Day Tripper Videos of Cobourg Beach.

Over recent years Cobourg’s local media were given over to hosting a number of negative perceptions by locals about tourists, who are accused of bringing nothing to Cobourg and leaving only garbage. Meaner things have been said. Hundreds of column inches have been published year after year, always with a noticeable hole in the coverage of tourists to Cobourg.

No newspaper, no blog, no local pundits, have ever interviewed a tourist to Cobourg. No one has any curiosity about who the tourists are. How they regard us.  How pathetic is that?!

Cobourg Tourism has hired professionals to make 20 videos over seven years that have been published on Youtube and Facebook. The number of views and shares they have acquired is remarkably modest. They are formulaic, contrived and mediocre. Cobourg taxpayers paid how much for these videos?

Romantic Getaways (https://youtu.be/3tCEM00jqSo) consists of a middle age couple, (hired models) he white, she not. They disembark at the yacht docks, sniff flowers at the Farmer’s Market, stroll downtown, eat local food, walk the beach, all done to peppy music; not a single hair out of place. It is obviously contrived. Something is missing and it is authenticity, sincerity and genuine happiness.

I will be showcasing videos about Cobourg beach on my blog, Cobourg of All Things (cobourgtown.blogspot.ca) over the next few weeks. The videos were made by daytripper tourists. They are amateur, charming, authentic and sincere. They are unabashedly happy about their visit to Cobourg. All this publicity FOR FREE!

Invariably, these day tripper tourists are from assorted communities of immigrants. Many of the videos were produced by their Canadian-born children. Their day trip to Cobourg is integral to their successful integration to Canadian values.

There is a gold mine of videos produced by day tripping tourists and uploaded to the YouTube commons. Why couldn’t Cobourg Tourism or Downtown Cobourg feature one or more on their social media pages. It is surprising that not a single professional promotional outfit has thought to use images from some of these authentic videos for a montage. Nor have any local videographers. Inside the box is a safe space for them all. There is an incredible lack of imagination.

Enjoy the series of videos. I will attach my own commentary to each video. If you like the video, feel free to ‘like’ it or ‘share’ it.