Please visit this post to find a letter from renowned marketer Barry Smith whom Paul MacNeill alluded to in his blog post regarding “What is really wrong with tourism” (on PEI). Great to see these guys speaking out. I can’t say too much today because I had so much fun doing a shoot for Tourism PEI yesterday however… Barry and Paul are dead on and if you poll people on PEI they will tell you that something has gone seriously wrong with how the province has marketed this beautiful island for the past ten years. Statistics prove it. The economy is suffering because of it.

I was involved with the tourism industry for seven years and to say that it was challenging is an understatement. The frustration that I suffered whenever trying to deal with any of the government departments or associations was over the top and culminated with my business partner leaving my company to work for a heavily government funded association, out biggest client, who then proceeded to drop their contract with my company so that my ex business partner could run my business for them (despite a non-compete agreement in place) which resulted in my company going under within a year.

SO…, I’m sorry, I couldn’t hold back on my personal dealings with tourism and the government on PEI. Reading Paul and Barry’s scathing remarks about them brought back memories of my experience and although I try not to be bitter I really am sorry for the people currently within the industry who are working their butts off for the nicest weeks of the year to only be just getting by and then to have paper pushing, bureaucrats (with exceptions of course) who can’t make a decision to save their lives (nevermind PEI’s tourism industry), blowing our tax dollars on the things listed in this blog post.

Okay, maybe I am a bit bitter. I don’t think I’m the only one by the sounds of Mr. Barry Smith with his closing words from his letter to the Guardian the other day:

“Until the people of P.E.I. stand up and say: we want a professional approach to marketing our Island, tax dollars will continue to be wasted on plans/executions that equal nothing.”