Duncan Dee: Minister's trip shines light on N.B. tourism woes

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Roundtrip airfare to London and Paris. Luxury hotel rooms at $600 and $800 dollars a night. Entrance tickets to the Palace at Versailles and the London Eye. An excursion to Windsor Castle. To many New Brunswickers, that may sound like a once in a lifetime luxury holiday few of them can readily afford. To New Brunswick Minister of Tourism, Tammy Scott-Wallace, her Deputy, Yennah Hurley, and two other tourism officials, it was a “business” trip to Europe to drum up interest in travel to the province.

If the cost of the trip has accomplished anything beyond providing fodder for the opposition in the Legislature, it is to finally shine a light on New Brunswick’s tourism sector and the missed opportunities it represents for the province.

It will come as no surprise to most that New Brunswick does a particularly poor job of promoting tourism to the province. There is a good reason why New Brunswick, despite being the only Atlantic province with direct road links to the huge American market and the rest of Canada has been known as the “drive thru province.” Sandwiched between tourism powerhouses like P.E.I. and Maine, New Brunswick has long failed to establish itself as more than a pitstop to most travelers headed to the rest of the Maritimes or points further west or south. It begs the question then that with such a captive audience driving through the province, why New Brunswick does such a poor job convincing more of them do more than just fill up their gas tanks.

Perhaps some of the answers can be found in the minister’s now much-lampooned European “working” vacation.

In defending the trip, Scott-Wallace highlighted the agreements signed with public relations firms and tour operators to promote New Brunswick in London and Paris. But as reported, the material produced was riddled with errors. From referring to Saint John as the provincial capital to featuring attractions which are no longer in operation, the material provides a window into just how sloppy, unserious and amateurish the Government of New Brunswick’s efforts to promote tourism have become.

In the travel trade, destinations often organize “familiarization” or “fam” trips to allow travel agencies, public relations, marketing, advertising firms, tour operators, the media and others to become better acquainted with the product they are selling, promoting or reporting about. Rather than organizing an excursion for four New Brunswick officials to visit France and the UK, would it not have been a better, more effective use of taxpayer dollars to bring the PR firms to New Brunswick so that they can actually experience what the province has to offer and, in doing so, avoid the mistakes made in the promotional material? If the minister and departmental officials feel the need to travel to study “best practices,” they might want to venture closer to home or at least select successful tourism destinations which are more comparable to New Brunswick’s tourism product.

One thing which the world’s successful travel and tourism destinations share is good transportation links. Whether it is London, Paris or New York, Punta Cana, Cancun or Fort Lauderdale, Maine, Mount Fuji or Tahiti, convenient and reliable access is key. Whether by road, rail, air or sea, tourism destinations that make it challenging for travellers to visit are rarely ever able to promote themselves toward success.

Yet how often do New Brunswick air travellers have to contend with missed connections, inconvenient flight schedules or few choices when travelling? Visitors are no less impacted by those travel challenges but unlike New Brunswickers, tourists have a choice and the province’s air access challenges make it extremely difficult for them to chose New Brunswick as a destination where they should spend their time and money.

While it would be easy to blame airlines for New Brunswick’s air access challenges, the province’s air transportation sector would be well-advised to consider their own roles in making air travel so difficult. The province’s air sector has generally looked for ways to facilitate travel out rather than bringing travellers in. One need look no further than the efforts undertaken by the airports to attract the non-stop flights to beach destinations during the winter months. While these charter flights are greeted with much excitement and fanfare, they don’t bring in a single tourist to the province. For air access to become a more effective tool in attracting more travellers to New Brunswick, major structural change is required.

There is no better illustration of this need than comments made last week by none other than the CEO of Westjet, Alexis von Honesbroech.

During an interview with CTV, von Honesbroech said: “Right now you are splitting the traffic across three different airports, and I understand why the cities want to have their own airport, but this also means that the demand is subcritical in all three of them to many destinations. Consolidating them all into one would certainly improve the connectivity for New Brunswick. On the other hand I fully understand why this is not happening at this point in time, but in the long run maybe there is an opportunity.”

If tourism officials are serious about improving New Brunswick’s tourism potential there is no need for them to venture too far away. There is plenty that needs fixing right here at home. They can start with a serious look at air access.

Duncan Dee is a former chief operating officer at Air Canada and a member of the panel appointed to review the Canada Transportation Act in 2016. A Brunswick News columnist, he resides in Grand-Barachois.