A unique piece of Canadiana. Call for Sponsorship. Voyageur, the Six String Nation Guitar.

I'm a big fan of all things Canadian, including Canadian music and Canadian artists. Recently, while attending a concert where my daughter performed I came across Voyageur. When I learned about Voyageur I couldn't believe I had not heard from it before. Voyageur is a guitar. It was given this name by Lt. Col. Susan Beharriel who attended the ceremony launching the 2008 Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg-St. Boniface. Voyageur was Jowi Taylor's idea. Jowi is an award winning writer and broadcaster who was inspired by the looming Quebec Referendum in 1995. The guitar is made out of wood from every part of Canada. Some pieces have significant cultural and historical value for Canadians. For example, there is a piece from a hockey stick used by Paul Henderson at the famous game against the Soviet Union (september 1972); a piece from former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle; and a piece of shelving from the office sideboard of Sir John A. Maconald, the first Prime Minister of Canada.

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Since 2006, Voyageur has travelled all over Canada and has been played by hundreds (if not thousands) of Canadians including stars and amateurs, most recently at the Canadian Voices Festival at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Jowi Taylor lent the guitar to the SongStudio songwriting workshop student showcase and allowed the students and faculty to play it. Here's a video of my daughter playing Voyageur and singing one of her songs:

Coincidentally, there is a Six String Nation Festival in Italy called "Un Paese de Sei Corde." Organizers of that festival learned about the Canadian Six String Nation and Voyageur. They have invited Jowi Taylor and his crew to take Voyageur to Italy and participate in the Festival. However, the Six String Nation organization has limited funds and they need to raise money for travel expenses. I think this is an excellent opportunity for Canadian tourism destinations or businesses to get some good visibility in Italy and to support a very worthy Canadian cultural initiative. Last year Canada received 106,000 visitors from Italy. I'm sure we can attract a lot more.

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The Federal Government recently cut a program to support travelling Canadian artists so organizations like Six String Nation need our support. In my opinion, it is these kinds of Canadian artistic projects that create conversational capital for Canada as a tourism destination. People may know about our mountains, lakes and wildlife. Many others may now be aware about our fantastic cities. But how many people know that Canadians not only love music, but that we are indeed a Six String Nation? Please visit the Six String Nation website and support Jowi and his crew with whatever you can. If you are interested in sponsoring the trip to Italy let me know and I can put you directly in touch with Jowi.
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Visit the Six String Nation website to learn more about Voyageur and how it helps bring Canadians together to celebrate the country through music.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

the Canada en Español Network

Via back on track. Toronto civil workers reach an agreement

Via Rail's management and union understanding the impact of a strike in the middle of the summer agreed to go to binding arbitration and resumed serviced yesterday.

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On other good news, The Toronto Star reports that Toronto's civil and outside workers, reached a deal with the city this morning ending the 35 day old strike that turned Toronto the Good into Toronto the stinky.

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Jaime

Via Rail goes on strike, because of course, Canadian Tourism does not need more challenges.

I am somewhat beside myself when it comes to what I do for a living day in and day out, which is to promote Canada to foreign visitors from more than twenty Spanish speaking countries. Is it time to throw in the towel and put all my faith in the Lottery Corporation? How much can the canadian tourism industry take? Worst recession in decades in the United States, a Global economic slowdown, a high dollar and all it implies, the H1N1 fear and its impact on travel, Toronto civil workers on strike for over a month making many parts of Toronto veritable cesspools, weatherwise - one of the worst Julys on record in many parts of Canada, and earlier today Via Rail engineers went on strike (Via cancelled all services as of July 24)...I'm sorry, but I think at this time is appropriate to say !&#\*/!#:$~}{!#♪

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Jaime Horwitz

Was it the H1N1 (Swine) Flu? One of the worst Mays ever for Canadian Tourism.

One can only hope that the summer will bring good news to the Canadian Tourism industry, although so far hope is not enough. In the midst of the busiest month for canadian tourism, the Government of Canada imposed visa restrictions on Mexico putting a damper on what looked like a good month. Statistics Canada just published its International Travel: Advance Information Bulletin for the month of May, 2009. Before, I go to the numbers, let's remember that May was the worst month for the H1N1 Flu issue, which may very well have affected travel world wide. It certainly hit inbound numbers from Mexico as Mexicans who might have wanted to visit Canada that month decided to stay home, lest they found themselves quarantined in a foreign country.

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May 2009 will go down as one of the worst months for the canadian tourism industry in recent memory. All markets were down compared to May 2008, with very few exceptions. On a positive note United States inbound was down only 1.5% (although it is important to mention that air travel from the US to Canada was down a whopping 15%, while overnight automobile was up 2.6% and trains, boats and other modes was up 9.2% - what this may mean is higher yield American tourists are staying away). For the period between Jan and May 2009 US inbound was only down by 2.8%.

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Travel from Europe to Canada was down 15.9% in May and down 10.6% for the period Jan-May.

Travel from Asia to Canada was down 24% in May and down 11.8% for the period Jan-May.

Travel from North, Central America and Caribbean - down 21.9% in May and -8.9% Jan-May.

Travel from South America to Canada was down 13.9% in May and negative 4.5% Jan-May.

Travel from Oceania and other islands to Canada - down 20.2% in May; down 11.9% Jan-May.

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Overall overseas inbound tourism to Canada for the period Jan to May 2009 was down 10.5%

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Let's hope that domestic tourism helps the industry this summer. Let's hope that the LocalsKnow campaign is generating great results.

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Jaime Horwitz

Tourism problem notwithstanding imposing visas to Mexicans was the right thing to do

I hope not and I will do everything I can to avoid it, but Canada's imposing visa restrictions on Mexico could possibly sink my business. However, the measure did not take completely by surprise. I knew it was coming when I learned months ago that Mexicans took over the #1 spot as refugee claimants. And this was when claims were in the 5,000 range. Now there are over 9,000 in the pipeline. I even wrote a note in my recent email newsletter warning my Mexican readers that this visa requirement was likely to happen in the next several months. What I did not expect was for it to happen in the summer. The government should have done this back in January, one of the slowest months for Mexican tourism to Canada. That way we would all have had time to adjust and travellers could have had the time to apply for visas.
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Having said this, I do think the goverment did the right thing. While sadly many Mexicans are in dire straits and some may very well qualify for refugee status, the truth is the majoriy of the claims are bogus and just bogs down the system and it costs us taxpayers a lot of money.
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So let's be positive and rededicate ourselves to good marketing. Let's not forget that more than six million Mexicans have multiple year, multiple entry visas to enter the United States so applying for visas is not new to them. The immediate challenge however will be for the Canadian Embassy in Mexico to deal with thousands and thousands of visitors visas in the next week or so. The way this is handled may help or hinder Canada's image and could turn people off to Canada. However, overtime we'll recover. And while the numbers will drop dramatically in the short term, there's no reason why we can't get back to the 1/4. Million visitors from Mexico in one to three years provided we do the right creative marketing. And there's another plus. Mexican tourists in the future should higher yield, higher spend visitors. I just hope my business can get over this immediate crisis.
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Happy travels,
Jaime Horwitz
www.canadaenespanol.ca

Canada imposes Visas on Mexico. Another blow to Canadian Tourism.

While I cannot blame the Government of Canada for imposing visa restrictions on Mexico due to the excessive number of refugee claims, I am very upset and disappointed for the timing of the measure. We are in the midst of a bad recession and tourism businesses need all the tourists we can get. We normally see about sixty thousand Mexican visitors in July and August and this measure, if it's effective immediately may strike a fatal blow to tourism businesses that depend in large measure on Mexican tourists (eg receptive tour operators). I know my business, which was already struggling will get hit very hard.
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Jaime Horwitz


-- Post From My iPhone

Female Ski Jumpers' "Exclusion from 2010 is Discriminatory."

Two days ago I was reading the updates on my Facebook homepage when I noticed the following quote: "we lost :-(". I knew right away what the quote referred to: the British Columbia Supreme Court had ruled against the Female Ski Jumpers (capital letters on purpose) lawsuit to participate in the 2010 games (lower case on purpose). The quote was from my Facebook "friend" Katie Willis, one of the Ski Jumpers who valiantly and bravely fought for the right to compete in the Olympics. I won't presume to say that we're friends friends. We all know that being a Facebook "friend" is not like being a real friend. Not to mention that in real life we might think it odd (or worse) that an 18 year old woman and an 49 year old man can be friends. We connected on Facebook when I joined a Facebook group to support the Female Ski Jumpers bid to compete at the Vancouver Whistler Olympics. When I first read about the issue, I obviously sided with the young women and my opinion of the IOC reached its all time low. Mind you, I am not referring here to the Olympic movement nor to the Olympic ideals, which I believe include fairness and justice. What I am talking about is the IOC. Now that the BC Supreme Court has made its decision, it corroborates my own opinion and that of the thousands of people who have supported and will continue to support these brave young women, some almost as young as my own daughter who is 15 and with her own Olympic size dreams (albeit in music rather than sport). And my opinion was and is that no matter what spin the IOC gives it, their decision not to include the Female Ski Jumpers in the 2010 games is discriminatory. According to the Globe and Mail (Sat July 11) "Madam Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon ruled that the women ski jumpers were indeed discriminated against by the International Olympic Committee's decision to keep them off the 2010 Olympic calendar, but added that the Switzerland based IOC was beyond the reach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
While I am very happy with Judge Fenlon's ruling in terms of the finding of discrimination, I don't agree about the IOC being beyond the reach of the Charter. If say, my daughter offered our home for a big party and some rich kids form Switzerland were invited, the fact that they were prestigious guests would not give them permission to break the rules of our house or break the laws of the land. More likely what happens is that the Olympic games mean so much money and effort that some principles are bent or ignored. I am a tourism marketer and I support the industry's efforts to profit from the games coming to Canada. I'm not a righteous holier than though person, not perfect by any stretch. I understand that in life it's necessary to make compromises. But in this case I believe I had to speak out. I owe it to my own daughter to try and walk the talk so that she can believe as another one of the jumpers, Meaghan Reid, told the Globe and Mail: "This is Canada. I've grown up here all my life, and nothing has ever stopped me because I was a girl."
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To Meaghan, Katie and all the other jumpers: I know it must feel awful. I know you must feel like your country let you down. We don' live in a perfect world and life isn't fair, but believe me when I say that you have made history and that because of your passion and your bravery you have advanced the cause of gender equality further. I thank you and I salute you. I am happy to have met you albeit via Facebook, but I can tell you that I'd be very proud if any of you were my daughter.
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Jaime Horwitz

-- Post From My iPhone

Forbes 10 best Travel Campaigns

Forbes.com has published a list of what they consider the 10 best Travel campaigns (not necessarily new). Canada's current Locals Know campaign came in at number 8. Congratulations to the CTC and Canadians who are uploading their favourite spots to the LocalsKnow.ca website. Here's the list:

1 - Las Vegas "What Happens here, stays here" (since 2003)
2 - Incredible India (2009)
3 - New Zeland - 100% Pure (since 1999)
4 - Australia - Paul Hogan's ads (1984-1990)
5 - Jamaica - "Once you go, you know" (since 2004)
6 - Pure Michigan - since 2006
7 - Alaska - "B4UDIE" 2005
8 - Canada - Locals Know 2009
9 - Oregon "150 Challenge" 2009
10 - Virginia - "Virgina is for Lovers" since 1969

Read the story Travel Campaigns Aim To Get People To Hit The Road in Forbes.com

Happy travelling.

Jaime

Happy Canada Day - Joyeuse Fête du Canada

Today is Canada Day. It's the second Canada Day I miss since I moved to Canada twenty years ago. But you can take me out of Canada, but you cannot take Canada out of me. I'm in Boston where my daughter is taking a performance workshop. Happy Canada Day everyone! Joyeuse Fête du Canada! Joyeux 142 anniversaire :D

Jaime Horwitz (and Maddy Rodriguez)