WE'RE ANOTHER WORLD - RIGHT NEXT DOOR.

Why does this country languish behind so badly in tourism? We have a current travel deficit of over $12 billion, nearly ten times what it was just eight years ago. Is it because we are forever perceived as very polite and very dull? Is it because we are perceived as the frozen north under ice ten months of the year? Is it because we think hockey is the most important sport? Is it because it is expensive and not worth the price?

All of the above.

Maybe it’s time we stopped apologizing. Maybe it’s time Canadians stopped feeling left out. Maybe it’s time we took hold of our tourism business and stopped living in a world of beautiful mountains; of a world that perceived us as beautiful Vancouver and foreign slightly exotic Quebec City. I believe our tourism promoters have done a bad job. Not a bad job of publicizing the country and its virtues scenic, creative, and artistic, but because they have not persuaded Canadian attractions to put themselves on sale.

A recent article about our sagging tourism began with the all-too-familiar plaint:
“Despite a post-Olympic surge of overseas visitors, Canada is still lagging as a tourist attraction.” I could sum it all up with: “Visiting Canada just isn’t sexy.” “Visiting Canada doesn’t make your blood run hot and your psyche explode.” No matter how hard we try we simply have not become a destination. And I blame our own people as much as anyone.

Explanation. I am a home exchanger. Through as company called” Home Link” I advertise my Toronto home asking people from other countries to exchange with me. I am almost a one-man band trumpeting the virtues of the country and of my city. I solicit exchanges. People who live in New York or Paris don’t have to. They just list their home and the offers pour in. We will never rival Paris which is hands-down the world’s most popular tourist destination, More than two billion visitors a year! Why? Certainly not because Paris is a bargain? Certainly not because all the French are smilingly welcoming. But even Paris suffers from the classic tourism problem: there are too many short-stay visitors. They “do” the city in two days, rushing from the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe taking pictures and then getting back on the bus. They don’t really “visit.” I have been to Venice three times. Each times I stayed for at least two weeks. What is the biggest problem Venice has? Most of the visitors are day-trippers. Thousands arrive by bus, visit St, Mark’s, feed the pigeons, throw trash in the lagoon, and get back on the bus. The other classic day-trippers come off a cruise ship that will disgorge several thousand ravening picture-takers who spend the day rushing from sight to sight.

Therein I think, lies the biggest problem with tourism: the absence of the long stay. Of course, the other kind of tourism, the R&R lying on a beach enjoying a one week package that includes palm trees, rum drinks, and snorkeling – but not much more – dominates so much of tourism. The “package” where you get it all: air fare, hotel, meals, and protection from having to mingle with the local population, that’s a huge winner.

So here I go again: blaming the tourists for tourism. It’s totally unproductive. What works best is boosterism – our own belief that where we live its worth visiting. (A sober reflection: when I tell people I am exchanging with – say – someone in Paris – they comment with a sneer” Who wants to visit Toronto?”) Believe me, the visitors I have persuaded to exchange with me have loved the city, the nearby attractions and the people. I walk them to the awesome Calatrava atrium in Brookfield centre. I walk them to the magnificence of the Frank Gehry designed Art Gallery of Ontario. One California visitor was awestruck. She said: “Art lovers in other places like New York and L.A. should discover the wonderful Canadian art. It’s too well-kept a secret.”
Another visitor from Mexico, exulted in a trip to nearby St. Jacob’s where art and artisans are everywhere.

I become exhausted being a booster. Somehow our tourism people are not breathlessly exuberant enough. And we have never, that I know of, every created a Canada “package.”

I can’t stop winter-weary Canadians from hitting the palm-fringed beaches. They will always flee the winter. But sometimes. what we consider a liability visitors might consider a virtue. If only we’d stop and think about it.