This Town Is Small — them that brought us Art in the Open and my studio-mates in the basement of the Reinventorium — have a new project, called Charlottetown Perspectives that, depending on your point of view, is either an exciting opportunity for culture sector involvement in tourism marketing or a complete cooptation of the culture sector by the tourismocrats. I go both ways.
But, it did get me thinking about how we market our city, which led me to make a submission, with the following “Description of Intent”:
Most tourism marketing is a collection of lies: a tale we tell tourists that reflects our perfect vision of how we want our city to be, not how it actually is.
In their heart-of-hearts, tourists know this, and so the matter of selecting a destination becomes a matter of sorting out one fake story from another. It’s a disheartening and deflating experience.
I’d like us to be honest about how things are in our marketing, and I think that honesty, because it is so uncommon, will make our marketing stand out from the crowd.
So I propose a series of advertisements centered around a simple index-card sized, letterpress-printed poster – Tourists Not Allowed In This Area – accompanied by supporting text that tells an honest story about our real relationship with tourists.
In addition to helping to pierce through the tourist marketing noise, I believe this approach will attract tourists who are actually interested in engaging with Charlottetown, not simply breezing through, resulting in a tourism economy far more reciprocal than the prostrative one we have built to date.
What is “culture,” at its core, more than the collective feeling of a population: culturally, Charlottetown citizens, outside of the tourism industry, grudgingly tolerate the presence of the yearly influx of tourists in our midst. We resent the clogged sidewalks and roads, yes, and we are, as all Islanders, suspicious of those from elsewhere, but perhaps the greatest cultural impact of the tourism industry is the tremendous stress of having affluent strangers relaxing in our midst when we’re working on the day-to- day stresses of feeding our families. We’re vaguely aware that someone is benefitting from the tourist economy, but also suspicious of their motivations and actions.
The people of Charlottetown do have tremendous capacity for generosity and kindness, but it’s a generosity that does not manifest easily nor at first glance: it’s something given only after an initiation, proof of commitment to and investment in a relationship. In the modern day “service economy” it is anathema. And yet is who we are.
I believe that if we are honest with the world about that, we will prosper, for it is an aspect of our culture that is deeply-ingrained and genuine, and it is that which, in a world increasingly disconnected and non-genuine, that travelers will increasing seek.
My entries were both built around the “Tourists Not Allowed in this Area” letterpress print I created last week during my “Type in the Open” letterpress studio open house, and they look like this:
The copy on the larger 11 x 8-1/2 inch ad reads:
Want to know a secret? We don’t really like tourists here in Charlottetown. Oh, sure, we’ll tolerate you. But combine our innate suspicion of anyone from “away” with the day-to-day annoyances of putting up with extra traffic and noise, and the simple stress of having so many people relaxing in our midst, and, well, don’t expect a big welcome.
But invest some time. Be patient, humble and curious. You’ll find that underneath that initial cold shoulder is a deep kindness and sense of community. The kind of thing you might have thought lost in this modern world. We’re hard to get to know, but when you do, believe me, it’s worth it. Come discover Charlottetown.
The copy on the smaller 11 x 3 inch ad is a cut-down variation of the same.
The original deadline for Charlottetown Perspectives was August 30th, but it’s been extended to September 30th; I’m quite excited to see what others come up with.
About This Blog
I am Peter Rukavina and this is my blog. I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.
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Comments
“Want to know a secret? We
“Want to know a secret? We don’t really like tourists here in Charlottetown. Oh, sure, we’ll tolerate you. But combine our innate suspicion of anyone from “away””
Um, what?
If you want to Bankrupt PEI,
If you want to Bankrupt PEI, this is surely the way forward!
Sorry Peter, I like you, but this (and your previous Tourism post a few days ago) will do nothing but harm the island.
PEI needs to warmly welcome people first, not after they’ve ‘earned’ it.
If you work for Disney as a
If you work for Disney as a character in costume at Disneyland you must never break character. So goes tourism marketing done by PEI - there is not enough sarcasm or irony to ever express dislike of tourists in a tourism industry contest. Maybe in Soho but Charlottetown is un-ironically quaint. Have you been reading Adbusters?
Thanks for your note, Lee
Thanks for your note, Lee.
Perhaps, vis a vis my causing harm to the Island, you might take some comfort from the fact that this project was Plan B.
Plan A was actually hanging the “Tourist Not Allowed In This Area” signs on telephone poles and bulletin boards around town.
I reasoned, however, that however useful this might be in causing us to collectively re-evaluate our relationship to the tourist economy, it would be unlikely to be seen in that light be, say, people in the tourist businesses behind the new signs. So, cooler heads prevailed, and I channelled the impulse into a less confrontational avenue ;-)
I really do believe that good comes from being honest about who and what you are, and that, in the end, PEI will never win the game of touristic storytelling, so we might as well get comfortable taking different tacks.
You are right about Disney,
You are right about Disney, of course. But I’m not sure that we should be optimizing our visitor experience with Disney in mind: I’m not convinced that the real PEI isn’t actually more compelling than the fake PEI.
And, for the record, I was being neither ironic nor sarcastic: I really do think everyday Islanders have a grudging acceptance, at best, for tourists, and I really do think there’s more value, in the end, from truly engaging with open-mind tourists rather than continue to trick the masses into thinking we’re a veritable Fantasyland.
As ads with the explanation
As ads with the explanation and photo of the sign, it’s compelling. If you had just put the signs up, I think it might have sent the same message as Beware of Dog signs: “Caution: Asshole Lives Here”.
Come to think of it, maybe we SHOULD make “Caution: Asshole Lives Here” signs.
So how does one do the
So how does one do the positive side of this?
How would an “average” tourist, who has heard from childhood of the romance of the Island, actually put into to practice the advice to be “be patient, humble and curious” while on a seven hour cruise stopover, knowing no one on the island?
“I really do believe that
“I really do believe that good comes from being honest about who and what you are, and that, in the end, PEI will never win the game of touristic storytelling, so we might as well get comfortable taking different tacks.”
This sort of catering to Island xenophobia is the sort of thing that had me leave the province in the first place.
Brilliant! I love it. Brutal
Brilliant! I love it. Brutal honesty is the best!
Perhaps it would be better to
Perhaps it would be better to change the culture instead? I’ve heard many stories of people ‘from away’ investing their life savings moving to PEI in search of a better life, starting businesses that failed not because they offered poor service or value, or were bad ideas - simply because they were run by people ‘from away’.
I fully appreciate that islanders want to protect the ‘way of life’, and I applaud that. However, by instantly freezing out everyone else, you risk everything - not least your own economy.
PEI offers some amazing opportunities, especially as we move toward an economy that allows people to work from anywhere. We now have the ability to move to PEI, enjoy everything that it has to offer and spend our income there without taking a job away from an islander. But, this culture of freezing out people ‘from away’ prevents that. The strange thing is, the very people that are most likely to ‘want’ to move to PEI, are the very people that are most likely to ‘want’ to be part of the community.
Peter,I like the audacity of
Peter,
I like the audacity of the idea but really disagree with the entire premise.
I think what you REALLY want is more tourists like you. A lot of the visitors to PEI want the “fake” tourism.
I think the inauthenticity that you critique is also an issue of scale and production. At the core of many of the fake things you despise is a nugget of true PEI. Once you have to do something 10 times a day, and for a thousand people, it starts to become less “real”. But the tourists don’t see it 10 times a day, they see it once, and love it. “Come All Ye” is a great example of this.
I also think tourism, largely the negative aspect of the word, sets the stage for a great treasure hunt. Many, many of our guests take great pleasure in figuring out which restaurants we (the locals) eat in, what beaches we frequent, and what we avoid like the plague during the summer months. The thrill of the hunt would be gone if all of the other touristy things were not in existence.
“We’re vaguely aware that someone is benefitting from the tourist economy, but also suspicious of their motivations and actions.” - That’s me. I benefit from it. As do thousands of others. And our motivations are the same as yours “we’re working on the day-to- day stresses of feeding our families”.
You should definitely start
You should definitely start “Pete’s Charlottetown”. A once-a-week tour that looks at Charlottetown through your eyes. Operate it as a “free tour”. I’d go!
It’s all very thought
It’s all very thought provoking Peter and I found it quite funny but I have to say, like Dan, I think your premise is wrong: I don’t believe “everyday Islanders have a grudging acceptance, at best, for tourists.”
I think everyday Islanders get quite excited about having all these strange seasonal visitors wandering around in our midst, presumably enjoying everything that we love so much. I think most Islanders have a great sense of pride that PEI is a place people want to visit. It’s a validation of our choice to live here. I have a grudging acceptance of winter, not tourists.
To me, what this is missing
To me, what this is missing is the compelling reason why Islanders are indeed “worth it.” A culture of people that not only embraces, but even celebrates, its hostility to outsiders really doesn’t instil a lot of confidence that there’s a reason to put the work in to getting to know them. Being secretly kind to people outside your normal social circle is not a unique characteristic, nor is it terribly pervasive in PEI.
To me, it’s replacing one lie with a lie that PEI residents are really “worth” the investment, moreso than any other place around. Most people who visit any tourist destination are there based on some stereotypes they’ve acquired, and bluntly reminding them that they’re not really welcome is a great way to ruin their day.
Wanting tourists who are there for an honest experience is kind of expecting a lot, given the locals are going to take some time to warm up and let you know what that honest experience even is.
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