outdoor experiences… yet, by all reports, our own population is over weight and out of shape. This boggles our minds. It begs to ask the question? How good are our tourism organizations at selling our adventures, amazing landscapes and beautiful scenery if we cannot even get the majority of our own population off the couch, getting healthy exploring the outdoors (which is free in most cases where a gym membership is not).

Somebody needs to explain to the government funded tourism monopolies that a healthy population is a spending population on big money adventures, travel and activities year round. I am sure when they see the dollar signs they will come running and take all the credit.

Just a thought?