How do Canadian tourism players outside Quebec promote Francophone culture?
Did you know that French is spoken in all provinces and territories of Canada, and not only in Quebec? And that there is a plurality of Francophone cultures across the country? However, this wealth has only been highlighted in recent years by the Canadian tourism industry. In a country where French is one of the two official languages, that may seem surprising, no?
I wanted to understand why this one seems little put forward by Canadian tourism players outside Quebec. This reflection applies to any country that wishes to develop its multiculturality into tourism. That concerns a lot of countries, right?
A question of survival above all?
In Canada, especially outside Quebec, we don't talk about the future of the French language, but rather about its survival... Despite the Canadian government's Official Languages Act, which guarantees equal status for French and English, French-speaking communities across the country must constantly claim their rights, at the risk of one day being assimilated into the English-speaking majority.
Although the vast majority of Canadians whose mother tongue is French live in Quebec (85.5%), nearly 1.15 million live in the country's other provinces and territories. Apart from New Brunswick (the only officially bilingual province), where Francophones represent nearly a third of the population, these Canadians account for only 0.5% to 4.5% of the inhabitants of their province or territory!
Despite everything, the Francophonie is well established throughout Canada. There are more than 300 Francophone minority communities * that benefit from supports adapted to their challenges. RDÉE Canada is the national organization that supports their economic development, in collaboration with their local partners. It is the Economic Development and Employability Network dedicated to Francophone and Acadian communities outside Quebec. Tourism is one of their priorities, both for development and for tourism promotion.
*French-language minority communities that have at least one school whose main language of instruction is French.
Creation of a unifying project
Although initiatives to promote Francophone culture are identified in some provinces and territories outside Quebec, such projects at the national level did not exist before the idea was born at the Ministerial Conference on the Canadian Francophonie in 2015. Two years later, during the 150E anniversary of Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage entrusts RDÉE Canada with the implementation of a project ensuring the development, enhancement and promotion of French-speaking tourism in Canada: the Francophone Heritage, Cultural and Tourism Corridor, now renamed Hi Canada.
It is a collection of more than 400 French-speaking heritage elements, cultural and tourist products, selected to offer visitors services in French. It required an initial investment of 2.4 million dollars and brought together 400 partners and specialists over 2 years to carry out what would seem to be the first inventory of tangible and intangible Francophone heritage outside Quebec!
In addition to the traditional list of attractions geolocated by theme on a map, there are also fact sheets presenting the history of French-speaking communities.
From this inventory were then selected the attractions that could be marketed. Alain Brosius, who was responsible for giving life to the Corridor at RDÉE Canada, explained to me in an interview that in order to market it on French-speaking markets, it was also necessary to guarantee a welcome in French in these attractions. A system for classifying services in French was then developed and validated by several French tour operators. In addition to Francophone cultural and heritage attractions, the Corridor also includes the flagship attractions of each province and territory that are able to provide services in French. This is in order to offer a diversity of experiences to visitors.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 has upset the plans and today the Corridor is still not marketed.
A less flamboyant project than at the beginning?
Despite the very good initial intentions of the various partners involved (note the fact that the Corridor is integrated into the Action Plan for Official Languages —2018-2023), today it is a B2C website that serves as the main inspiration tool. Destination Canada, the national DMO, does not even mention it on its website and it seems very little known to other players in the tourism industry and travelers. A fairly eloquent statistic* reveals that nearly half of Quebecers who have traveled to the rest of Canada in the last five years have never heard of the French-speaking and bilingual Canadian tourism offer outside of Quebec.
*Survey on Francophone and Bilingual Tourism in Canada, RDÉE Canada, 2023
Currently, efforts are focused more on allowing French-speaking tourists to visit the country in their language than on promoting Francophone culture and heritage. Chantal Nadeau, platform manager at RDÉE Canada, is even making Anglophone attractions aware of offering services in French, which is still quite difficult in the context of a labour shortage...
Lacking the resources to deploy Salut Canada, it is currently focusing its efforts on marketing the Champlain Road with French tour operators, in collaboration with its Ontario partner. It is a tourist route in Ontario that follows the path taken by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain and leads the visitor to discover the land, built heritage and outdoor businesses. The project is much more advanced than Salut Canada and has the potential to act as a locomotive to propel the rest of the project.
Despite the pitfalls and the slowdown of the project, some achievements should be noted, in particular the fact that the Department of Canadian Heritage understands the advantages of bilingualism for tourism development. However, it seems difficult to be optimistic about the future of Salut Canada. Difficult access to resources and financing, tourism products of unequal quality between provinces and territories, unknown heritage, lack of vision and interest from different levels of government, lacking leadership, omnipresent English-speaking environment, etc. Should we fear for its survival, just like the French language in the country?
A big thank you to Chantal Nadeau, economic development and employability advisor - tourism projects — RDÉE Canada and Alain Brosius, expert in tourism development, strategic marketing and founder of tourismexpansion, for enlightening me on the subject.
Featured photo: Devon Hawkins on UnSplash