With health officials continuing to discourage non-essential travel outside the province as a result of COVID-19, it’s enabled tourism companies to encourage local exploration.
Tourism Prince George is building on its rebrand, unveiled on Sept. 21, in showing local, regional and provincial residents to see the sights of the city and its surrounding amenities.
The non-profit has introduced a new contest with the goal of ‘staycationing’ in mind to help those struggling through the pandemic wanting to go out on adventures.
“To further celebrate the launch of our new destination brand, we thought it was a great time to showcase Prince George as ‘the Basecamp to the North’ while supporting our tourism industry partners,” says Tourism Prince George CEO Tracey McBride.
“We are promoting staycations to our locals, as they are truly our destination ambassadors who can encourage their friends and family to visit Prince George. It’s an opportunity for locals to showcase their favourite spots in the city and for visitors to share their best discoveries.”
A focus of Tourism PG’s new approach is the city’s surrounding environment, hoping to show that newcomers can experience the great outdoors and indoors in combining the simple life with the high life.
Having only been named the CEO of the organization earlier this year, McBride says being a witness to the rebranding process pre-COVID helped her better understand the region’s features.
“When you’re looking at branding, branding is kind of the essence of a place. The personality, how you feel when you’re there and that’s your attributes and your characteristics of it, and for me, I’m brand new to Prince George,” she explained when asked by PrinceGeorgeMatters during the virtual launch.
“When I saw the brand being rolled out, I was like, ‘Hey, you’re right! Those elements do resonate.’ Yes, [Prince George] has always been this hub and juxtaposition of wilderness but with city elements, but what resonated to me, we’re a city that has all those amenities but we’re not uber-serious. We’re comfortable and warm [...] we also have this sophisticated, cultural vibe which I just love because that’s what makes it who you really are.”
The contest, running until Dec. 15, features three staycation packages local residents could win.
You can view Tourism PG’s staycation packages and contest details on its website.
