Tourism - How Victoria Markets Itself

resurrecting a dormant thread...

I notice that Tourism Victoria is finally getting on board promoting Gay & Lesbian travel to the city, but unfortunately they really don't seem to have their heart into it.

Check out the plug on their website, it's as if it was written by a very uptight straight person, who was struggling to find the right words. They even spelled fabulous wrong. Gay and Lesbians never spell fabulous wrong :

Does your spine like to tingle? As British Columbia's Capital city, Victoria can do it all for you. Our gay-friendly city is alive with beautiful things - from gorgeous architecture to faboulous feasting to outdoor adventures and sensational spas. You can come come here to pamper, to play, to shop or to marry - Canada's progressive equal marriage laws give you something to think about. All the fun awaits you (and yours) in this beautiful setting. Come for some tingle as soon as you posssibly can.

I'm telling you, the people in charge at Tourism Victoria make us look bush league. :evil:

http://tourismvictor...tent/EN/387.asp

Come for some tingle?

Come for some tingle?

OMFG, that is so bad it physically hurts.

Victoria

Come for the beauty and culture,
stay for the tingle.



LORNE WHYTE

SEAL OF FABOULOUS APPROVAL

Tourism Victoria - Liking the Gays since 2006™

It's so poorly worded (even though I'm not expert!) in all regards!

"Our gay-friendly city is alive with beautiful things..."

Umm..ok, why not just say "Our gay-friendly city is alive with gorgeous architecture to fabulous feasting to outdoor adventures and sensational spas"

What about "or to marry - Canada's progressive equal marriage laws give you something to think about."

Something to think about?!?! Why not just say, "Plan your wedding in Victoria, the honeymoon capital of the West Coast"

Tourism Vancouver approach is rather matter of fact and not so uptight:

The largest gay population in Western Canada lives in this ocean-wrapped and snow-capped city. Its gay community is centred around two distinctly different neighbourhoods - the West End and Commercial Drive, both of which enjoy a wide variety of restaurants, coffee shops, pubs and boutiques catering to gays and lesbians.

and a good synopsis of Gay Pride Week:

It's not just a celebration for gays and lesbians. It's a celebration of diversity and anybody who shares the 'life is a cabaret' spirit will feel right at home! Parties, tea dances, cruises, a parade and a spectacular final event makes this an unforgettable celebration every summer.

Victoria

Come for the beauty and culture,
stay for the tingle.



LORNE WHYTE

SEAL OF FABOULOUS APPROVAL

Tourism Victoria - Liking the Gays since 2006™

ouch!! I don't think that image will last too long before a moderator pulls it!! Hey, wait a minute, I'm one of those dudes!

It's a legitimate product used by grownups who love each other. Perfectly healthy, perfectly natural. Besides, Lorne endorses it.

/\ good point. But, what if, and this is a big if...

Howard Dean was endorsing this product??

I got my mitts on the 2007 edition of Tourism Victoria's Official Vacation Guide ("Victoria: Full of Life") and also the 2007 edition of "Victoria - Visitor's Choice" (the one that's about the size of a TV Guide).

Anyway, I'm pleased to say that the Visitor's Choice guide now contains several establishing shots of the city core, so my beef from last year (see the first post in this thread) is moot. There's a sparkling downtown/inner harbour shot on the table of contents page and there's a daylight panorama of same that spans four pages (!) starting on page 106. The latter pic seems to have been taken from the Ocean Pointe Hotel; the first spread begins with the Johnson Street Bridge on the left side and ends with the Regent Hotel on the right (page 106-107); flip the page and the second spread begins with the Regent Hotel on the left side and ends with the Empress/QV Hotel on the right (page 108-109).

Thank you, Visitor's Choice, for finally showing people what the city of Victoria actually looks like! Very nice!

Alas, the only establishing shot of downtown Victoria in Tourism Victoria's Official Guide is contained within an ad for Parkside Resort & Spa. It's an aerial pic, with the Chateau Victoria on the extreme left and the legislative buildings and the various Beacon Hill Park highrises on the right. Most of downtown is left out of the picture.

As usual, James Bay's notorious highrise apartment blocks are flaunted (even though tourists are supposed to be deathly afraid of ugly old highrises); on page 24 there's a nice glittery shot of illuminated rigging on vessels in the harbour, with the Fannin Building, Roberts and Orchard House, and the legislative building all lit up in the background.

On page 51 there's a pic of the harbour/downtown, taken from a room at the Laurel Point Inn. It would be a nice image of downtown except it's difficult to make out because the composition favours the contents of the hotel room in the foreground, not the city out the windows in the distance.

Some interesting excerpts from "Victoria - Visitor's Choice":

Considering that Victoria is approaching big-city size, it contains a remarkable number of green spaces.

It's been "approaching big-city size" forever, hasn't it?

Non-residents...sometimes smile at the region's multitude of municipal jurisdictions, a quilt of cities, towns, villages and districts that make up Greater Victoria.

I suggest the tourism people should drop this clumsy angle. I can't imagine in a million years why any tourist would bother pondering the fractured political scene in Greater Victoria. Heck, I can't imagine in a million years how any tourist would even learn of the fractured political scene in Greater Victoria. To them, Victoria's various neighbourhoods would just be neighbourhoods. There's no need to confuse outsiders with our bizarre local political entanglements.

No one would confuse Oak Bay's main street, with its echoes of Olde England, with edgy James Bay or laid-back, nautical Sidney.

Methinks we're stretching credulity a bit here.

Victoria is...a walker's dream. Where else in Canada can one step outside the door at any time of year and walk to the ocean, hike parks, ramble along beaches, or stroll downtown for that matter?

Hmm. Let me think. Is there another Canadian city that fits the bill? I feel like there is, but I just can't put my finger on it. V... V...

Here's an interesting description of Saanich:

Saanich is a study in contrasts...neighbourhood village centres vie for customers with upmarket shopping centres.

And of Sidney:

Although not old by eastern Canadian standards, Sidney has preserved its 150 years of heritage...

A former writing instructor would have told me, "Don't lead with a negative." This is Sidney's sales pitch, for crying out loud! What possible relevance could these supposed "eastern Canadian standards" have? Did misinformed history buffs from Halifax come in on a package tour and raise a stink or something? If not, do you really need a preemptive disclaimer?

ANYWAY, I'm just being a jerk for the most part. I think these publications get a bit better with each passing year, which is good.

Good points! I love reading what we are telling others about Victoria. I question whether Sidney is 150 years old though.

The last 2 trips home on the 75 bus Iv'e run into tourists looking at our little tourism map of downtown and trying to figure out where they are. I'd always pipe in to help because i LOVE helping tourists. They always seem shocked that the city and island are so huge (think it's some english style village with a nearby famous garden). When they get into view of downtown they gasp and say something about how if they knew it was a real place, they'd stay longer. Then in a panick they point to the various tacky tourist ads around the map and ask which ones are worth going to since they only have the evening or an over-night stay.

Tourists I talk to all around town often have the same story. They are either repeat customers coming back because they love the place, or people upset that they didn't know Victoria wasn't just a tourist trap but an actual destination to visit, and a BIG place. They ask how far the walk to buchart gardens or Sidney is.

How about we start marketing our selves as an awesome city that has some popular tourist attractions, rather than a clump of tourist attractions but no city! Don't look behind the curtain!!! Those buildings don't exist!! DON"T LOOK OH GOD THE SHAME OF BEING A CITY!!!!

I think it all stems back to our wierd self-hate. No one could enjoy the city, so lets minimize it and give up on trying to make it better lest we make our failure more noticeable. Pretend it's a wax museum and the empress and a bunch of cottages and nothing more to see.

Well, we're getting what our advertising dollars have been paying for. Tourists popping over for very short trips thinking Victoria is nothing more than a quaint tourist trap with nothing more to offer.

I think I like this summary of Victoria from http://www.10best.com (even if a hundred other cities make the same dubious claim about the number of restaurants per capita):

Founded as a Hudson's Bay Company fort in 1843, the city was named in honor of Queen Victoria. Much of Victoria's British-influenced charm remains, thanks to an abundance of old Victorian homes, cricket fields and pubs. The tradition of afternoon tea is still alive and well in Victoria, although the city is anything but stodgy. It's a food city, with hip bistros on every corner, and some of the West Coast's most innovative cuisine. In fact, Victoria boasts the second highest number of restaurants per capita in North America (San Francisco is #1). Victorians are passionate about their city, and many cite the excellent climate as the reason. Mild year-round temperatures allow residents to get out and hike, kayak and picnic in the parks, harbours and gardens that surround them.

Is it just me or are there way more pubs now than there ever were? I don't think it's accurate at all to claim the bar scene is somehow the inevitable product of old British influence.

This site classifies Victoria's old town as a "region, quarter of a major city":

http://www.planetwar... ... -bcvco.htm

Somebody should tell them that a) it's a stretch to claim Douglas Street is part of the old town these days, and b) Douglas Street has not yet been "painstakingly renovated and restored" (not by a long shot!)

Also, I'm pretty sure the Johnson Street bridge would not be classified as a suspension bridge.

Otherwise, I give their summary a thumbs up.

Douglas Street has not yet been "painstakingly renovated and restored" (not by a long shot!)

You haven't seen the new Mountain Dew Frosters posters in the windows of Mac's. Now I walk down Douglas Street and I don't know whether I'm on Fifth Avenue or the Champs-Elysées.

And the Johnson St. bridge is a [url=http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/departments_engroads_johnsonhistory.shtml:ff73b]bascule[/url:ff73b] bridge.

We are #1 in Canada for hipsters.

 

https://www.movehub....-hipster-index/

We're #1 for useless, unsubstantiated promotional indexes.

We are #1 in Canada for hipsters...

1) Quel surprise
2) C'est une bonne chose?

San Francisco tourism boss claims crisis: city depends on tourism revenue but tourists say they can't come back until city is cleaned up:

 

 

Also, paying for shelters and supportive housing, teams to coax the homeless inside, and drug, alcohol and mental health services costs a lot of money. And who brings in the biggest pot? Yep, the tourists and conventioneers. They spend $9 billion in San Francisco every year, $725 million of which goes to City Hall in the form of taxes.

Third, too many San Franciscans conflate homelessness and street crime, which is inaccurate and unhelpful. It isn’t and shouldn’t be a crime to be homeless. These people need our help. But that doesn’t mean street crime — such as bicycle chop shops, theft, drug dealing and harassing pedestrians — is OK.

 

https://www.sfchroni...m_medium=social

Liberalism with a big L.