The call is out for tourists from up north - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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Advertising in Canada is touting the strong Canadian dollatr relative tothe U.S. Campaigns are being waged by , the Pennsylvanisa state tourism office and CapeMay County, N.J. Canadiansd are being tempted by golf, shopping, hockey tickets, beer the Philadelphia Museumof Art'se Frida Kahlo exhibit and the 's "Starf Wars" exhibition. "The Canadian markeg will be a top marketfor us. Pennsylvani a is among the top 10 destinationz forCanadian travelers," said Jeff a marketing vice president at GPTMC, which promotes Philadelphiaq and the countryside. "We have aggressive, aggressive PR efforts in Withgood reason, apparently.
A January repor t by the Canadian Conference Board estimatede that leisure trips by Canadians will grow by 33 percent between 2007and 2012. Last leisure trips grew by 9 upfrom 8.3 percent the year About 17.7 million Canadians visited the United States last up 11 percent from 2006, according to the U.S. Departmentr of Commerce. GPTMC estimates that 200,000 Canadians visited the five-county area last based on Visacard usage. It was GPTMC'sz first year tracking the numbers, so no comparable numbersd exist. With high gasoline prices, a weaker domestix economy andother factors, tourism promotion agencies are lookingg north of the border to bolster visitorship.
"Canada will be a key market," said Richard Bonds, executive director of the . In June, Pennsylvaniaa will launch a summer advertising campaign aimed at convincing Canadians to visit northwestern Pennsylvania and the area upstate knowhn as the Pennsylvania The campaign will be increased to six months from the threer monthslast year. Last summer, the state spentt $3 million on marketing mainly aimed atToronto residents, enticinyg them to make drived of four hours or more. Media buying was focused on print andradio advertising, as well as out-of-homre advertising and bus "wraps." "Last year, we made our firsgt concerted effort.
With the dollar, it was a perfectg time to market Pennsylvania," said Bonds. Many Canadiands take advantage of an earlied summer to play bike or gofishing -- things they might do at But they also come to packing discount malls like Prime Outlets in Erie. This winter, GPTMxC teamed up with the Philadelphia Flyerz to market hockey travel packages to fans from nortu ofthe border. Fans of the Montrealo Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs were offered discountwof $10 on ticketsx to see their teams play in Packages also included discounts on hotel stayx and airline tickets with US Airways and Air Canada.
GPTMC reps have blitzed travel offices in Ontario to promote Philadelphia as a but also as a place to pickup cruises. Packets droppeed with travel agentspromoted "Cruise Philly," including Philadelphia-to-Bermudaq cruises. GPTMC's efforts to reacjh up to Canadians startec n 2003 with the hiringof Ontario-bases , which has also been hired by the Pennsylvania tourisjm office. On the Jersey Canadians have long flocked to Cape May County whichj spends a third ofits tourism-marketing budget to attracy Canadians, mostly Montrealers, said Diane Wieland, directodr of tourism for the county. "The past two we've really hit a home run.
With the exchanger rate, we like to say we're paying them to come Wieland said. The surge in Canadianh travelers takes the Shore towns back to theird heyday from the 1960s tothe 1980s, when roughlty half of July visitors were from north of the border. To honorr the visitors, hotels in Cape May Counthy sprang up with name s like the Royal CanadianResort Motel, the Quebex Motel and the Fleur de Lis. Canadian visitas declined sharply in the 1990s alonyg with theCanadian dollar, as well as a changer in the annual "construction holiday," which was shiftexd to the off-season.
In the mid-1990s, Canadian visitorship in Cape May Countt dipped to 5 percent of visitor and the county closed its tourism officein Montreal. "Now, the campgrounds are filling up, and we'rs seeing a lot of nostalgia; people saying, 'My parents alwaya took us here,'" Wieland said. "I know from being a Shorew baby growing upin Brigantine, Canadian tourists were our We were down there this spring, and you coulc see the license plates everywhere," said John Seitter, directo of the South Jersey Tourism Corp. "Talking to restaurant owners down there, they were seeiny the swing last with moreand more.
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