July 30th

Merdock Projects

Here is a sample of Merdock's projects. Please scroll down for details.

NatWest Island Games - Publicity
Luscious Lobster - Branding and corporate communications
Indian River Festival - Branding, marketing and management
Atlantic Business Magazine Cover Story
Inns of Distinction of PEI - Branding and copy writing

NatWest Island Games

In June of this year, Merdock handled the publicity for the group of 60 athletes who participated in the NatWest Island Games in Rhodes (An island of Greece). The campaign included a fundraising brochure, photography and liaison with local media during the games. PEI athletes won 16 medals: 4 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze, including a games record in swimming.

The NatWest Island Games has 25 member Islands around the world who come together every two years to compete in 15 summer sports. The Games are an opportunity for Islands from around the world to participate at an international level of sports with other Islands of similar athletic standards and circumstances. It is a rich cultural event that is built on the community spirit of islands. Prince Edward Island is aspiring to host the games which will be the first time the games would be held in North America.

Luscious Lobster

Merdock led a team in the Luscious Lobster campaign to promote Atlantic Canadian processed lobster to high-end chefs, hotels, food service companies, casinos, cruise lines in the United States and internationally.

The campaign includes posters and full colour brochures in seven languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Japanese. The campaign was featured at international trade shows in the US, Europe, and China.

The objective of the campaign is to emphasize the captured freshness and ready-to-use packaging of Atlantic Canadian processed lobster products and to show how lobster can be added to ingredients already found in your kitchen to create gourmet meals that look as good as your profits.

Indian River Festival

During the summer of 2005, Merdock had the managing contract for the Indian River Festival. It was the Festival's 10th anniversary with 20 concerts of classical, jazz, celtic and international music. Seven of the concerts were recorded for broadcast by CBC Radio on shows like "All the Best" and "In Performance."

It was an extraordinary season. Robert Kortgaard, a highly-respected pianist, is the artistic director of the festival and is featured regularly on CBC Radio Two. The Festival was featured twice on The Circuit, a national CBC radio program that highlighted the best summer festivals in Canada.

Two of the major talents of the season were sopranos Measha Brueggergosman and Isabel Bayrakdarian.

The image and communications of the Festival were upgraded. The night-time shot above replaced the former day-time photo in all marketing materials. We wanted to created an image reminiscent of the great concerts of Europe and capture the visual magic that highlights the extraordinary architecture of the church. This photo emphasizes the architecturally accoustical qualities that make St. Mary's Church one of the best concert spaces, particularly for classical music.

Results for the season:

• Revenue increased by 25% for a 20-concert season.
• The audience increased by 20% in a season where general tourism numbers had decreased.
• The website communications featured current news which attracted more web traffic and increased online sales by 140%.
• A streamlining and reorganization of operations resulted in the profit goal being exceeded by almost 80%.
• The audience provided very positive feedback on the season in surveys with comments such as: "most professionally-organized year in the history of the festival," "heard more about the festival in the media," and "easier to get information on concerts."

Truth is in the Eye of the Beholder - Cover Story

Vivian Beer, Merdock's president was asked by Atlantic Business Magazine to write a cover story discussing marketing challenges and innovation in Atlantic Canada. They wanted the introduction to spark the ire of the reader and be slightly controversial. (Atlantic Business Magazine, Volume 16, No. 2 (March/April, 2005. Protected by Copyright. Written by Vivian Beer, Merdock Group). Since this article was written, Canjet has ceased operations, but people like Chuck Cartmill achieved Atlantic Canada's Entrepreneur of the Year.

Truth in the Eye of the Beholder
It is a situation both sad and ironic. While countless Atlantic Canadian companies successfully position themselves as competitive, efficient and innovative players in the international market, the region itself is unable to shake its defeatist image.

We are all too familiar with the commentary and the innuendo. Atlantic Canada is backward. It’s an ungrateful region owing its survival to Alberta and Central Canada. The people are content to wallow in make-work and unemployment insurance. The only reason foreign companies locate in Atlantic Canada is to receive government handouts. And, as if that’s not enough, they’ve somehow managed to double-dip for both equalization and multi-billion dollar offset payments.

Have I left anything out? Are you riled up yet? Well, you should be. These misperceptions about Atlantic Canada have been perpetuated across the country for decades. But despite our justifiable outrage and numerous heartfelt rebuttals, we haven’t succeeded in changing how many Canadians perceive us.

In other words, we’ve not done a good job of marketing our region to the rest of the country. And this is a shame because, if you take one of the most concise definitions of marketing—which is to solve clients’ problems profitably—and apply it to Atlantic Canadian businesses, it is clear that we have solutions to spare.

However, Atlantic Canada has never positioned itself as a region; never marketed itself in an integrated way; never trumpeted its key messages to the world in four-part harmony. If we did, perhaps the old stereotypes would die harder, faster.

Here’s what’s really ironic: although companies throughout the region are faced with considerable roadblocks as they enter global markets, most say location isn’t a major liability. They agree there are challenges, though none that are insurmountable. More importantly, they are aware of their competitive advantages and market them aggressively. And wherever they can, as often as they can, they use Atlantic Canada as an asset.

It’s an asset that actually has some competitive advantage over China, believe it or not. Granted, Chuck Cartmill had to look very carefully to find it. The president and owner of C-Vision, a circuit board manufacturer in Amherst, Cartmill realized that, if you can’t be big, you’d better be best at being small.

It’s difficult to compete against the big batch Chinese manufacturers on price, said Cartmill, who launched his business three years ago. But then, price isn’t everything.

“China is well suited to very large volume, standard-type jobs,” says Cartmill. “The disadvantages of dealing in China are time-zone differential; it is over a month away for shipping products to North American markets; quality can be an issue, particularly on new innovations; and language is a barrier.”

So Cartwell makes their weaknesses his strengths. He targets customers who are looking for super high-quality circuit boards for new product innovations and delivers on his reputation for exceptional product performance and customer service.

Another leader in competitive innovation is Cathexis of St. John’s, Newfoundland. They develop Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems that use wireless technology to track products through distribution systems or life cycles, preventing theft, misplacement or tampering. If a bar code can tell you the price, size and brand name of an item, RFID can tell you how it works, where it was made, what it’s made of, how it got here, where it’s going and what it had for breakfast (if it happens to be livestock, which is one of the potential applications).

Taylor said that Cathexis has forged strategic partnerships with a handful of leading-edge companies who bring compatible new technologies to the table, enabling new innovations in the creation of client-centred solutions.

“We have built our business by developing strong relationships with key partners in technology, applications and systems integration with years of experience and a solid customer base, and we complement them with our cutting-edge RFID technology. We keep our focus on our core competency to stay at the forefront.”

Their location in Atlantic Canada is not a drawback for Cathexis, Taylor adds. “Our customers want the best technology available, and they don’t care where in the world it comes from.”

However, a strategically-located sales office is a definite advantage when it comes to building credibility with clients. “We have a sales office in Dallas because it is the Silicon Valley of RFID, an office in Calgary to access Western North American markets and a strategic alliance with a European company with strong business linkages across that continent.”

Atlantic Canada has built major international food industries and remains strongly competitive in spite of global competition and some serious resource challenges. As well, anyone working in the food business lives with the harsh reality that one sensational news story, like BSE in beef or toxins in farmed salmon, can spread like wildfire and leave superior quality food products sitting on shelves.

“The best strategy to prevent such an unfortunate situation is staying close to your customers at all levels, educate and consult with them, inform and assure them of the safety and quality checks, the nutritional facts and build the integrity of the product like a fortress,” according to Colin MacDonald, president and CEO of Clearwater Seafoods.

“Consumers are more sophisticated in their knowledge of food, MacDonald said, and the motivation is toward healthier eating and longevity.” Major protein food groups are in competition with each other, and seafood is a major contender largely because of its impressive Omega-3 component, a heavyweight in the fight against cardiovascular disease.

Clearwater Seafoods capitalizes on Atlantic Canada’s reputation for having a pristine environment and picture-perfect fishing villages. It all supports the image of clean, fresh quality.

Live lobster is the company’s biggest seller. However, their newest product is raw, frozen lobster in pouch packs, popular with high-end chefs and major food service companies who want fresh lobster without issues of handling and mortality. It’s a perfect example of anticipating customers’ needs and offering superior solutions.

Clearwater uses their website to promote their fish products, recipes and online ordering. “And to reach the high-end food service market, we advertise in key magazines to promote the high quality seafood that Atlantic Canada has to offer,” MacDonald said. “We also have sales offices in key markets, to maintain and build a strong sales network, and stay close to our customers. Direct selling is still critical to closing a business deal.”

Not all Atlantic Canadian companies need sales offices in other provinces and countries in order to be where their customers are. Award-winning Engage Interactive of Fredericton, New Brunswick is a developer of online education courseware for PDA, cell phones and DVD – the anywhere, anyone, anytime type of learning. Their advertising is completely online because their customers are online.

Engage is exploiting burgeoning e-marketing venues which allow them to target potential customers without the high price-per-thousand costs associated with traditional advertising.

“Online advertising is emerging from a wild-west technology and rapidly becoming more organized with such things as http://www.prweb.com,/ where you can inexpensively post press releases, and RSS (Really Simple Syndication), where stories are fed into content categories that can be picked up by Google News, MSN news and others,” said Thomas Mitchell, director of Sales with Engage.

For Atlantic Canadian companies whose market is completely within the region, audience fragmentation is a challenge. More people are watching specialty channels, which are carving the viewing audience into smaller, highly concentrated pieces of pie. For example, the Golf Channel may not have a large audience, but it delivers an affluent audience at a good price.

Heather Tulk, vice president of Broadband and Marketing with Aliant, says it has become more difficult to reach large numbers of people. “At one time, you could place a 30-second spot on the television weather forecast on Thursday night and reach a large block of Atlantic Canadians,” Tulk said. “Not any more: targets for each advertising medium have to be clearly defined. The message has to be crisp, because there are so many messages out there to compete with. The goal is to make a connection, so the message should connect emotionally, be fact-based, situation specific and fit with the psychology of the customer.”

Broadcast and print media are responding to the need for more sophisticated market information. There are considerable choices for advertising placement, and media have to provide detailed audience information. In the case of television advertising, Mike Elgie, the general manager of ATV, says, “Clients know their target markets, their age range, and their habits – right down to their eye colour. The medium must deliver.”

Newspaper advertising is also evolving to meet the needs of its customer base, said Fred Buckland, senior vice president and general manager of the Chronicle Herald in Halifax. “It’s about customization and image. Customers are very strategic about the placement of their ads. They want to know the section where their advertisement will appear and, more importantly, the type of content that will be appearing within that section.”

For flyer delivery, customers specify neighbourhoods, streets, parts of streets and even particular addresses. In order to meet this growing demand, the Chronicle Herald is investing in automated insertion equipment.

In the aftermath of 9/11, airports in Atlantic Canada have had to adapt along with the rest of the world to a rapid decline in air traffic. In the face of these challenges, the Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA) decided to work more strategically with airline partners to help increase passenger traffic.

They launched http://www.flyhalifax.com/ as a one-stop site integrating flight information from all airlines in one convenient place, allowing consumers to compare prices and explore the best scenarios for air travel. As well, they promoted the airport to new airlines as a less-congested hub near Atlantic Canada’s largest city, while highlighting their low-cost landing fees and high customer service.

A media campaign was launched utilizing traditional media in innovative ways to maximize awareness of the airport. In one instance, they commissioned an artist to paint an advertisement on a billboard at the approach to the bridge between Dartmouth and Halifax.

“We were able to pique curiosity and get people talking about what was going on,” said Jerry Staples, Director, Marketing and Business Development for HIAA. “Morning radio shows picked up on it and generated some fun chat. Driving to work can be uneventful, so this gave commuters something to check out over a week or so. It is hard to ignore someone standing up high painting onto a billboard. We created a dynamic advertising event instead of a static billboard which would be so easy to overlook.”

In another promotion, the Halifax business community was invited to a lunchtime entertainment event at a local park to learn about a new airline service to Halifax. The strategy for this campaign was to demonstrate the hospitality that customers could expect when using the new airline, offer a direct invitation to use the service and give people an opportunity to chat with airline employees. It was a deliberate tactic to bring the product to the target market instead of waiting passively for them to use the service.

The Airport’s strategy is working. Within the last two years, the number of airline carriers connecting to Halifax has tripled (growing from seven to 21). In 2004, they saw a record 3.2 million passengers using the airport and they were named the number one airport in the world for customer service in the under-5-million-passenger category.

HIAA’s success is reflected in the carriers who use the airport. Canjet is a home-grown regional passenger carrier that was established in 2002. At the time, Atlantic Canada was being underserved by major carriers who, in the afterburn of 9/11, were increasing fares while cutting back on destinations, flights and customer service in a struggle to survive.

Canjet had the benefit of studying two other airlines – Southwest Airlines in the United States and Westjet in Canada – who had achieved profitability by crafting a good schedule, smart connections, customer service and affordable prices.

Canjet followed this basic model, while capitalizing on our well-known Atlantic Canadian hospitality. They did their research, establishing a schedule and destinations that matched the travel patterns of Atlantic Canadians. Their advertising featured friendly faces and the promise of reliable service at the lowest possible price. And then they delivered on the promise.

The result? After almost three years in business, Canjet flies to 14 destinations. This year they plan to add two more destinations and two more aircraft to their fleet.

The HIAA and Canjet refused to let circumstances turn Atlantic Canada into a backwater region. They took charge, crafting innovative solutions that respond to the needs of the region.

Atlantic Canadian universities have done their part to enhance the region’s image. Five have been ranked in the top 10 in the 2004 Maclean’s rankings’ survey; the top three all from Atlantic Canada. Topping the list for the last three years is St. Francis Xavier in Nova Scotia, and the president, Dr. Sean Riley, says their success is built on the old “university town” model.

Seventy per cent of Canada’s largely urban universities have enrolments over 15,000, larger class sizes, a significant number of part-time faculty and many students who are not living on campus. By contrast, St. FX emphasizes their small-town roots, limits their enrolment to 4,000 students and emphasizes the message that “they are not getting bigger, they are getting better.”

This is not to say that students are isolated from global issues. Through strategic linkages, such as The Coady Institute, the university brings the world to its doorstep. Established by St. FX in 1959, The Coady Institute is a world-renowned centre of excellence in community-based development. Over the past four decades, nearly 4,000 development organization leaders from over 120 countries have taken part in the Institute's campus-based programs.

The Maclean’s survey rating is the university’s highest profile publicity, and it is featured prominently on their functional, content-rich web site. Other promotion includes high school visits to attract students and a major print advertising campaign.

St. FX also makes maximum use of word-of-mouth marketing. Their alumni support was ranked highest by the Maclean’s survey, which means graduates are loyal and vocal supporters of the university. As Dr. Sean Riley says, “Our greatest advertisement is the alumni who speak so highly about the university and recommend it to others.”

Business and industry associations in Atlantic Canada can also be plagued by negative stereotypes, often of their own making. Their approach has become formulaic; offering a steady diet of luncheon speakers, the occasional trade show and a lobbying voice on behalf of their industry. Does this value proposition warrant the several hundred dollars that members pay each year?

It’s a question that is becoming relevant in Newfoundland, where federal and provincial funding to a number of industry associations is disappearing. Can these associations survive on their own?

“Indeed they can,” says Marvin Chaulk, president of Nati, the Newfoundland Association of Technology Industries. His association is reinventing itself around a business driven model in order to achieve self-sufficiency.

“Today’s successful businesses are changing, dynamic and adaptive” Chaulk said. “In order to serve its members, Nati must be the same. We can’t just talk about innovation; we have to lead by example.”

Nati represents more than 200 members active in information technology, ocean technology, biotechnology and geomatics. Over the last year, Nati has put in place new strategies and tactics to drive change and enhance profitability for members, with an emphasis on business, industry and human resource development.

The association has a strong lobbying voice, and is heavily involved in the development of an Innovation Strategy for the province, but it is also engaged on the front lines of business development.Through its Business Development Program, Nati enters into formal partnerships with selected companies by working as a sales agent in the pursuit of export markets.

“We work one-on-one with companies in developing their branding and marketing strategies, then pursue international contracts on their behalf,” said Chaulk, a former entrepreneur himself. “When those businesses succeed in winning contracts, we benefit from that.”

Nati’s approach in this regard is apparently unique among industry associations globally. “We don’t care how many trade missions we attend,” Chaulk said. “What really matters is how many deals we conclude.”

By creating results for members, Nati generates revenue that is rolled back into programs and services. “We rely on the same market forces that drive our membership, which gives tremendous insight into the opportunities and challenges they face,” Chaulk explained.

These Altantic Canadian examples covering various sectors demonstrate an exceptional wealth of marketing savvy in Atlantic Canada. And not one of these successful businesses mentioned location as a significant problem. Yet, how many times is our location used as an excuse for underachievement? Or trumpeted as a reason to open the public purse and offer incentives to attract new business?

A few years back, at a conference in Calgary, Alberta’s business development officers made a presentation to a group of manufacturing companies from across Canada on the advantages of relocating to Alberta. But they weren’t pulling out their cheque books. To the contrary, they advised companies not to locate there unless they were sure Alberta offered the right conditions for success. Specifically, they said: “We aren’t giving you a popsicle stick to move here.”

Alberta’s philosophy and the mindset of successful Atlantic Canadian companies are similar. Our companies flourish because they capitalize on the strengths of the region, while offering solutions that are in demand at home and around the world.

If we, as Atlantic Canadians, can take some marketing lessons from these winning companies and organizations, perhaps someday soon we can adopt the “no popsicle stick” business strategy.

And we can start rewriting the commentaries on Atlantic Canada, shaking the stereotypes and innuendo once and for all.

Inns of Distinction of Prince Edward Island

The Inns of Distinction of Prince Edward Island are twenty-two estates tucked into thirteen inland and coastal communities, offering an artistic and cultural journey through 200 years of Island history with all the pampering luxuries of today. Fourteen of these homes represent the decades of the 19th century, a time when Canada became an independent nation while her cultural influences were European.

You will peer through the windows of history and discover the elegant lifestyles of Fathers of Confederation, early bankers, shipbuilders, former premiers and mayors, wine merchants, oil industrialists, fox breeders, farmers, and the Island’s first innkeepers and tourists. The Island’s Scottish, English and Acadian heritage is proudly preserved. The restoration of these inns has been so well done, you will find it odd not to be approaching the front entrance in a horse and carriage or vintage motorcar.

The inns of the 20th century include those of a famous Hollywood playwright and wealthy folks who left the Island to seek their fame and fortune, returning to retire. Four of our inns were built within the last five years by innkeepers who fell in love with a special place on the Island, created their dream home and want to share it with you.

Staying at the Inns of Distinction is the most elegant way to discover Prince Edward Island, an Island truly fitting a charming prince. The vistas rival the best coastlines and rural tapestry of the world. The Island offers more compactness than travelling Europe and a thousand miles of sand-duned beaches, auburn cliffs and bays which inspired Impressionist-style painter, Robert Harris (1849-1919), and many modern artists whose works you can view at local art galleries. Harris was an Island painter who studied in Canada, Europe and America, and his works can be seen at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown.

Nothing is far away on Prince Edward Island. The Island is 140 miles by an average 40 miles wide. The population is 140,000. The largest towns are Charlottetown (pop. 32,000), its capital, and Summerside (pop.15,000). In 2005, Charlottetown’s will celebrate its 150 birthday. These towns are only an hour apart and offer delightful historic walking tours, art galleries, shops and restaurants and are easily walkable. Charlottetown has eight Inns of Distinction located on quiet, historic streets and another only 15 minutes West of the Town in a quiet riverside setting.

Summerside has two Inns of Distinction in the historic downtown and another about 15 minutes away overlooking farm fields. These inns are close to the Indian River Festival site and within the narrowest region of the Island, only three kilometers between the North and South shores. They are also closest to the Western part of the province which features many beautiful destinations and festivals. The North Cape Wind Farm is located at the Western tip of the Island, where wind turbines, including the largest in North America, generate a portion of the Island’s electrical power.

There are six Inns of Distinction in the central North Shore region of the Island which are close the Cavendish activities, including a diverse range of golf courses and the National Park, and they offer a variety of quiet riverside, woodland, beachside and bay settings. This region offers L.M. Montgomery enthusiasts a romantic and literary tour through the land of Anne of Green Gables and the life of its author. You will enjoy many of the same lovely scenes that she describes in her books and the houses where she spent her early life.

Two of the North Shore Inns are located in the duned-beach region where Island tourism began in the last half of the 19th century, and the original charm and landscape have been carefully preserved. Another inn is located in the heart of the Acadian region and surrounded by some treasures of history.

In the Eastern part of the Island, there are four Inns of Distinction, and they each offer waterfront seclusion. They are close to golf courses and eastern shore, white-duned beaches as well as the newest addition to the National Park at Greenwich.

Prince Edward Island’s only winery, Rossignol’s, in the Southeastern part of the Province, produces not only the usual grape varieties but also local berry wines. They are becoming famous for their dessert wines and, recently, they added a new white wine called, Isle St. Jean, the former French name of our Island.

No matter where you travel on Prince Edward Island, you will be taken back in time. The Island has maintained a fine balance of accepting the new without compromising the best of the old. Many say, “Once you get here, you will understand.” Well, it is true. The serene beauty will overwhelm you. We remain within the top ten islands in the world in readership surveys by Travel & Leisure Magazine. In the Fall of 2004, Conde Nast Traveler awarded Prince Edward Island the number-three position in the top ten islands in North America.

As you drive along the coastline in the early evening, a natural theatre of shorebirds and the hues of the setting sun will consume you until the last glimmer of light falls behind the horizon. In the interior of the Island, the evening sun illuminates the green and yellow fields, so you may find yourself being one of the slow drivers holding up traffic as you gawk out the window.

With hundreds of beaches equivalent to over 800 kilometres, it is easy to find one where you can walk for miles on a secluded, sand-duned or red-cliffed shore which will be magnificently unexplainable to your friends back home. For cyclists and hikers, the Island has a trail network of over 300 kilometres which extends from one tip of the Island to the other and branches out in the interior of the Province.

For golfers, Prince Edward Island has been identified as the best new golf destination in Canada with its 26 courses, one of which has been rated in the top ten in Canada by Score Golf Magazine.

PEI is home to the Culinary Institute of Canada which is producing fine chefs who are winning international recognition and awards creating dishes inspired by the bounty of our sea and land. Each Fall, the Island hosts an International Shellfish Festival where these culinary talents and other self-professed chefs can compete for the top spots, and visitors get to enjoy the feast.

Aside from the fine dining that you will enjoy at many of our inns, you can also find many restaurants offering different styles of authentic cuisine in towns and throughout the countryside. For more casual dining, wharf-side restaurants offer the usual fish and chips, but also chowders, fresh oysters and steamed mussels. There is something delightfully satisfying about enjoying your favourite seafood meal while watching fishing boats, inlet bays and sand dunes in the distance and breathing in the salt air.

It is possible to fill up your evenings with cultural events like ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees), storytelling, musical or live theatre and fine classical music. With the creation of the East Coast Music Awards in 1989, the music industry is burgeoning some fine talent, many of whom have toured internationally.

There are live theatres scattered across the Island, and each year features an increasing number of talented producers, writers and actors. These are good venues to learn more about Island culture and its varied stories. All Winter long, workshops are offered to help budding talents hone their crafts for the next summer season.

The Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown features the Anne of Green Gables musical that has been running for 40 years, as popular as ever, and other stage productions.

PEI is home to the Indian River Festival at St. Mary’s Church in Indian River, near Summerside. This three-day festival is taped and radio broadcast each year by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and features classical and jazz music performed by elite international talent. Over twenty other concerts throughout July and August feature classical, jazz, folk and celtic artists, and many nights have full houses. The church’s architecture, as many others on the Island, was designed by the famous Island architect, William Critchlow Harris, and offers an almost-perfect acoustical experience. Harris designed the interior of the church to have the same acoustical qualities as the inside of a musical instrument. During intermission, you can walk outside to enjoy the evening sun illuminating the large, white-shingled church and the cows grazing in the field across the road.

It is impossible to describe Prince Edward Island without talking about its people. The last thing possible is for you to be a neglected tourist. Islanders will leave you alone to enjoy your travels around the Island, but if you look in any way lost, someone will be stopping to ask if you need help with directions. They will look you in the eye and strike up a conversation. Cars will break traffic rules, stopping to allow you to cross the street. And they will be delighted to share their stories of the Island and hear about where you are from. They will likely know about your part of the world, as inevitably they will have a close or distant relative in the area. On a small Island, many young folks have moved away to other parts of the world over the years, but many are eventually drawn back to their beautiful home.

Lucy Maud Montgomery through her fictional character, Anne of Green Gables, made Prince Edward Island famous, but when you experience our scenery, gourmet cuisine and pampering at our Inns of Distinction, you will come to realize as many others have before you that truth can be more powerful and beautiful than fiction.

We have a wonderful selection of inns that offer distinct experiences, so you have the choice to be in our historic towns, by the bay or down by the river, on a secluded coast, in the middle of lush green farmland, in old Acadia, near our fabulous golf courses or by the National Park.

As innkeepers, we love what we do. We have also travelled extensively and are well acquainted with what the discriminating traveller is looking for in a fine inn experience. For many of us, it has been a dream come true to own a beautiful inn on our little piece of heaven called Prince Edward Island, and we look forward to sharing it with you.

Written by Vivian Beer, Merdock Group, 2004, for the Inns of Distinction of Prince Edward Island.

www.innsofpei.com

Prince Edward Island

I live on Prince Edward Island (PEI) in the Eastern part of Canada. The island is approximately 140 x 40 miles and is one of the most beautiful places to be between July and September of each year. There are thousands of miles of beaches and large bays...lots of places for a writer and photographer to find inspiration.