A B.C. resort is expressing its love for Albertans amid the feud between the two governments.
Vernon’s Predator Ridge Resort launched the “We Love Alberta” ad campaign to encourage its neighbours to go back to B.C.
“Albertans have made up close to 40 per cent of our residential buyers and attract about 25,000 Albertans through our resort here,” said Brad Pelletier, vice president of Wesbild, the resort’s parent company.
Pelletier blames the ongoing disputes between the two provincial governments for the drop in tourism last year.
“Unfortunately we’ve become somewhat caught in a cross fire in this trade dispute between our governments and our goal was not to be political in any way.”
Predator Ridge is offering three nights of accommodation for the price of two if booked before June 15, as well as a bottle of wine.
"Politics aside, we need to do something to protect our business and to protect and to reach out to a very, very large customer base for us,” Pelletier said.
The resort rolled out the ad campaign online, on billboards and newspaper ads.
“‘Our love is real’ kind of said it all for us in terms of the way we honestly feel,” Pelletier said.
“We do believe that over time here, if we work at this, we will continue to see the return of Albertans through the Okanagan.”
Chris Affleck, the station manager at Cross Country RV west of Edmonton, told CTV News he has noticed more Albertans are travelling to the United States rather than B.C.—but for a different reason.
"Fuel hits in the pocket hard, especially going through the mountains,” Affleck said. “Whether you’re renting a trailer but you have to tow it with a half-ton, or if you get a motorized RV, it’s a 200-litre tank. If you have to fill that at $1.50 a litre, it hurts the wallet quite a bit.”
Predator Ridge has already rolled out billboards in Calgary. The first one in Edmonton, which will cost the resort nearly $16,000, will go up in two weeks on 101 Street, northeast of Rogers Place.
With files from CTV Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg
