One of the great things about Amazing Race Canada is that it takes viewers to places around the country that few of us have ever heard of and turns them into ‘must-sees’ locales. The show acts as a highlight reel of our country’s hidden gems as contestants traverse varied landscapes.
For this reason, Amazing Race Canada has become a powerful marketing tool for the tourism industry. Most Canadians think they need to fly south to experience white sand beaches–but places like The Magdalen Islands, located in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, show viewers that we have equally stunning shores within reach.
The opportunity to promote their islands was not lost on Tourisme Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, which tweeted about this week’s episode.
CTV – Watch TV Online | Ep 5 – The Face Off #ÎlesdelaMadeleine #AmazingRaceCanada #QuebecOriginal http://t.co/SgvZLvmthW
— Îles de la Madeleine (@ATRIM) August 6, 2015
The Magdalen Islands and contestants also received some buzz from print media. The Calgary Herald described the Magdalen Islands as a ”picturesque dream, all sprawling sandy beaches and rolling hills”. You just can’t buy publicity like that. But the island has a unique challenge: how can a sparsely populated place create the same social media hype that big cities generate? This issue was reflected in this week’s episode, which saw a 6.8 per cent drop in Twitter engagement compared to last week’s Halifax episode. Last week 20.9 per cent of Twitter engagement came from Nova Scotia compared to 5.9 per cent from this week. Almost no engagement came from the islands, except for Tourisme Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine and this was a major reason for the drop in engagement. 
Next week’s show is taking place in Sudbury, Ontario and during the end of the show when it was announced, people from Sudbury were already retweeting Amazing Race Canada’s announcement — so next week should see increased social media engagement. This demonstrates the advantage that larger urban areas have to promote their tourism and local businesses. @thefirstdookie, @tmrrwsimagineer, @MeghannGreen24, & @JoelCrepeau from Sudbury retweeted:
The #AmazingRaceCanada continues with the drama, trauma, and underground adventures next time in Sudbury! pic.twitter.com/gdRzy4DnEj — Amazing Race Canada (@AmazingRaceCDA) August 6, 2015
Traditional media has also been quick to pick up on the success of the Amazing Race Canada. The Sudbury Star is already writing articles about the pending episode.
So if Sudbury hasn’t made its way on your travel bucket list yet–could next week’s episode change your mind?
Contestants’ Share of Voice:
- Neil & Kristin Lumsden 23.3%
- Nick Foti & Matt Giunta 20.8%
- Jesse & Gino Montani 19.4% (Winners)
- Brian & Cynthia Boyd 11.4%
- Simi & Ope Fagbongbe 9.4%
- Brent & Sean Sweeney 8.6%
- Nic La Monaca & Sabrina Mercuri 4.8%
- Dujean Williams & Leilani Ross 2.2%
MediaMiser actively blogs about Amazing Race Canada, and leverages MediaMiser solutions to compile analysis on the show.
