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Great Falls Chamber campaign hopes to entice Canadians to ‘Play. Right. Here.’

Rick Evans remembers the good old days when colorful Alberta and Saskatchewan license plates were thick outside the Herberger’s department store at Holiday Village mall.

As the store’s manager, he and others would head to the parking lot to count the plates. On key holiday weekends in the early 1990s, as many as 25 percent of the cars outside the store were Canadian.

By JAMES E. LARCOMBE

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040307/localnews/31092.html

"It was definitely a big deal," said Evans, who retired from Herberger’s and is now the president of the Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

Propelled by a friendlier exchange rate and a strong economy up north, a Chamber marketing group is working to launch an ad campaign intended to lure Canadians across the border to Great Falls.

"As a community, this is our first effort since the early 1990s," said Evans.

The Destination Great Falls marketing taskforce has put together a plan built around the "Live.Right.Here." theme developed late last year by the Macerich Co. A modified "Play.Right.Here." campaign could include newspaper and TV ads in Lethbridge and offer coupons from "promotional partners" in the Great Falls area.

The task force has registered Play.Right.Here.com to offer the coupons online and provide more information to prospective travelers. That web link has not yet been activated. Coupons also would be available in gift bags at several Great Falls locations.

"One of the things we know about Canadian travelers, they like premiums," said Janet Medina, a Chamber president who works with the Destination Great Falls group.

The 11-week campaign from May to August would encompass key Canadian holiday weekends in July and August, she said. The cost will be slightly less than $6,300.

The Chamber group is seeking permission from Travel Montana, the state tourism promotion agency, to use $2,070 in bed-tax money to pay for part of the campaign.

The remaining $4,200 would be solicited from "promotional partners" in Great Falls, at $600 each. Several potential partners, including the Macerich Co., the Great Falls Lodging Association, Montana ExpoPark and the city of Great Falls, have expressed interest, Medina said.

"Our goal is to show that by working together, we can market effectively," she said.

A logical move

There is reason to believe the time is ripe for the north-of-the-border campaign.

In 2003, nonresident travelers spent nearly $64 million in Cascade County, according to the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana. Without any promotion, Alberta, at 12 percent, is the top source of out-of-state visitors to the county.

Medina said Travel Montana has identified Alberta as a target market and is focusing its efforts on Calgary, the province’s largest city about five hours north of Great Falls.

"We are seizing a perceived opportunity," said Craig Madsen, the owner of Montana River Outfitters and the chairman of the Chamber task force. "The expectation is that with the exchange rate, it’s the market to go for."

The discount rate on Canadian money was in the 12 to 15 percent range in the early 1990s, when cross-border shopping was at its zenith. In the following years, the rate skyrocketed, reaching the 40 percent level at times, making trips to the U.S. hard to pull off for Canadian consumers.

A stronger currency

But times have changed for the Canadian dollar.

"It’s 25 percent stronger than it was a couple of years ago," said Michael Swanson, a senior economist with Wells Fargo in Minneapolis.

Last week, the Canadian dollar was worth about 74 cents in the U.S. Whether it will continue to gain strength and give Albertans and others added foreign buying power is uncertain. Swanson says the Canadian dollar’s rise appears to have slowed recently.

"The exports are looking for it to stay in this range in the immediate future," the economist said.

Along with an improved exchange rate, the economy, particularly in Alberta, could encourage Canadian shoppers.

The Bank of Montreal is predicting that Alberta’s economy, driven by the energy sector, will grow by 4 percent in 2004 and 4.2 percent in 2005, the strongest growth in any of the Canadian provinces. The Saskatchewan economy is projected to grow 2.9 percent this year and British Columbia 2.7 percent.

What does the positive economic outlook mean for Montana?

"Those people have money and are traveling more," said Norma Nickerson, director of the UM tourism institute, noting Montana is a logical destination.

At least one Great Falls business has had success with Canadian visitors recently. The Heritage Inn did an ad campaign offering lodging discounts to Canadian shoppers last fall.

"It was a very successful campaign," said Greg Goeser, the general manager of the 236-room hotel. "Our feeling is it was tied to the targeted marketing we did."

Chamber leader Evans notes that many Canadians have more shopping and entertainment options at home than they did a decade ago. But they still will come south, although an invitation may be necessary.

"We are going to go after them again, in the best fashion we can," Evans said. "We’ve got to tell them we are a bargain."

Larcombe can be reached by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at (406) 791-1463 or (800) 438-6600.

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