Travel Manitoba’s latest tourism campaign focuses on ‘heart’

Wildfires delayed Travel Manitoba’s latest tourism campaign — and now, regions affected by the summertime state of emergency have become an advertising focal point.

Whiteshell Provincial Park and northern Manitoba are among the places highlighted in the Crown corporation’s latest advertising push, titled “Travel with your heart in the right place.”

“We felt it wasn’t appropriate for us to be marketing to try to move people in and around those areas while the province was dealing with evacuations,” said Colin Ferguson, Travel Manitoba president. “Now, we’re seeing things starting to progress and ease off.”

On Tuesday, 5,665 wildfire evacuees occupied hotel rooms, including some 900 people in Ontario. The province’s state of emergency ended Aug. 22. Many northern Manitoba residents have yet to return home.

Travel Manitoba is surveying the damage to the province’s tourism sector.

“This campaign is really designed to reintroduce locals and visitors alike to the incredible, world-class experiences Manitoba has to offer,” Ferguson said.

Travel Manitoba is spending about $350,000 on the digital, print, radio and cinema advertisement rollout. Canadians throughout the country — including Manitoba residents — will be targeted, as will international locales.

“Any traffic is gonna help in the recovery,” said Pit Turenne, owner of Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge, a fly-in fishing spot 295 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

His lodge was closed July 9 through Aug. 11, affecting 245 bookings. Turenne has since counted upwards of 550 bookings for next year.

He has heard from potential customers worried they’d arrive at a barren wasteland post-fire. In reality, much of the lodge’s surroundings are green, Turenne said — he’d previously installed sprinklers and firefighting crews attended the site. (Some infrastructure, like sheds and picnic tables, burned and will need replacement.)

“This campaign is really designed to reintroduce locals and visitors alike to the incredible, world-class experiences Manitoba has to offer.”– Colin Ferguson, Travel Manitoba president

“The nice thing of this campaign … it’ll help answer the curiosity of ‘What does it look like?’” said Turenne, who’s a Travel Manitoba board member.

About three-quarters of the Manitoba Lodge and Outfitters Association’s 12 board members were impacted by wildfires and evacuations, said executive director Don Lamont.

Many of the association’s 67 members closed shop at for least a month — if they opened this summer at all, Lamont added. Prime fishing season runs from mid-May to mid-July, but lodges will see guests through October.

“You have losses, some of them over $1 million,” Lamont said.

Whiteshell Provincial Park is underscored in Travel Manitoba’s new campaign. The popular destination closed mid-May and reopened early June.

Locals are “ready” to welcome people back, said Caleigh Christie, co-owner of Falcon Trails Resort.

The Whiteshell-area business closed for six days in May, during a mandatory evacuation. Following that, nearby trail closures dented walk-in traffic to the resort’s café, Christie said.

The resort itself was untouched by flames. “The Whiteshell is a huge park,” Christie noted.

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Falcon Trails Resort has undergone changes over the past decade to make it more “wildfire smart,” she said: sprinklers were added, wood chip footpaths were converted to crushed granite.

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Across the province, lodges have implemented sprinkler systems and are increasingly removing dead vegetation and wood, Lamont said.

Travel Manitoba’s campaign launched Tuesday and will last through November. It includes road trip itineraries and planning resources on the Crown corporation’s website. It isn’t limited to wildfire-stricken areas.

Travel Manitoba will also launch a podcast called “Been There, Never Done That.” It tapped Virgin Radio personality Chrissy Troy to host the six-episode series, which includes interviews with Manitoba tourism operators. The show will be available on major streaming services starting Sept. 17.

Manitoba’s tourism industry annually generates around $1.82 billion in visitor spending.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com

Gabrielle Piché
Reporter

Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.

Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.