Speaking of lists and Wonders

Saturday June 9, 2007. The Toronto Star newspaper published its own 7 Wonders of Canada list: "Seven Great Structures that Made a Nation: The Confederation Bridge, The Transcontinental Railway, The Quebec Citadelle, Expo 67 in Montreal, The Rideau Canal, The CN Tower and the Sr. Lawrence Seaway." The CBC's and now this Toronto Star list remind me of one of tourism marketing's key success factors: icons. Sometimes, the destinaton itself is an icon, like Paris or New York, but more often than not it is a specific place or attraction that is the icon, the must see place that travellers feel they must go to, e.g. The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, The Alhambra, The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Chichen-Itza. Except for Niagara Falls, Canada does not really have these strong brands. However, we do have many places that over time can become iconic must visit places. In the skiing world, Whistler may already be iconic the way Vail or Aspen were in the 70's and 80's. I have a list of Canada's top attractions in one of Canadá en Español's websites, TuristiCanada.com. There are 22, but I think I can find at least another 20. Among these top attractions, we have: the CN Tower, Alberta's Rockies, The Bay of Fundy, Parliament Hill, Stanley Park, Old Quebec City, and the Northern Lights in the Yukon. The purpose of this list is to begin to iconize attractions for the Hispanic travelling public. Over time we must develop many "must see" locations in order to better compete on the world's tourism stage.

Jaime