University of Windsor MBA students launch campaign to draw American tourists to Windsor
The 40-40 YQG Tourism Campaign is a digital tourism passport program offering discounts and prizes
Windsor-Detroit tunnel officials have teamed up with five University of Windsor MBA students for a campaign aimed at drawing American tourists to the city.
The 40-40 YQG Tourism Campaign, launching Thursday, is a digital tourism passport program that allows visitors to track visits to participating locations, access discounts and qualify for prize draws.
"The University of Windsor reached out to me and asked if we wanted to work with some smart MBA students," said Tal Czudner, the tunnel's CEO.
"Little did I know that I'd have five rocket scientists working to kind of come up with ways to encourage business in the downtown, use the tunnel a little bit more and to really help the community during what's a pretty difficult time."
The 40-40 campaign showcases 40 businesses across Windsor, he said.
He chose the number 40 as a reference to the strength of the American dollar against the Canadian one; $100 US is worth about $140 Cdn.
"This program just highlights all the cool things that are in Windsor," Czudner added.
"Candidly, I think the people in Windsor always know what's happening in Detroit. But I think it's incumbent upon us to make people aware [in] Detroit [of] all the cool things that are happening in Windsor."
The MBA student who led the team said it wasn't hard coming up with 40 businesses.
"I can probably tell you 400 things to do in Windsor-Essex, honestly," said Olivia Sylvestre.
"We wanted to kind of make it a mix of arts and culture, social, boutiques and shops. We wanted to have it [be] mostly businesses that were just local to [the] Windsor-Essex area and people who just wanted to be open and inviting to everyone."
Asked to name her personal favourite of the 40 destinations, Sylvestre named Cafe March 21 because "Their matchas are literally the best."
Maria Awada, the MBA student who served as partnership and outreach coordinator on the project named the Lebanese restaurant Al-Sabeel.
"I'm a little biased because I'm also Lebanese," Awada said.
"This city is very diverse and multicultural; [I] just wanted to make sure that there is a bit of a taste of home from everyone here as well."
With files from Dalson Chen