‘Right product … right audience’

Tourism in Manitoba may be set for a comeback after last summer’s destructive wildfire season, as marketing for spring and summer excursionists begins targeting cities across North America.

A new $1.35 million marketing campaign from Travel Manitoba will launch in other Canadian provinces, North Dakota and U.S. cities with direct flights to Winnipeg.

The commercials and ads will air on streaming services, network television, movie theatres, social media, radio and in newspapers.

Along with focusing on outdoor experiences, Indigenous cultural events and connecting with the land in Manitoba, the messages will also hopefully bring new eyes to industries that were impacted by last year’s wildfire season, said Cody Chomiak, Travel Manitoba vice-president of marketing.

“We want to be very mindful that we recognize the challenges of last season and last summer, and in fact, we’re currently developing our upcoming campaign really around this resilience, and we want to make sure that we’re making sure to promote those businesses that were affected by the wildfires last year,” he said Monday.

In November, Travel Manitoba president Colin Ferguson warned the 2025 wildfire season could have struck a blow to the province’s tourism sector, which had hit a record-high $1.89 billion in spending in 2024.

The exact spending numbers for 2025 won’t be available until this fall.

Poll data shows more Canadians are looking to travel this summer. According to numbers polling group Leger published this month, 55 per cent of Canadians plan to take a trip between March and June, compared to 48 per cent last summer and 46 per cent in spring 2024.

Interest in domestic travel continues to grow, largely driven by political tensions and tariffs. Sixty-seven per cent of those polled said they plan to travel within Canada, compared to 49 per cent last year.

Only 14 per cent said they plan to visit the United States.

Part of capitalizing on that interest has been making sure ads are fine-tuned based on what people in different cities are looking for, Chomiak said.

“When we’re targeting somebody in the Minnesota area, and we’re showcasing those amazing fly-in fishing resorts in the summer, that’s a huge opportunity for us. When it’s L.A., we’re looking at targeting those northern lights, beluga whales, polar bears, (that) Winnipeg is a world-class city, we have the Canadian Museum for Human Rights,” he said.

“It’s really making sure that you’re matching the right product with the right audience.”

The Crown corporation hopes to see Manitoba hit $3 billion in annual visitor spending by 2030. With renewed interest in travel, hitting the $2 billion mark is in sight, said Chomiak.

For Pit Turenne, co-owner of Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge, a difficult 2025 summer season plagued by wildfires has led to what he expects will be one of the busiest summers in the fly-in fishing lodge’s last 30 years.

“Everything burnt last year around us — it was our turn in the in the cauldron, I guess. But, for us, from the ashes rises the phoenix, and all those people that couldn’t come last year are now jammed into bookings that were already pretty strong for this year,” he said.

Turenne compared it to the rush at the lodge after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted and bookings exploded.

Around 55 per cent of its clientele comes from the U.S. — unlike many fly-in lodges, where nearly all their customers are American, he said — with most of the rest coming from the Prairies and Southern Ontario.

Turenne said he would like to diversify his business to entice markets outside of North America.

“We’re only starting into that world, so we don’t have many guests from overseas yet but, hopefully, we can diversify and have that as part of a part of the mix in 10 years.”

Meanwhile, a popular campaign last year that dubbed Winnipeg as the “middle child” of Canada is returning by popular demand.

It began as an April Fools’ Day 2025 blog post from Economic Development and Tourism — a cartoon mascot, drawn as an anthropomorphic outline of the city boundary named Winnifred, suggests the viewer visit “middle of nowhere” Winnipeg because, like a middle child, you can’t ignore it forever.

When it became clear Winnipeggers were tickled by the interpretation, they launched it as a real campaign across Canada, where it saw similar success.

“Outside of our province, it also resonated,” said vice-president of marketing, communication and corporate partnerships Kathy Tarrant.

“Folks were inquiring about it, capitalizing on it. People that had actually travelled here commented how it was, in fact, true that we are a warm, welcoming, fun city to spend a week or a weekend.”

After pausing the campaign during last year’s wildfires, Winnifred will return this year to Calgary and Regina markets, along with Fargo, N.D., and Minneapolis.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca