Tourism Tuscon
Tourism Tuscon
A new campaign tries to bring Arizonians to PG. David Eby is coming, too
Yesterday, I learned I can drive from my house to the Otway ski trails in less time than it takes to listen to Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now,” an all-time banger. Be well, Ms. Dion.
If you’re looking for some outdoor fun this weekend, the Hart Ski Hill is opening tomorrow and the cross-country conditions are the best yet this season. Oval’s open, as well!
Quick news:
Don’t forget to vote for the worst parking lot in Prince George (and the third place contest).
Prince George RCMP say the death of a person found in the Civic Plaza on Dec. 1 is no longer considered suspicious.
A lawsuit filed after a deadly fire at the Econo Lodge Motel is now a class action suit. Leonard Hay says no alarms went off and motel staff did not aid in evacuations and is suing for damages including lost properties and injuries. Three people died in the fire.
The city of Prince George is still trying to figure out who installed that hostile architecture downtown, apparently.
If you’re headed to Dawson Creek, be sure to check out the cow placenta art at the local cannabis shoop.
Here’s a grizzly bear checking out a trail cam in Fort St. James. Watch to the end.
David Eby is coming to town
Remember earlier this week when I said I lost track of a council debate over whether to invite new premier David Eby to Prince George or not? I guess those in favour of asking him to visit won out because Eby told MyPGNow he’s already accepted the invitiation (date tbd):
Eby was quite enthusiastic about the initiative shown by mayor Simon Yu and the council to sit down and make progress on our social issues.
“I am really looking forward to and am excited about the fact Prince George council has offered to take a leadership role on being a pilot site for public safety responses and building housing. I am keen to work with the new mayor and council to address these issues in Prince George.”
More on the city’s plans to be a pilot city here.
And so are the Tucsonians?
The Citizen reports that Tourism Prince George has launched a digital marketing campaign in Tucson, Arizona in an attempt to entice reverse-snowbirds to experience a “real Canadian winter.”
“(This is a) great opportunity for locals to escape the winter for a week, but also a great chance for Tourism PG to try and market to a new area of the United States,” Tourism Prince George CEO Colin Carson said in an email. “Yes, we currently have a digital marketing campaign live in Tucson. We're mostly targeting families and couples and pushing that they can experience a ‘real’ winter.”
I’m always chuffed to see mentions of Prince George appear in the wild (I was super excited whenever someone from another city tweeted about the Move Up Prince George marketing campaign that ran in major cities) so I wanted to see if I could see these ads for myself. I tried to use Meta’s ad library tool and it didn’t show me any active Tourism Prince George campaigns in the United States, and typing key words into an incognito Google search didn’t do anything, either.
Then I thought I’d try and see if I could find Tucson residents talking about having seen the campaign themselves. Nothing appeared on the Tucson subreddit and the local newspaper didn’t have much either — just a couple of line items about Flair Airlines launching direct flights from various Canadian cities, including Prince George (which is what has prompted Toursim PG to run this campaign in the first place).
But that at least did let me find this tweet from Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller, who wrote: “Tucson is finally getting international nonstop flights again. No, not to Hermosillo or Guadalajara or Los Cabos [all in Mexico], but to the Canadian towns of Lethbridge, Prince George and Fort McMurray,” followed by various Tuscon residents expressing disappointment/befuddlement about why they would want to go to small-town Canada.
But they don’t know what they’re missing! Maybe the campaign will convince some of them! Or maybe they’ll catch Meeting Mr. Christmas on the Chicken Soup for the Soul streaming TV service over the holidays and decide to check it out.
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