“Saskatchewan could be like this,” my fiancée said as we drove through Montana. The observation was inspired by the many little businesses that dotted the highway, selling local delicacies like huckleberry or fun activities that a roving tourist could partake in.
Of course, Montana has at least one fairly big advantage over Saskatchewan when setting up a tourist area, that being big mountains for people to look at and plan road trips to see. But the other great thing about the area we visited, the multitude of lakes, is something Saskatchewan has as well. We have the mighty Saskatoon berry that is easily as versatile as Montana’s preferred huckleberry. Given that farm-to-table is the big trend in cuisine right now, we’re well equipped for farms to provide at least half of that equation; now we just need the classy, tourist-baiting restaurants to provide the other half.
Saskatchewan, however, has always been utterly baffled by the idea of tourism. For years, the people of the province were confused at the idea that people would continue living here. I distinctly remember a clothing store in Saskatoon running a campaign at the University of Saskatchewan with the slogan “You’ll need something to wear in Calgary.” Our attitude at the time was that we were not a province where people wanted to live, and if you don’t want to live somewhere you certainly don’t want to visit.
While the province has seen a population increase and no longer has the ingrained attitude that it’s a place where people leave, it still hasn’t quite grasped the idea that it could be a place that people visit. Which isn’t to say people haven’t tried, one of the most visible attempts being the Saskawanderer campaign, sending young people across the province looking for attractions people don’t know about. But even that starts with the assumption that nobody actually believes it’s possible to be a tourist here. More than once I’ve seen someone visit the province, and people ask who they’re visiting, rather than what, as though you need a provincial connection in order to actually want to come here.
It’s a mostly internal attitude. I’ve met a few people from outside of the province who want to visit here and think we live somewhere interesting. The problem is that we don’t believe it ourselves, so it’s difficult for a tourist to actually figure out why they want to come here, or where they want to visit when they do.
What Saskatchewan has to do is make it more clear why someone would want to visit. Increase the amount of incentives for film production, so people see our scenery and want to see it close up. Start promoting unique local foods, start enticing chefs to start restaurants and then promote those outside of the province.
We need people to know our provincial parks exist, so they can know they can get on their boats, whether they want to go fishing or do other recreational activities.
But most of all, we need to start to believe we live in a province that people want to visit, for no other reason than we have things here that nobody else has. We’re not going to be a big tourist destination until we believe we are.
