On Friday, the provincial government announced the creation of a new bureaucracy to promote tourism to the province, as if that was the answer to the dwindling return on investment from the current approach.
You can tell a lot about any plan by the way it proposes to measure success. In this case, the new tourism strategy – Uncommon potential – wants to double the amount of money generated by tourism in the province. Inflation would pretty much take care of hefty enough chunk of that in the next 11 years so whatever is left can be either explained away when the time comes or simply ignored.
You can tell this is a serious plan: it has lots of pretty pictures in it, shop-worn jargon by the shovel-full - “world-class” and “the possibilities are endless”, two great Chuck Fureyisms from his stint as tourism czar - but no indication of how much money it will cost to do all the things listed as the various action items.
One would have to read the release to appreciate, as well, that the strategy doesn’t really get at one of the current problems, namely the fact that more than half the $500 million generated by “tourism” right at the moment doesn’t come from people travelling into the place. It comes from locals.
Odd, though, that there is no mention in this beautiful looking document of the tourism potential of high voltage direct current hydro-electric transmissions lines. There’s lots about pristine wilderness, natural beauty, authentic experiences and a raft of other buzzwords but nothing about giant steel girders supporting buzzing electricity cables.
Odd, you see, because that’s exactly what the provincial government’s energy corporation is planning to string from Labrador down to the Avalon peninsula to meet a demand that can be met with other sources of power.
The energy company plans to run the lines, in one part at least, through Gros Morne National Park. That would be the UNESCO world heritage site. Now there are already lines in the park that were installed long before the park was established in 1987.
But you’d think that a company owned by the provincial government might be looking at ways of getting out of the park altogether rather than planning on increasing the power lines in a truly beautiful place.
-srbp-
9 comments:
Hold on tight....TCR and industry has been working on a "Vision" document that will outline the actual costs of advancing tourism.
Well, the other night, the Weather Network announced that the upcoming forecast was sponsored by Newfoundlandlabrador (cue quilts). The upcoming forecast turned out to be of NL, where photos showed the usual combination of sleet, freezing rain, and slush that marks February in St. John's. With such a brilliant marketing campaign, the "uncommon potential" of ruining a UNESCO is not much of a stretch in Danlogic.
Winston - that makes no sense. The Weather Network is based in Toronto. How could you trust weather forecasting for the province that comes from Toronto?
Mark -- I stand corrected. It makes no sense to watch a NL-sponsored T.O. weather forecast of NL weather. Trying to follow the logic of DW's letter to the NP affected my TV skills.
Just a small correction. The park was established in 1973, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. I was there the day it became a world heritage site with my elementary school class. One of the prices of england was there. I can't remember which one though, but not the one with the big ears.
Trying to follow the logic of DW's letter to the NP affected my TV skills.
There was no letter from DW to the NP, because not so long ago DW was complaining that the papers in TO refuse to print his letters. Therefore, the letter wasn't printed, and doesn't exist.
The NP is a newspaper? Danthink is as hard to learn as 2+2=5.
"Most scenic ghetto in all of confederation/canada!"
Hey Greg.
I guess that explains why you don't live here.
But tell me why you feel the need to keep crapping on Newfoundland and Labrador like that?
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