PITCHMAN'S ADVICE TO CANADA: SHOW OFF SEAMY SIDE

TORONTO -- Vancouver's gritty Downtown Eastside isn't the kind of
place you'd expect to find in a tourism campaign.

But the neighbourhood's struggle with drug addition and social
disorder could actually help boost tourism to Canada after the 2010
Olympic Games, according to an expert on how people perceive national
brands.

Rather than trying to hide Vancouver's edgy side, Canadian tourism
authorities should embrace and publicize it, said Simon Anholt, who
conducts quarterly surveys on brand attributes for 35 countries.

One of Canada's biggest tourism challenges is our squeaky-clean,
almost bland reputation, Mr. Anholt said. So telling people that
Canada has its problems, and is working to address them, could
actually make us more appealing to potential tourists.

"At the moment, Canada has this image that is virtually angelic . . ."
Mr. Anholt said. "One of Canada's problems is there no sense of
urgency or relevance or modernity about it. . . . That's why if the
world comes across a city like Vancouver with real issues and real
problems and tackling them really well -- I think it's good."

Mr. Anholt was in Toronto yesterday where he made a speech at a
conference for the Canadian Tourism Commission, a government-sponsored
agency devoted to marketing Canada to tourists around the world.

According to Mr. Anholt's most recent survey, Canada has the
third-strongest nation brand in the world, behind Britain and
Switzerland. Canada is particularly admired for its people and the
beauty of its landscape, Mr. Anholt said.

The problem is that Canada is one of the most underleveraged brands in
the world and doesn't get its fair share of tourists, he said.

"It's a bit like vanilla custard. It's really lovely, but it's not
quite as good as that Cajun shrimp."

Canada needs to sprinkle a little spice onto its vanilla brand, Mr.
Anholt told the audience of Canadian tourism providers and global buyers.

One of the ways to do that is to hold up our problems -- like drug
addiction in Vancouver and the sovereignty movement in Quebec -- and
tell the world what we're doing to address them, Mr. Anholt said.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan said recently that he wants to make major
progress on the city's drug problem before the Olympic Games. "By
2010, I want the public disorder and crime seriously reduced," Mr.
Sullivan said in an interview with The Vancouver Sun in which he
discussed his idea of providing free drugs to addicts.