A new Travel Manitoba slogan was launched on Monday, January 9th at the Manitoba Tourism Summit at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg, kicking off a new ad campaign to draw people to the province to take in all it has to offer. "Canada's heart is calling." replaces the previous slogan, "Canada's heart... beats."
Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre (CFDC) Executive Director Adolfo Cuetara said with Manitoba boasting the centre of the country, the slogan is to reflect one of the many attractions the province.
He was there taking in presentations during the day, including the launch of the new slogan, logo and ad campaign.
"The summit was really good. They are doing a really good job with Travel Manitoba with the tourism brand, and they are helping us a lot. We feel we are special for them, and they are helping a lot with their marketing campaign, nationally and internationally. So, we really appreciate them, and this is part of the support we were receiving for many years from the government."
Cuetara said one of the ways they are supported by Travel Manitoba is the creation of seven Signature Museums, a brand of the top museums with the most prominent history in Manitoba.
"The CFDC is one of those seven, so we, all together, the Signature Museums were pressing, talking a little bit with Travel Manitoba to increase our presence in their brand. You can see in the new Travel Manitoba website there is a special place for the Signature Museums and specifically Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre you can find it in a lot of references, so you can feel that the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre right now is something special for tourism in Manitoba."
Another form of support CFDC has noticed is increased funding in the last few years. Cuetara said in 2019, the center received close to $78,000 and in 2020, funding almost doubled coming in around $150,000.
"In 2021, the second year in a row and the worst, talking about the restrictions, we were closed for more than half the year. All the museums were struggling. We were able to get $278,000, almost double again from the previous year, in grants for specific projects. This year in 2022, we surpassed the half a million dollars in grants. So, we had an exponential growth in grants for specific projects to move forward with the museum."
A Field and Research Station at the dig site and a new laboratory at the museum are two of the projects supported by these funds.
Cuetara said there was another point to note about the support in terms of attendance. While where people are coming from Manitoba, USA and beyond isn't changing in demographics, their number sure are.
"We received more visitors in 2022 than in 2019, and that's good because in 2019 we had dig tours, but in 2022 we didn't have them. So, we were able to receive more visitors, even with less programming. That's really exciting thinking in the year 2023, because we will have a huge improvement with dig tours. So, we have high expectations about this year."
The Field and Research Station will be taking bookings soon with an anticipated opening for summer of 2023.