Serengeti, eh???

Hopefully not too many who have been to the Serengeti, or even just know in a bit more detail that the Serengeti has the most complex and least disturbed ecosystem on earth, will take this ad too literally.

Having said that, it is certainly a notion which we should be marketing more effectively and a bit more honestly while ensuring that we know where those Serengeti-like locations still are and that infrastructure is improved to support the type of tourists that such ads draw.

Hey we could have tours of the wildlife downtown on the weekends.The infrastucture is already in place. :)

Serengeti has fresh unpolluted air and no dead red trees. And probably zilch when it comes to rules and taxes. What's the connection?

I certainly hope this is the only comparison of Prince George to anywhere in Africa. Anywhere in Africa ain't doing too well these days.

Serengeti have a casino, railway museum and a half dozen Tim Hortons? Potholed trails in the Serengeti? Chief of the tribe unpopular as our chief? Serengeti a country, regional district, riding, province, town, village? Even an unincorporated village? Be specific. Betcha they don't even have a carbon tax yet. Too bad for them.

I thought the northern Rockies were the Serengeti of the north?

Posted by: Harbinger on June 21 2008 8:16 AM
"Serengeti has fresh unpolluted air and no dead red trees. And probably zilch when it comes to rules and taxes"
Ya, why try to promote PG when we could just 'roll over' and continually bitch about how bad it is here. If no one knows how bad it is they just have to ask the 5 or 6 regular posters from this site who are never happy about anything or anybody that might actually be a benefit to PG.

right on red2b!
Prince George has so much to offer, and what we take for granted others would love to share. They just need to be told its here! There are so many times I marvel at being able to see a moose near the university, a fox in my yard, bears migrating through, an osprey in the sky, bald eagles nesting!
Never mind B.C.,Prince George is "The Best Place on Earth!"
We have a great city and two beautiful rivers. I only wish we could keep this wonderful secret to ourselves, but that is not the case, so I will be proud to share my passion for this city, this region, with anyone who wants to visit!

Trudy, Maybe you could write the next adds for for the Airport Authority.

Cheers

I agree with Trudy. We also have some of the warmest, friendliest folks on earth here. I have yet to meet a visitor that hasn't walked away feeling good about PG.
Go read the news, turn on the tv, have a look at how some folks live then count your blessings that you are in PG.

When I am talking infrastructure, I am talking primarily infrasturcture around the City - that which is reachable by flying into PG and then fly or drive from there to somewhere within a 2 to 3 hour travel period .....

It would be nice to have a better looking downtown, but actually is not necessary for this purpose.

So, "adventure" for people with varying interest - the family type outdoor advetnure right through to the ardent outdoor individual.

Strider adventure to start off - I suspect there are not too many red trees in the Kakwa region to the east.

http://www.strideradventures.ca/photos/group.jpg

http://www.strideradventures.ca/index.html

The first obvious infrastructure improvement I can see there is to give Dan a bit of assitance to do a much improved web site and tie that in to a much improved PG Tourism web site which would create clusters of such existing infrastructure/services that can be linked to by Horizon air, so that people understand waht about PG is Sarangeti-liek.

Capice?

I agree, we do not need all these iditic negative posts. We need posts which identify what services we have available and the chalenge we have of ferretting these out, clustering them appropriately, developing a program for an outsider flying in to chose from, and then let poeple choose.

Remember, Horizon is flying in from Seattle, itself a gateway to an array of outdoor experiences in the immedate 2 to 3 hour travel range, including Alaska, the very airline that Horizon belongs to.

So ....... we need to differentiate ourselves and cause people to come here instead of all those other places people have to choose from.

Telling each other that this is a wonderful place doe not help. Putting yourself into the position of someone from Seattle hopping on a plane, or someone from Oklahoma hopping on a plane and having an activity plan for them here that will show them the Serengeti-like experience .... that, on the other hand, would be extremely helpful.

So, eagleone or others that understadn what I am trying to get at, jump in and lets put a week-long adventure together

1. river kayaking in wells gray and similar locations closer to pg

2. caving ... remmber we have well hidden caves around here that are being kept under wraps ...

3. horse riding in the rockies - McBride/Valemount?

4. hiking Mount Robson ....

5. summer uses of the various heli-skiing centres we have to the east - hiking the alpine plateaus.

6. paddling the Mcgregor river .....

come on, you can do it folks
:-)

While I am not sure about the serengeti bit, lol, it is a great campaign! This is a springboard for other local business to twin their advertising dollars with this endeavour! With tourism being our major industry, I think Horizon is wise to do this. The American will spend less money coming here than in Vancouver :)

I say it is a win-win for everybody!!

So if I was a tourist wanting to come to PG and accomplish the following, what business or who would I contact ?

I would like to stay at a Bed and Breakfast that is on a lake, has horse back riding near by. I would like to canoe on that lake. I would like a guided tour of sites of PG ( UNBC, Exploration Place and then the beer company ). Then I want to be taken on a tour to see some bears, then the damage this so called Mountain Pine Beetle has done, I hear out by Fort St. James it is bad and while I am there I want to visit the National Park. I have no vehicle and want to be given a tour.

Why bother trying to attract tourists if there is nothing for them to do when they get here. Build up the attractions and they will come on their own accord.

lunarbase, your on the money. All these nice people in PG are putting the cart before the horse. If this Horizon Airline is such a sure thing why hasnt someone started to provide the tourist attractions. The big problem is we need more tax dollars to set up all these tours that are in our area.

Noice folks dont cut it. Dont forget that there are also nice folks in the Seattle area. Talk is cheap.

Cheers

It just occured to me that from my perspective, I was looking at the benefit to me to get out of PG and use Horizon to travel outside of Canada. Hawaii, Mexico, Florida, Los Vegas, California, or the Bahamas. Cheaper, shorter and more direct flights to US destinations.

Never really thought about creating a market in this area for US travellors. Good post Lunarbase. Bridge, why would you expect more tax dollars to set up these tours? This is business, isn't it?

I agree with red2b and Trudy, the constant negative posters are really a downer to this site and to our fine community. Actually keeps me from advertising here. Chester

As lunarbase and Bridge have stated, and as I've always said as well, there needs to be a really good reason for people from Seattle or anywhere else, to come and visit here. Think about some of the big tourist atractions out there. Canada's Wonderland, West Edmonton Mall, numerous world class ski hills, just to name a few things.

If Prince George really wants to atract tourists, we need to come up with something here that THEY can't get where THEY live. I just don't think building or extending some trails, or a Performing Arts Center does the job.

Yes, money will have to be spent, investors will have to back it up, but it could happen. WHAT it would be, I don't know. But our lakes and ( red or dead ) forrests ( unfortunately ) aren't going to cut it.

Why would someone from Seattle or Vancouver or anywhere else come to PG for the wilderness when they can get it in a shorter travel distance like Kelowna or Nelson, or Creston. ( Just examples )

Again, as I've said before, why is someone not marketing Purden or Powder King better? These are amazing hills that could really atract people to the area if some money was spent.

Yes I understand that I make it all sound so easy, but these are simply some suggestions. Cheers folks.

The dinosaur bones discovered at Tumbler Ridge could generate a lot of interest, particularly amongst scientists.

Now you are starting to get the picture .....

We actually have SOME of the attractions here. What we do not have is a selection that is packable specific to an individual, a family, a group, a tour. Sort of like buying Chinese food .. combo A, combo B, combo C .... or select two from column A, 2 from column B, 1 from C ... etc. etc.

Once one does that, having a specific type of individual in mind one will begin to find strengths which will differentiate ourselves from others, and weaknesses, some of which will have to be corrected because they may cause many to stay away no matter how good the rest of the selection is.

That does not happen on its own. That takes a concerted effort, and so far I have seen no such effort. Everyone is on their own it appears.

Go to Tourism PG site for instance ... not a very userfreindly site ... pretend you are from Oslo ... from Amsterdam .. from Madrid .. and you want to fly into Edmonton, rent a car, travel to Vancouver .. fly back home ... you have two weeks ... you have been to Canada before and have done the southern route .... how much time should I spend in PG for my wife and 11 year old child ....

Great debate everyone...
The problem with most people is they seem to think there is only one type of tourist.
The P.G. region needs to attract the right kind of tourist. The Okanagan has the condo, hotel, strip mall, golf course crowd covered. We need to focus on the tourist that wants what we have...which is nothing...and thats the point. I did a day trip to McBride yesterday and was reminded how beautiful it is just 30 minutes out of town. I counted 3 deer, 5 moose and 7 black bears and very little traffic. Best of all not one strip mall, golf cours, condo or golf course. Atract the tourist that really wants to get away from it all.

Not a bad idea Hindsight.

I like the drive to McBride. It is miles and miles of, miles and miles.

A selling point for BC in general is that it packs a great deal of ecological diversity into a relatively small area. What most tourists hear about is the coastal rain forest and the Rockies and maybe the Coast Range, but we've also got boreal forest up here, a Mediterranean climate in the Okanagan, true desert around Lillooet, and whatever you call the West Kootenay.

If this airport was such a positive idea why did it have to get 33 million tax dollars to make it fly. And thats the problem. They had to use tax bucks to develop the airport.

What did there business plan tell them? Build it and they will come ! Some business plan. Did they look at tourism? Not by the sound of it. They looked at cargo planes and that revenue to shore them up.

We had to give Horizon a 400 thousnd dollar back up money. Now you tell me how the hell we will attract tourists. Maybe we could provide them with free lodging while they are visiting. That should work.

Politions are the only people that think positive. The rest of us have to look at a business plan.

Cheers

I agree with many of the people here, PG has to have something attractive and different for people to actually make this a destination. So far, there's nothing here that couldn't be found in other markets (i.e. Alaska). I would think any American looking for the 'wilderness experience' would simply go to Alaska.

We get several thousand American tourists this way every year. This isn't a new idea, it is just another travel option for them rather than using a convoy to travel.

I just flew in from Seattle the other day. Only 6 people out of i think about 40 was on board. Not to bad.....At least free achohol on horizon flights :)

PG BC`S Northern Capital
BC`S Jewel of the North
PG BC`S Gateway to the North.
PG BC`S Interior **Metropolis**

And now the latest ^Prince George BC`s Serengeti of the North. I doubt if the picture of the Bears, or of the guy fishing was taken anywhere near Prince George. The ad itself borders on false advertising, hopefully it wont attract a bunch of tourists, who will be very disapointed.

We have had guided tours, and hunting trips into the area north of Prince George since 1905. The crooked River, «Pack River, etc: Most of the old guides have died off however you can still hire some if thats your desire.

A good part of the people who come in from Seattle are Hunters who want to shoot Grizzley, Bear, or Moose. They are all met at the Airport by guides who fly them into remote areas.

People who post here have little or no idea what the History of the area is. They forget that Prince George has been here for 100 years.

We have Millions of tourist in BC most of whom prefer to go somewhere else, ie; Vancouver, the Island, Kamloops, the Okanagon, the Kootneys, etc; This has always been the case.

A mill town is a mill town by any other name.

People come through Prince George on their way to somewhere else. Even the local yokals jump on Horizen air and get out of town, hopefully there departure and the money they spend elsewhere is offset somewhat by the tourists going through Prince George.

Guess what? Horizon is pulling the same stunts they pulled before they came to PG. Not enough traffic and they begin cancelling flights. I ran into American travellors today who have been stranded in PG for the past two days because of Horizon cancelling flights.

That was exactly my orginal comment and concern when they were looking to provide service to Seattle from PG. If I can't count on them providing regular service, they won't get a red nickel from me. Our city leaders guaranteed a minimum of $400,000 in revenue, but what did the airline guarantee? Chester

I like Prince George and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Just said those things to get a rise outa people. It worked. Expect more.