Rich, safe and quiet, Canada maybe an ideal destination for immigrants. But not for tourists who seek adventure and risks. With more people around the world visiting other countries, less are coming to Canada, according to a UN study recently released.

 

While the number of tourists traveling abroad is up 4.5 percent over the last year worldwide, Canada saw a 4.1 percent decline, said the annual study which was published Sunday from WTO headquarters in Madrid, according to Canadian media reports.

 

Besides the increasing costs in the country, "Canada is dull" remains an international perception, and the two factors combined to prevent tourists from coming, the reports cited WTO officials as saying.

 

John Kester, chief of the WTO market intelligence department that produces the annual study, said in an interview with the newspaper "Ottawa Citizen" that his teams of statistics gatherers are still telling him there remains an international perception that Canada is dull.

 

This is particularly detrimental, given more and more international travelers today are young people in search of risk and adventure, said Kester.

 

"We are finding that young people are driving the world tourism market, but the image Canada has might not appeal to them very much. It's seen as quiet, safe. I don't think many people think of Canada as a very exciting destination," he said.

 

What is encouraging is that Canadian tourism officials have been aware for some time that Canada has an "image" problem, and the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) is spending 75 million Canadian dollars (US$68 million) a year to improve it through its "Brand Canada" campaign.

 

The project involves advertising and encouraging overseas media to report on the joys of visiting the Great White North.

 

"We find that people feel very positively toward Canada as a country, but they don't necessarily know how they would translate that into a vacation experience," said Michele McKenzie, commission president and CEO.

 

"We're trying to put new images in people's minds of the types of experiences they can have in Canada, from dining to shopping to outdoors - the full range."

 

Some provinces are also pushing their own initiatives, with Alberta last spring having dispatched a posse of rope-tricking cowboys to the streets of New York to try to capitalize on the success of the movie "Brokeback Mountain", which was filmed in the province.

 

"We're expanding our public relations and awareness efforts because that still seems to be the biggest issue," said Don Boyton, spokesperson for Travel Alberta.

 

The campaign is producing desirable results, CTC officials said. The 18.6 million tourists who did visit Canada last year spent more money than the larger, earlier crowd, depositing a record US$18.4 billion.

 

The officials said they are confident that with the campaign and their concerted efforts, Canada is sure to become a tourism powerhouse. Because the country already has the products and the industry structures in place and what they need to do is only to talk the tourists into coming.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2006)