Ottawa hosts Ontario's Council of Folk Festivals' Conference

A gorgeous weekend in the Nation's Capital attending the Folk Festival's Conference. I am writing this from the Songwriters Association of Canada's Showcase. I'm listening to a lovely singer songwriter by the name of Karyn Ellis. Music and Tourism, a powerful combination.

Jaime


-- Post From My iPhone

Some key take-aways from the Ontario Tourism Summit Conference

Canada's economy is in good shape relatively to other industrialized countries - particularly the United States. The recovery will continue this quarter and good growth is expected for 2010. However, employment will lag growth in other sectors. The Canadian dollar will stay strong perhaps fluctuating between $0.85 and $1. This last point is the most important to remember from Don Drummond's economic overview at OTS '09 because it means that our tourism product will not be as competitive relative to other destinations. A strong dollar will also allow Canadians to travel more abroad impacting the growing travel deficit.

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Peter Yesawich gave a very intersting and helpful update from the Ypartnership sureveys (travel habits-intentions of Americans and Canadians) . Some key points: we are currently in a very price sensitive era. Even the affluent are price sensitive (though 66% of affluent, high-end travellers are still shopping for value not price). Yesawich mentioned the importance and proliferation of meta search engines, a topic that is somewhat outdated, since sites like Kayak are maturing and a significant sector of eTourism is moving towards travel inspiration and trip planning (that's not to say that price comparison shopping is going away anytime soon - or ever).

Canada trails Europe by a wide margin when it comes to places Americans would like to go to.

Intergenerational travel is growing, e.g. grandparents taking the grandkids on a Holiday.

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Mr Chris Rodriguez, Chair of VisitBritain gave an eloquent presentation about tourism marketing, DMO's (Destination Marketing Organizations) and DMMO's (Destination Marketing and Management Organizations - see comments). Mr. Rodrigues made several good points that may not be new, but are worth remembering. A destination must first make sure that it's attractive to the locals before trying to attract international visitors. Making the best better is not easy. DMO's and, more importantly DMMO's need to focus on common goals, cooperation and a strong understanding of partnership. For DMMO's to work well, leadership is key.

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Michelle McKenzie and Robin Garrett gave good presentations about converting brand equity into sales. Ms. McKenzie provided an overview and update of the LocalsKnow campaign, which had over 4,000 spots uploaded and over 800 deals. If I recall correctly, I think she said there were over two million page views and over 400,000 visits to the site during the summer campaign. I would have liked to learn, though, how much money the whole campaign cost and how much money in bookings was generated?

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Ms Garrett spoke about Ontario's accomplishments during the past year and the success of the There's No Place Like This campaign (made special mention of Justin Hines' appearance on the campaign). She also talked about Ontario's international marketing. Basically Ontario is aligned with the CTC when it comes to international markets.

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Speaking of markets, both Ontario and the CTC are working to open up the Indian and Brazil markets in addition to the other overseas countries they already market to. I made a comment at the session with TIAC's president Randy Williams and TIAO's president Bill Allen that the imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors is a red flag vis a vis emerging markets and how much they can grow. Ontario and the CTC can do a great job of marketing Canada to Indians and Brazilians creating demand for travel to Canada, but visa processing is the responsibility of Immigration and Citizenship Canada (and CBSA). Indians and Brazilians who want to come to Canada must apply for a visitor's visa. There's a limit of how many visas can be processed at any given time.

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I personally believe that there are still many international opportunities for Canada in countries where Canada does not require a visa, including the United States. I would look at Italy and Spain in particular. Spain is the only European country that's showing any growth in inbound tourism to Canada this year (and one of only two countries overall).

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference Montreal 2010

Ontario Tourism Summit at the Caesars Windsor

Delegates having a good time at the Cosmos bar after a day of interesting sessions about "the Road Ahead" at the Ontario Tourism Marketing Summit 2009 in Windsor. (more posts coming)
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Jaime Horwitz
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010
CanadAmigos Social Networking Site
Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

Sept 16, 2009 a conversational capital day for Toronto

I like the term "conversational capital." My friend Carmen Ciotola of Tourism Montreal first mentioned it to me when she introduced me to the book by Bertrand Cesvet (with Tony Babinski and Eric Alper. The book is called Conversational Capital, but with a subtitle that reads "How to Create Stuff people love to talk about." Thought the book clearly presents a framework to analyze something (or someone) from a conversational capital perspective, "create stuff people love to talk about" is easier said than done.

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Conversational Capital, according to the book refers to "a series of observations that can help generate and spread positive word-of-mouth." Examples in the book of brands/products/services that have generated enormous amounts of conversational capital are Cirque du Soleil, Apple, adidas, Red Bull, Schwartz's (smoked meat sandwich deli in Montreal). The book offers 8 attributes or engines of conversational capital, most of which must be present in your product, service, brand, artist or tourism attraction in order to create conversational capital. These engines are: Rituals, Initiation, Exclusive Product Offering, Over-delivery, Myths, Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement and Continuity. I won't go into detail about these engines here. Read the book in order to get the entire lesson. I am merely using Cesvet and friends' framework to talk about word-of-mouth (positive or negative) about a tourism destination and how difficult it is for destination tourism marketers to create word of mouth about their destinations, particularly cities.

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In my opinion, a city's tourism board per se cannot really create conversational capital for its destination (Let me interject here and mention that the book's website - ConversationalCapital.com - has a section on conversations where the book's readers can interact and debate about conversational capital - unfortunately every time I clicked on this section the browser freezes and I have to reboot it). A city's conversational capital (except perhaps for Las Vegas, Dubai, NYC and Paris) is created by what happens in the city. The city itself is nothing without its events, its people and its architecture (architecture is something that happens - e.g. the ROM's Crystal Gallery, Gehry's renovation of the AGO, the OCAD building). And this brings me to what happened yesterday, September 16, 2009 in Toronto.

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Three major events where happening at the same time last night in Toronto in and around the entertainment district. I drove into the downtown core to meet my wife because we had tickets to U2's 360 Tour concert at the Skydome (Rogers Centre for some, but for me it's always the Skydome). I heard on the radio what was going on downtown so I made a point to get downtown early. In addition to U2 performing, the Maple Leafs had their opening game at the ACC against the Boston Bruins and the Toronto International Film Festival had its ongoing shows and galas in the downtown core. Needless to say, the area was hopping. Front Street and side streets felt a little like New York City with people and cars everywhere. One could also feel the energy of hockey, music or film fans building with anticipation of their respective events. For tourism and tourism related businesses it was an outlier evening I'm sure. I saw line-ups at small coffee shops like Tim Horton, fast food places and restaurants along Front Street.

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These three events provide more visibility to Toronto than any ad campaign could (unless of course, Toronto places an ad during the Super Bowl). The challenge for Toronto tourism marketers is how to harness and encourage the conversation in order to increase the conversational capital. One Google search for "U2 Toronto 2009" comes back with 1.3 million hits and change. A Twitter search for "U2 Toronto" comes back with pages and pages of related tweets (you have to tolerate many spammers' tweets though - one problem Twitter is wrestling with). A Google news search for "U2 in Toronto" gave up about 62 results, many of major media outlets that covered the concert. Similarly if you search for "Maple Leafs" or "Bruins" you will get many hits. And the Toronto International Film Festival? Well I'll save you the time you could spend on searches about TIFF. TIFF is the single Canadian event (cultural or otherwise) that towers among any other in media coverage. Two years ago a study was mentioned in the Toronto Star revealed that TIFF is by far more covered by the media than Bay Street and it's light years ahead of any other Canadian event ( a Google search for "Toronto International Film Festival" results in over 26 million hits).

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When you look at the three events mentioned in terms of the engines converational capital all three have elements of all or most of the engines. A tourism marketer cannot create this. One of the tourism marketer's many obvjectives (but one at the top of my list) should be to look for those brands, events, personalities or businesses that create conversational capital about their destinations, support them and find ways to be a participant in the conversations and use them in the destination's marketing initiatives.

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Regards (by the way, Bertrand Cesvet will be the opening keynote speaker at next year's Canada-e-Connect conference in Montreal).

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

The 850 Race a crazy endeavour for a great cause. Support it.

The impact of Canada's imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors in the middle of July has taken most of my time in recent weeks. It's been a very challenging summer to say the least. But I am an optimist and an entrepreneur. I am looking at Spain to pick up some of the shortfall. But that's another post.

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Today I want to call your attention to a crazy but admirable idea, one of those that create conversational capital for a destination. One of my followers, whom I also follow on the micro-blogging service, is the eco lodge E'Terra Inn, an award winning eco friendly luxury estate in Ontario's Bruce Peninsula, by an "ancient coral reef known as the Niagara Escarpment next to the diamantine waters of Georgian Bay." E'Terra alerted me to the 850 Race, a fundraising event whose website introduces as follows: "Think about doing the impossible. Dream. Raise one million dollars to help kids in need. Impossible? How is this for impossible? Run a marathon. Run two marathons, back to back. No. That is not impossible. It may be painful. But not impossible. How about running two marathons a day for six days in a row? Starting to sound impossible? One last thing, let’s not do it on a road. Let’s do it off road on trails..." Now, I am a runner myself and would say have excercised regularly most of my life. I once ran the full Mexico City Marathon and in recent years I ran a half marathon at the Toronto Waterfron Marathon. I am aware of extreme sports and, of course we all know Terry Fox's story. But no matter how you spin it, running two marathons daily (84 kms) for six days does sound like an impossible (and dangerous) thing to attempt.

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The 850 Race is a project in support of the Global Child Health Program which is the collective strategy for SickKids and partners in developing nations to address the Millennium Development Goal #4 - Reduce Child Mortality. David Battison and Brian Culbert are the men behind the 850 race. David, a well known coach in skiing circles, and Brian, an avid cyclist, are both avid extreme sports practitioners. Not the leisure runs I take around my home or in parks and cities wherever I travel. No, these guys don't excercise for health or fun reasons. They like crazy challenges. Apparently on day they were talking about coming up with new challenges and making a "bucket list." One of the items of the list was to run the entire Bruce Trail. Ah, but this not being enough of a challenge they thought "why not make it a race...in six days!" (my quotes).

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And so David and Brian are running as I write this. I would have loved to at E'Terra near Tobermory this Friday to see them cross the finish line (thank you E'Terra for inviting me), but other commitments and my work precluded me from driving up there. Best of luck with your feet (and knees, and ankles, and backs) guys. Godspeed!

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Please visit the 850Race website and support this worthy cause. Follow the race on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/the850race. Visit E'Terra's website to learn about this unique Inn in the Province of Ontario.

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Jaime Horwitz

www.canadamigos.com

Twitter.com/jaimehorwitz

Gananoque, Ontario

beautiful, isn't it (read post below).

Jaime

Visiting Gananoque, the Gateway to the Thousand Islands

I am in Gananoque for a brief two day visit. I was invited by Kathy from Gananoque Boatline to spend some time here, attend a special event she organizes every year to show appreciation to partners and collaborators. It's been a very interesting visit where I've learned about some of the challenges the area faces as well as some of the opportunities Gananoque has to further develop their destination. I was surprised to learn that that no one in the area seems to have participated in the localsknow CTC campaign. One of the challenges, it seems, has been the timing which is understandable given the fact that the campaign has been put together in virtually no time so it may be that many inthe industry will not benefit directly from it. Today I played some golf with another visitor, a former Gananoque Boatline Captain, now town councillor, and the mayor. It was a lot of fun, but also very productive in terms of learning more about this beautiful part of the country. I hope to be able to work with tourism stakeholders to promote Gananoque as an overnight spot for Hispanic independent travellers in the future. Many Hispanic visitors stop here (or in Kingston) to take tours of the Thousand Islands, but they don't spend more time in the town. I think there is an opportunity to engage Hispanic travellers to Ontario and Quebec to stay longer by educating them in what they can do here in a 24 hour period.

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I am staying at the Gananoque Inn where Lori and her staff have been wonderful. I knew about the Gananoque Inn, but I have only been in Gananoque once before and only to take the cruise of the Thousand Islands. Lori and I had some good conversations and I am glad that she's interested in Hispanic tourists. The Gananoque Inn is ideal for a segment of the Hispanic travelling public that travels independently and wants to see and experience authentic Canadian experiences (small families, couples, honeymooners). What we must do is communicate effectively to educate the market (not just Hispanic markets) as to what there is to do here. One way is to show them not just tell them, and by show I mean video, not just pictures. The Gananoque Inn is also an excellent option for small meetings (sales retreats, incentive meetings, board meetings). Hope to come back soon.

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Tonight I'll go on a Gananoque Boatline Drinks and Entertainment Cruise. Hope the weather cooperates as it did this morning when I played golf.

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Jaime Horwitz

Back to basics. Meet (or exceed) your customers/guests expectations.

A cool website can be a great marketing tool, but it can also create expectations. And marketers must make sure that those expectations are met (or exceeded). A recent travel experience reminded me of how important it is for businesses (tourism or otherwise) to manage customers' expectations. Last weekend I spent three days in beautiful Huron County in Western Ontario. My wife found the place where we stayed on the Web, but I had seen advertisements of Benmiller Inn before. The Benmiller Inn website indicates that the inn has been awarded a Four Diamond Award and that it belongs to Ontario's Finest Inns. The site and its content creates expectations in the mind of the consumer, and so it did in our minds. But when we got to our room the expectatons were not met. And our $200 dinner at the Inn's restaurant was a disappointment (except for the Carpaccio). My point here is not to criticize the Benmiller Inn, but rather to bring up the issue of creating and managing expectations. I must say here, that the Benmiller Inn was responsive to our comments. Kathy, at the front desk was very understanding in listening to our observations and conveyed them to the Innkeeper. The next day she came and found us and told us that they wanted to upgrade us to a larger room, which we accepted. The room was much better and looked more like the rooms pictured on the website.

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In the past, when customers' expectations were not met by a business (or product or brand), people had very few, if any, avenues to express their disappointment or complaints. But today, as most of us know now, people can Twitter, blog, write on their Facebook wall or their friend's walls. They can write reviews on Tripadvisor and many other sites. Today a complaint can go viral and it can definitely affect the bottom line. So don't forget the basics. Your website should NOT be better than your core offering (in this case the Inn itself). Don't over promise because you will generate expectations you won't meet.

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The Benmiller Inn is a very good Inn in the very small town of Benmiller, Ontario. Some people may not like that it's right next to the road, but once you are in the Inn proper this should not be an issue. The few staff we encountered were very friendly and attentive (except our dinner waitress who seemed somewhat aloof). The first room we stayed at was fine but the air conditioning was not working and it was a bit run down - it did not look the rooms pictured in the website. The second room/suite they upgraded us to was excellent, though we did not spend much time in it. The elegant restaurant has a cozy atmosphere. When we had dinner on a Thursday evening there weren't many customers there (maybe two other tables), but we were looking forward to the meal. Our expectations were high based on the Inn's website. We were not expecting La Pinsonnière, but we were expecting a very good high-end meal. We did not have it. The first steak I ordered was overcooked, my wife's scallops were dry and our daughter's cornish hen was just OK (according to her, I did not try it). We only had two glasses of wine total and the bill came to $200 plus gratuity. Not a very expensive meal (La Pinsonnière can easily be double that), but not inexpensive either. The issue was not the money, but the expectations. The next day we had lunch at the Corner Cafe in Blyth, a local diner in that charming Ontario town. Being a diner kind of place The sandwiches were great and the fries excellent our expectations were very low (sandwiches cost about $4). But we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch. Our expectations were exceeded. (I had a Denver, my wife had a Club and our daughter had chicken). So given, these two experiences, we have decided that next time we're in the area, we'll eat at the Corner Cafe and not at the Inn.

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In conclusion, with all the talk about digital marketing and edistribution, Twitter, blogging, Social Media, Mobile marketing, etc., etc., we may forget that the first order of business is to remember what our core offering is and to deliver accordingly. What is the core competency of the business? What is the business', brand's promise? Get back to basics and be mindful of what kind of expectations you are creating in the mind of your prospective guests/customers.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Canada's "First Light" 1626-A Christmas Past Midland Ontario

Historic Huronia.................November 21, 2008. Now in its ninth year the famous “First Light” event at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons will be presented with a wonderful array of fun and festive activities amidst the magical glow of over 2,000 candles. The weekend celebration takes place December 4, 5, 6 from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Admission is $5. per person with a non-perishable food item that will be donated to the Salvation Army’s food bank. Children aged 5 and under are free. Visitors wanting to stay overnight can book The Enchanting Getaway Package which includes an overnight stay at Midland's Best Western Highland Inn and Conference Centre, admission to 'First Light', dinner, breakfast, and a special Christmas drink. Package rates start at $92, per person, plus applicable taxes. Additional accommodation is available at Comfort Inn Midland and The Inn at Christie's Mill Port Severn.

“First Light” includes lots of programming enjoyed by families. Children can make their own Christmas cards with quill pens and try their hand at candle making. Local French group La Clé d’la Baie, The Métis Nation of Ontario, and Discovery Harbour will all offer special “hands-on” crafts. The sights and smells of baked goods will once again fill the cookhouse as chef Jesse Ford presents an impressive display of tasty Christmas treats inspired by 17th century ingredients and recipes. A fascinating historic encampment will be set up at Sainte-Marie’s front entrance by the popular “Survival In The Bush” group, and La Compagnie Franche de la Marine will be on-site displaying their colourful uniforms, demonstrating historic musket drill, and serving hot chocolate.

This year’s musical line-up will sure to delight visitors, with talented performers filling the historic site with seasonal and heritage music. New to First Light this year and known across Ontario is the popular Blue Wolf and the Aboriginal Officers who will perform traditional drumming. A crowd favourite, Aboriginal singing and drumming will also be done by The Jock Family and The Christian Island Native Drum Group performing in Sainte-Marie’s atmospheric longhouses. All three drum groups will perform each evening. Franco-Ontarian folksongs will fill the Chapel once again with Michel Payment, including his stirring rendition of The Huron Carol. Nathaniel Rice will perform folk music and children’s songs and Katy Austin will offer traditional melodies in English and French. The French Café at Restaurant Sainte-Marie features lively performances by La Famille Lefaive all three evenings. Enjoy the OPP Chorus on Saturday evening, December 6. Numerous community and school choirs will also be performing over the three evenings.

The Huron Carol is believed to have been written by Father Jean de Brébeuf who lived at Sainte-Marie in 1643. A special exhibit in the Sainte-Marie museum focuses on this famous carol.

For those interested in a little shopping, 20 exceptional artisans will be in the Sainte-Marie museum, and the themed Sainte-Marie gift shop is open each night. Downtown Midland celebrates the Christmas season with a variety of shopping opportunities, contests, and festival activities.

Considered to be one of Canada's most significant historical destinations, the Southern Georgian Bay area welcomed Samuel de Champlain in 1615. Located just 90 minutes north of Toronto via Highway 400 north to Highway 93 or Highway 12.
See Google Map for precise location.

Special Notes: Please be advised that with the exception of assist dogs, dogs are not allowed on the historic site for this event. Overflow parking will be available at Doral Industries, 100 Wye Valley Road. Free shuttle buses will run to Sainte-Marie throughout each evening.

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For Information on Midland and Southern Georgian Bay Contact
info@sgbchamber.ca
Tel: (705) 526-7884

For Information on Sainte-Marie among the Hurons contact Huronia Historical Parks:
Bill Brodeur (705) 528-7692

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Presentations from the Ontario Tourism Marketing Summit Available.

If you were not able to attend the Ontario Tourism Marketing Summit event this year, you can take a look at the presentations by visiting the OTMP's Summit webpage. Given the economic situation around the world, I particularly recommend taking a look at Warren Jestin, Senior VP & Chief Economist, Scotiabank's presentation, Ontario Tourism - Don't Expect a Return to Business as Usual

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Regards,

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Jaime

Time for the cottage and no World Wide Web for a Week

I will be away for the following week resting by a beautiful lake in Muskoka, Ontario. No emails, no websites, no Facebooks, no Canadamigos.com, no blogging. Just an old fashioned hardcover (The Bourne Sanction, if you want to know), a canoe, and the family. Hope you are having as great a summer as I am.
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I will be back blogging away after August 10th.

Cheers,
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Jaime

A world class Week this week in Toronto

Beckham, Nadal, Federer, Djocovic, Weir, Furyk, the Mariners, the Blue Jays and the Eagles. If you don't recognize any of these names it is amazing that you have access to the Internet. But you probably recognize most of them. Beckham, of course is the David Beckham formerly of the Real Madrid now of the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer club, Federer is Roger Federer and Nadal is Rafael Nadal, the number 1 and 2 tenis players in the world. Novak Djocovic is the number 3. Mike Weir is Canada's best golf player playing at the 100th edition of the Canadian Open Golf Tournament. The American Jim Furyk is the current champion and the favourite to win again. The Mariners and Blue Jays are of course major league baseball teams. The Eagles are not the NFL football team but rather the pop rock band now on a reunion tour. All of these guys are or were in Toronto this week (Federer, for example was eliminated in the first round of the tenis tourney).
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With all of this and more going on in Toronto this week it would be hard to argue that Toronto is not a world class city. In the last 20 or so years Toronto has transformed itself into one of the most creative and happening cities in the world even though it's not recognized as such just yet. No matter, it will. Now for an encore, what's happening in August before the one of the biggest events of the year in September, the Toronto International Film Festival? Stay tuned. In the meantime I will get ready to go to the Rogers Cup tenis final on Sunday hoping to see Rafael Nadal win the title.

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Saludos,

Jaime

www.torontoenespanol.com
www.canadamigos.com

The Ottawa International Airport will reduce its airline fees. Good for them.

Just announced today - as reported by the Globe and Mail. Ottawa International Airport Authority and its president and CEO, Paul Benoit announced that the Ottawa International Airport Authority is trimming general terminal fees charged to airlines by 5 per cent. While not much in the way of savings, it is nevertheless a great gesture on the part of the airport. It reflects an understanding not only of the airlines' predicament given the soaring cost of fuel but also the concerns of the tourism industry. All Canadian airports should follow suit and the Federal Government should match the reductions with a further 5%. The Canadian tourism industry is facing tremendous challenges going forward and it needs help. Manufacturing is not the only sector being hit by high oil prices and stiff foreign competition.

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Kudos to Mr. Benoit!

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Jaime Horwitz

www.canadaenespanol.ca

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There's No Place Like This. Great discoveries in Ontario

I am a Canadian tourism professional in the communications and eMarketing sector of the industry. I am also some a sort of professional tourist since I moved to this country almost 20 years ago settling in Toronto. I travel around Canada for business and for pleasure. For business I always look for spots that can attract the Mexican, Latin American and Spanish visitors. For pleasure I just travel to see as much of Canada as possible. I have travelled to every area of the country, and yet, every once in a while I am reminded of how much I can still discover. Our country is so immense that even travelling full time would take a very long time to see it all.

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Thanks to my daughter I discovered an area of Canada right in my neighbourhood so to speak. Not three hours away from home driving WEST I discovered Huron County and Ontario's West Coast. My daughter is an avid singer and my wife and I support her aspirations, so when she has an opportunity to sing we do our best to help her (she's 14). This past weekend, in the context of the Blythe Theatre Festival, she participated in Ontario's Country Singing Competition. This meant we had to go and stay in the area for a couple of nights. We found a hotel (through Google and Google Maps of all sites). The Bedford Hotel (formerly the Albion) in Goderich is an impressive building in the town's square (also impressive) that dates back to the 1890's. The rates were very reasonable and the staff very friendly. Mind you at night it was a bit noisy for our taste (a bride and groom party) and in the mornings the staff begins work early (rooms are not quite sound proof). Staying in Goderich was serendipitous because we could not find suitable accommodations in Blythe proper. But it turned out to be the best because we were 20 minutes away from Blythe and we had a beautiful town to go for a walk (Goderich's slogan is "the prettiest town in Canada" something that would be very debatable. I personally think it would be impossible to determine the prettiest town in Canada - what about Baddeck, N.S.; Canton-de-Hatley, Quebec; Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont; Banff, Alberta; Lunenberg, N.S.; Canmore, Alberta, Tremblant, QC, and many others).

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While we were in Goderich we had fantastic weather if only a bit chilly, but with sunny blue skies. We went exploring on Highway 21 down to Grand Bend a town with a fantastic beach (all these years living in Toronto and I did not know about it - it shows you how limited marketing can be). Grand Bend is a young town meaning it seems to cater mostly to the young or to young families. The lake is so beautiful that one can take a photograph and fool someone by telling them it was taken in the Caribbean. We had lunch in Grand Bend at a local burger joint and the food was quite good for the money.

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We also stopped in Bayfield, a much more upscale town than Grand Bend, also on Highway 21 not far from Goderich. Bayfield has beautiful homes by the lake and a beautiful main street reminiscent of Niagara-on-the-Lake, with quaint stores, bakeries, and restaurants. My wife and I decided that when we visit the area again we might stay in there. We very much enjoyed the drive and the exploring (in my native Mexico, when I was a kid, we used to call it "pasear en coche" and it was always a treat). To me (a hard core city boy), visiting these towns and driving by the numerous bucolic farms - seeing the young calves and foals amid green fields - was like going back in time or entering some kind of movie. The feeling of peace, beauty and tranquility of small town life in the towns we saw was quite invigorating. So, one thing we realized is that we may want to do more of these outings in the future, just a couple of days to explore some new town nearby (I think within 2 to 3 hours from Toronto - perhaps Bruce County since I have not visited Sauble beach). . In July we will be doing just that on our way to Quebec City to take part in the 400th Anniversary celebrations. We plan to drive from Toronto to Quebec taking the Chemin du Roy from Montreal. I am sure we will find many beautiful small towns there too. Because, after all and even though it's Ontario's marketing phrase (and anthem), I believe it can apply to all of Canada: There's No Place Like This.

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Regards,

Jaime

www.canadaenespanol.ca

www.ontarioenespanol.ca


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Dog Sledding--The Perfect Canadian Metaphor?

Long Tail Tourism--Economics gives us reason to speculate! Rick Mercers entree into the world of sled dog racing or dog sledding in the Haliburton Highlands gives new meaning to chasing the long tail. I will let the reader expand on this? However for those who are avid and passionate Canadians and love our winters, or are just curious, you will be asking"Where is Haliburton Ontario?" (Please Note--only one "el")

The Haliburton Higlands are a little east of Muskoka, above the Kawarthas, West of the Ottawa Valley borders on and includes a bit of Algonquin Park to the North.

For more information on the Haliburton Highlands see Haliburton, and Minden.

See dog sledding getaways and discover the excitement of a dog sledding experience in Ontario.

Photo by R.Taylor--Halburton Dog Sled Races