I’m away this week on a trip to Sault Ste. Marie and I finally get the perspective behind North American tourist traps. Now I’m not out to bash small towns trying attract tourists to their locations. What I think is becoming a problem in the tourism industry is the over-expectation and under-delivering, together with over-zealous advertisement of tourist attractions.
Take my trip for example. On the way driving up, we stopped by an “observation platform” listed on the SSM tourism guide as a “must-see” sight. While the wetland-ish field was somewhat picture-esque (but can be found everywhere), the “platform” could best be described as a porch elevated 1m above ground.
We had a quite a bit difficulty finding it. The guide book instructions were along the line of “drive to the end of the road”. When we couldn’t find it, admittedly about to give up in defeat, we spot 2 passerby walking by. I cranked down the car window and like any good naive tourist bozo, waved the guide book around and say my best clearly accented “excuse me”. Though I think our sedan in a neighbourhood of pickup trucks sort of gave it away.
Now this little spot is on a side road off the main highway; tractors driving up and down leaving trails of dirts in the middle of the road. I felt like Cpt. Janeway suddenly showing up in the Delta quadrant. In my best “Chinese in Canada voice” I asked if they know of any observation platform around the neighbourhood. This was followed by a quick explaination as to how we ended up here.
“Well I don’t know if it is a must-see, but there is a little platform at the bottom of the hill, a little way toward Hwy 17.”
I thank them profusely with a hearty voice head toward this “must-see”. And there it was, at the bottom of the hill, a little platform. Given the energy spent finding, we felt obligated to spend 2 minutes taking photos. Sort of “atleast something productive came out of this 4.6km drive off our route”.
While this is a relatively minor inconvenience, but this felt like a betrayal of trust. Trust of us tourists with our hard earned dollars traveling to other places to see sights. All we have to rely on are the words of other travelers. And when no one exists, the information posted by the tourism department of these townships is all we have to go on. It’s like a car dealership promising me heated seats in my car, but when I bought the vehicle I’m freezing my ass in winter on the cold hard seats.
Or let me put it plainly: Tourism books are lying sons of bitches.
