Canadian capital cities as tourism vehicles

Photo: CCCO
Participants at the 2006 AGM of the Canadian Capital Cities Organization in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

(Originally published in TOURISM)

Almost since their inception, Canadian capital cities have tried to serve as windows to the tourism character of their host provinces and territories. At the Canadian Capital Cities Organization annual meeting in September, Canada's 14 capital cities explored the ways in which they help enhance much broader tourism images than their own.

TOURISM asked three capital city representatives in Québec City, Yellowknife and Victoria, for their views on how they foster development in our industry.

Denis Angers is with Québec’s Commission de la capitale nationale. “Obviously, in capital cities, special efforts are made to beautify the urban environment and to endow cities with a capital city signature. On that level," he notes, "capital status adds value to the city. Visitors go to capital cities not only because they are reputed to be beautiful and welcoming, but also because of the learning opportunities they offer. They are a place for debate and dialogue. They are not only the seat of government, but also a place where institutions of significance are located, where there are many monuments and relevant ‘touchstones’ for a society. Through the work we have done with the CCCO in the last 12 years, we have tried to be both a mirror and window: a mirror in the sense that people must recognize themselves in their capital cities, and a window for how visitors from outside will see, in our capital cities, a glimpse of the best our societies have to offer.”

Angers foresees emerging opportunities for cities like Québec in the post‑9/11 tourism world. “We have to find new travel motivators,” he says. “Perhaps we should put renewed emphasis on how we cater to our own citizens first, and put aside some of traditional rivalries that exists between regions of eastern and western Canada. Beyond those rivalries, there is much more that unites us, in our legislative assemblies and the values they uphold, in the built heritage that is preserved in our government buildings, and in how capital cities harken back to the roots of the societies that have borne them. I disagree with the view that politics and political systems are repulsive to everyone; in the minds of many visitors, the chance to be exposed to political systems and institutions contributes to the attractiveness of capital cities as tourism destinations."

Ray Parks is the CEO of British Columbia’s Provincial Capital Commission in Victoria. He echoes his colleague’s comments: “There is a great relationship between tourism and the notion of a capital city, and we are responsible for taking that notion and connecting it with the people of the province. For us, Victoria is the place where those iconic features like the seat of democracy, the Crystal Garden and the provincial museum (representing parts of the rest of the province) exist together. What we talk about mostly is the functionality of citizenship – civic responsibility and civic pride. It is that spirit which emanates from the provincial capital. It is that same spirit which emanated from here 100 years ago during the gold rush, when people set out from (many different places) to accomplish great things throughout the province. This spirit generates the notion of accomplishment and gives us the very intangible but also very real notion of provincial pride. The fact is, those items become the best stories you could ever tell about this province or any province, capital or territory, because they are what makes up the essence of the place.”

When Peter Neugebauer looks at his capital city, his perspective is just as solidly rooted in common sense. He is the director of economic development for Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories: “If you look at a map, you will see that – in the geography of the Northwest Territories – Yellowknife is at the end of the road. Yellowknife has the weight of being a population service centre for about 20,000 people, and it represents almost half of the population of the territories. Our airport is very active, with jets coming in daily from Edmonton, Calgary, or the Eastern Arctic. Yellowknife is the gateway to outdoor adventure activities and the barren grounds, for sports fishing, caribou hunting, diamond mining industries, and the proposed Mackenzie valley oil and gas activity. With 75% of the people in the territories coming to Yellowknife, what a wonderful opportunity to encourage them to travel on!

“The world initially focuses on this capital city. I often refer to being a capital city as a capital curse; it is a two‑edged sword because everyone loves to hate the capital! ‘Yellowknife gets everything’ is the perception. Yellowknife is in an ideal position to utilize a hub and spoke theory of program delivery for visitors, delivering information to emphasize that Yellowknife is part of the North, that there is a lot more of the Northwest Territories to see. So if you are here in Yellowknife for pleasure or business, why don’t you take some time to visit other communities? It is hard to come across a situation where you have a more qualified market group; they have already decided to come to Yellowknife for one reason or the other. And you have them sitting on your lap!”

Of course, in Neugebauer’s world, small communities have even fewer tourism marketing dollars than many other places in Canada, so his seems like a sensible approach to make the best of a challenging situation. In the bigger picture, it might be worth pondering if we have not overlooked some of the advantages capital cities confer. There might be more untapped tourism marketing opportunities in using them than is commonly thought.