What is Canada's Competitive Advantage?

Did the Globe and Mail enter into the world of Tourism marketing last week with their opinion about positioning Canada in an era of declining tourism demand. For those who may have missed the editorial comment my interpretation follows:

On Canada’s National Park Day, July 19, 2008 the Globe and Mail editorial department was astute in their recognition of the day, and even more astute in providing an opinion about Canada’s Tourism Industry. While extolling the contributions to Canada’s Nature reserves this year, and the importance the public is giving to environmental issues and wilderness protection they commented on where Canada’s tourism industry should be focused. The Globe continues to say

“Canada should work harder to make its extensive pristine wilderness a key differentiator in the intense competition for those very welcome visitors’ dollars.”

Regardless of the internal perception we as Canadians have about the image of Canada, I believe the rest of the world tends to look at Canada as one big wilderness area with a very large land mass of ‘pristine wilderness’ with a few cities carved out of border area of Southern Canada. Certainly Canada (in most cases) is far more pristine than the countries visitors are travelling from. What I believe is important here are the degrees of wilderness experiences which exist throughout the many tourist destinations north of the border and the numerous areas which provide or could provide a significant Ecotourism experience.

While many destinations throughout the world have been marketing Ecotourism as a major demand generator, Canada has been slow off the mark.

The reasons for this are many, as there is a movement against the traditional "Moose, Mounties and Mountains" branding, and we as Canadians have always had close by ecotourism experiences (even it we don't label such as ecotourism). I also believe that many of the marketing decisions being made tend to be in the political realm of supporting cities more than rural destinations.

I think the Globe and Mail have the right understanding if our tourism industry is to grow and expand in the future.

Photo: Georgian Bay looking at the Niagara Escarpment--Biosphere Reserve near Blue Mountain (rtaylor)