Toronto-based travel company Urban Expeditions is hosting media and blogger tours to promote local tourism.
The company, which was founded in 2003, offers four-hour private city tours and game experiences in Toronto, Montreal, New York and Chicago, showcasing each city’s arts, culture and green spaces.
Company founder Peter Odle said the aim of the media tours isn’t to get the company attention in the press. “I can task my marketing manager with that,” he said. “I want to get people to start thinking and talking about urban tourism. We were calling it the ‘staycation’ for a while, but urban tourism and locals getting out and exploring their own city—nobody is talking about that. Part of my marketing strategy is to get [media] to put a new spin on tourism.”
Urban Expeditions has invited media including Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, as well as travel and lifestyle bloggers to take part in the tours, which take place May 4, 5 and 6.
“There’s a concept that tourism is taking off and going to Cuba or Barbados or someplace else, when there is a vast majority of the city that people just aren’t seeing,” said Odle. “We have to change what we’re doing. It gives people more ownership in their environment and that’s what my aim is.”
