Travel Marketing

   This morning I received an email from Travelzoo for which I am grateful because it gave me an excuse to avoid doing anything other than sitting around on a rainy day reading emails. Until now. The email suggested a detour I shouldn't miss -- Northern Virginia -- which is dubbed "Virginia's Cultural Region." Perhaps it is because I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which back then was regarded as a rather uncivilized place, that I perceived a slight to those who live in the very large southern part of Virginia, which apparently lacks culture, or at least the culture one associates with the arts and intellectual achievements. I suppose it won't matter because those living in Virginia  far below Fairfax have the closer option of going to North Carolina, which is also better in that it is farther from Washington. 

"Virginia is For Lovers"
   I don't want to pick on the marketing people at Virginia tourism, but I never liked that one which has been around for over 50 years and has earned its own Wikipedia entry and is as well known and liked as the Budweiser Clydesdales. If it is raining where you are, read that entry, where you will learn that the slogan is "iconic" and was inducted into the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame. Earlier suggestions - "Virginia is for History Lovers," "Virginia is for Mountain Lovers," and "Virginia is for Beach Lovers" - were rejected as being too limiting. More recently the vagueness of "Virginia is For Lovers" proved useful in the promotion of LGBT tourism and the possibilities are endless. 
   
The Bonus:
   We recently chose to stay in Virginia, the more southern part, and it is not without culture. See, Staunton, where you will find the American Shakespeare Center, the Heifetz International Music Institute and the Staunton Music Festival. If it is still raining, read about Russell Baker who was born in Loudon County. 

Spring Is In The Air!!

Spring in Victoria

 As Fall Approaches

   If I was to go to the store today to pick up a rake for the leaves that will soon fall, I would expect to see shelves full of Halloween grotesqueries and perhaps even hear "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" emanating from the speakers. Such assaults on our senses are another reason I avoid shopping and will miss the "Black Friday" sales. Perhaps I already have. At my age it is difficult enough to keep track of the seasons, weeks and days, and presenting such out-of-sync stimuli does not help.

   My award this year for the premature escalation of the seasons goes to Tourism B.C.  On August 19th, I received from them an email with this title: "6 UNFORGETTABLE SPRING EXPERIENCES." Perhaps it is because the tourism industry is just as competitive as the retail one, that such an email was sent so early. Or perhaps it was a boast from B.C. where, in fact, spring does arrive earlier in some parts of it than anywhere else in Canada.

   You should know that I am just trying to make a point and do not at all wish to be perceived as being critical of the tourism folks out in Super, Natural British Columbia. The website "Destination BC" is an excellent one and their emails promoting the province make you want to hop on the nearest train (thus avoiding Pearson.) Have a look at "HELLOBC". It will entertain you during the long winter ahead which may arrive well after the Easter promotions have begun.

Spring Break Consolations

 

   Perhaps you are unable or unwilling to join the migrating tourists and need some new excuses to replace the ones you have already used, namely: airport hassles; airline hassles;TSA hassles; border hassles; intestinal issues; the low loonie; the high risks; yellow vests; green algae blooms and nasty political problems (e.g. if you were planning  to visit Abuja, Caracas, or especially Washington, for which, if the U.S. State Department was still in operation, there would likely be a Travel Advisory.)

   If those reasons are not enough to lower the peer pressure you know you will feel when the tanned people return, or if your spouse is not content with being couch-bound during this gloomy and cold period, remind him or her, or ze or zir, or whomever, of the exoticism of the things that can be found locally and of the foreign objects in your very own neighbourhood (or county if you feel adventurous), and also read them this:

“Martin Martin, the traveller and writer who in the 1690s set sail to explore the Scottish coastline, knew that one does not need to displace oneself vastly in space in order to find difference. “It is a piece of weakness and folly merely to value things because of their distance from the place in which we were born,’ he wrote in 1697, ‘thus men have travelled far enough in the search of foreign plants and animals, and yet continue strangers to those produced in their own natural climate.” So did Roger Deakin: “Why would anyone want to go live abroad when they can live in several countries at once just by being in England?’ [Canada]. Likewise, Henry David Thoreau: An absolutely new prospect is a great happiness, and I can still get this any afternoon. Two or three hours walking will carry me to as strange a country as I expect ever to see. A single farmhouse which I had not seen before is sometimes as good as the dominions of the King of Dahomey.’

Source:

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, Robert Macfarlane, Penguin Books, pp.78-79 & p.381.

Heading South

Trump Shunpikers

     

     One year ago yesterday, I posted a piece about the impending Trump Slump.  At that time there were calls for boycotts on travel to the United States and predictions that we were so upset and outraged we would surely not participate in the annual southern migration. Most, one guesses, are more upset and outraged now than then, but oddly enough there is no shunning of southern destinations. The returns are in and the numbers are up.

      A recent headline in the Washington Post  - "Canadian Tourists Still Can’t Get Enough of America" -  is above an article which notes that "Despite frantic calls for boycotts, overnight trips from Canada rose 4.8 per cent to 20.2 million in 2017, reversing a three-year decline....Travel to the United States from every region of the world is declining, but one country is bucking the trend: Canada." I suppose the smugness of Canadians is somewhat suppressed around the pools these days and that even the English-speakers among us need a translator to understand what is being said on Fox News.

    It is understandable that political principles would not trump the strong urges for warmth and sunshine. The loonie has also gone south and even that is not enough to keep us from going. 

Post Script

   If you are heading down,  you might want to re-visit my post - Migrating Snowbirds - where I discuss Regional Price Parities. It will show you the cheapest places to visit. As well,  that post contains the Caucasian Barrel joke which will surely make you laugh again (I can say that because it is not my joke) and strengthen your smugness.

   The headline in the Vancouver Sun yesterday: "B.C. Travellers Warned of Long Weekend Delays Due to Ongoing Construction at Peace Arch."

The Trump Slump

Going to the U.S.?

    You may not have read the recent article found under the headline announcing that the Canadian Girl Guides were no longer traveling to the U.S. and you may not realize there are 70,000 of them along with about 20,000 guiders. There have been other recent articles about the cancellation of school trips which involve even larger numbers. Students from Toronto and Windsor will not be viewing cherry blossoms this year and the decline in visits to the United States is now being called the “Trump Slump” - an unintended, but predictable consequence of the various restrictions on travel imposed by the Trump administration.

   Many in Canada are probably not visiting because of the Canadian loonie not the American ones. School trips are being cancelled out of fear that an entire busload may be turned around because a few swarthy students are aboard. Others are opting out because of the stories of visitors now being more rigorously questioned and delayed or detained at airports.  Let’s face it: the border agent inhaling your exhaust at a bleak border crossing, seeing your sunny smile and hearing that you are going to golf on Hilton Head is hardly likely to be more welcoming these days.

  Perhaps you deprived yourself of time in the sun during March Break because you are a principled person who does not wish to support, in any way, the current regime. An article in the Toronto Star suggests that you should boycott, take a stance and not go. But, if you are still undecided about heading south you should read a recent article in Maclean’s which makes a good case that such boycotting doesn’t work.

Sources:

“Girl Guides of Canada Suspend Trips to U.S. Citing Border Concerns,” Hina Alam, Toronto Star,  March 13, 2017

“Time to Boycott Vacations to the U.S.” Mark Bulgutch, Toronto Star, Jan. 30,2017

“There’s no need to start a campaign. Just make a personal decision to avoid the United States whenever you can as long as the cruelty persists.”

“They’re Not Worth Doing, They’re Not Worth Opposing, and They Won’t Change Much,” Nick Taylor-Vaisey Maclean’s, March 10, 2017.

“Toronto Schools to Cease Field Trips to U.S.” Craig S. Smith, The New York Times, March 24, 2017.

‘Like 9/11 All Over Again’: Canadians Grow Fearful of Crossing the Border,” Catherine Porter, The New York Times, Feb. 13, 2017.

“The Trump Slump? Tourists say They're Scared to visit the United States, Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 12, 2017,

“An economic consulting firm that has crunched the numbers from various airline and travel booking websites projects that the U.S. will lose 6.3 million visits by the end of next year, which translates into $10.8 billion in spending. What the firm, Tourism Economics of Wayne, Pa., is calling “Trump-induced losses” could affect an estimated 90,000 Americans whose jobs are directly or indirectly dependent on tourism.”

“It doesn’t take very much uncertainty or antipathy to influence decisions away from a given travel destination,” said Adam Sacks, the firm’s president. “Ultimately, destinations and companies are in the business of building a brand and a message that is welcoming .… All the ‘America first’ rhetoric in various policy areas like trade, diplomacy and immigration is conveying the exact opposite.’’

“Among the cities that stand to lose the most are New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco. New York expects to lose 300,000 foreign tourists this year, a big worry because it is foreigners who drop the big money, spending about four times as much as domestic tourists, according to officials.” [these quotations are all from the Demick article cited above].