FRANCOPHONE AND MÉTIS HERITAGE: NEW PILLARS FOR MANITOBA TOURISM

Manitoba features a treasure trove of tourist attractions. From polar bears in Churchill, to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, to the Forks, there is no shortage of activities in this province located right in the middle of Canada. However, Manitoba’s previous tourism strategy did not fully reflect the contributions of the province’s Francophone and Métis communities. With the exception of Festival du Voyageur, Travel Manitoba, a Crown corporation, had neglected the appeal of Louis Riel’s people and the province’s French-speaking population. Normand Gousseau, CEO of Entreprises Riel, and Michelle Gervais, the Director of Tourisme Riel, made it their mission to show Travel Manitoba the huge potential of Manitoba’s Francophone communities. They therefore took representatives from Travel Manitoba and the provincial Tourism department to Louisiana, with its vibrant, warm and celebrated Francophone culture. The experience was a real eyeopener for them, and it didn’t take long to convince decision-makers to make a complete U-turn in their tourism positioning to showcase Francophone community and culture as one of its leading pillars. Entreprises Riel was tasked with setting up an advisory committee to propose a repositioning of Manitoba’s Francophone tourism. Suzanne Druwé, CDEM’s Communications Director, was promptly invited to take part in the discussions aimed at creating a new strategy. “Our mission is to develop a narrative and tools to express the history of our Francophone and Métis communities,” she says. “We want to revisit how visitors to Manitoba are received with a view to better attracting them to and showcasing our Francophone products. We need to develop interesting and effective programming, which is why we need to set targets.”

A MISSION FOR THE CDEM

Repositioning Francophone tourism with the Province is still in its infancy stage, and Joie de vivre Manitoba, the CDEM’s tourism sector, is proud to be at the strategy table as a key player in this renaissance to ensure that the strategy’s objective includes the rural municipalities. “We have an important role to play in creating programming that highlights the Francophones and Métis in our bilingual rural municipalities,” says Julie Turenne-Maynard, Tourism Coordinator at the CDEM. “We’ll see what we can develop together with Tourisme Riel to support this new tourism strategy starting with St. Boniface and expanding into all of our bilingual communities.” Strategic research on tourism shows that experiencebased tourism, aimed at exposing tourists to new and typical experiences, is a growing trend. The CDEM already has some ideas for potential tourist activities. “For example, St. Laurent is hosting the Smithsonian Exhibit and will soon have its own interpretation centre. We’re looking at developing a product in which visitors who are fishing enthusiasts could learn to fillet a fish with a Métis guide,” says Julie TurenneMaynard.

WORKING TOGETHER WITH MERCHANTS

Merchants are key to the success of any tourism strategy, and it is vital to get them on board. “It will be important to work with local merchants to relay that Francophone and Métis pride,” says Julie Turenne-Maynard. “For instance, it would be good for retail store services and restaurant menus to be available in French. Working together to create a truly Francophone and Métis ambiance will draw people into our neighbourhoods and municipalities, and lead to new business opportunities.”

TARGET: 2017

The Province is convinced of the tourism potential of the Francophone communities and Métis history and wants to strike while the iron is hot. The objective is to create branding and messages developed around these new pillars by 2017, the year of the Canada Games in Winnipeg and Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations. The CDEM, Entreprises Riel, and the advisory committee are now working to meet the identified strategic objective. The time is right for the proposed repositioning: “The Province’s enthusiasm for making Francophones and their culture a tourism pillar is also driven by the North American network of Francophone and Francophile cities (Réseau des villes francophones et francophiles de l’Amérique) launched in 2015 by the mayors of Quebec City and Lafayette, Louisiana, with the objective of organizing Francophone tourism routes and sightseeing tours in North America. Manitoba wants to seize this opportunity and be a part of this tourism initiative.”