19/7/96

Calgary Dreams of Year- Round Tourist Stampede

Byline: Sam Orbaum

SOMEWHERE in the midst of all that wheat, oil and cattle, those mountains, lakes and trees, is a city seeking within itself a tourist industry. Like everywhere else on earth outside of North Korea, Calgary is trying for a share of the zillion dollars humanity spends annually on sightseeing.
    Calgary, though, is a tough sell. It's not a natural wonderland; it's not steeped in history; it's not going to draw pilgrims, sun-worshippers and culture-vultures; it's far away and detached from the beaten track.
    If you could go anywhere on earth, why Calgary?
    Air Canada and the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv invited seven Israeli journalists to answer that question.
    They showed us a handsome modern city of 750,000, wealthy and growing, a corporate mega-center, safe, friendly, clean, quiet. Truly a great place to live. The shopping is good, and with the Canadian buck in the doldrums, very, very cheap.
    The best the city has to offer is a rip-roarin' non- stop carnival called the Calgary Stampede. If you hanker for the Wild West -- the real thing, not the simulated stuff of theme parks -- Calgary is the place to be for a 10-day period in July.
    A saucy spirit engulfs the city, as it has yearly since the first Stampede in 1912. You can sit and schmooze with the world's greatest cowboys, who'll then excuse themselves to go rassle a bull or saddle a bronc.
    Calgary becomes tourist heaven with what they call "the greatest outdoor show on Earth": rodeos, stage shows, chuckwagon races, clowns, parades, a casino, dog shows, you name it. Yeeee-ha!
    For the other 355 days of the year, you can still get a taste of the West. The Glenbow Museum, with its rich selection of Canadiana, is superlative; Heritage Park is good family fun, a historical village that harks back to pre-1915 pioneering days; and you can arrange a tour of an Indian reservation. Hal Eagletail, a representative of the "Government of the Sarcee Nation" (all of 900 souls), will show you around and answer even the most inane questions with dignity and insight.
    The reservation is not a theme park: don't expect tepees and war-painted chiefs shooting arrows at Mounties. Instead, it's an unusual exploration of the natives' astounding modern success story.
    For a woolly experience we don't yet have in Israel, take in an unusual dinner-and-show combo at the downtown Eau Claire Market. It's probably better to eat afterward -- especially if you experiment with such delicacies as alligator stew or buffalo steak -- because the entertainment can turn your stomach upside down.
    The show, IMAX Theater, is cinema like you've never imagined. The screen is six stories high and about as wide, and the film completely assaults your senses.
    When that little airplane flies over sheer Andes cliffs, you sort of lose bodily control a bit. In fact, at the beginning of the screening, a staffer advises the audience that "if during the film you feel out of sorts, just close your eyes for a few seconds."

THE BEST that Calgary has to offer is its backyard, which just happens to be filled with Rocky Mountains. An hour away is paradise for the outdoorsy type.
    You can do it all here: trail-riding, white-water rafting, camping or hiking among unspoilt mountains and meadows, fishing, golf, plus, of course, the full gamut of winter sports.
    You'll probably see more elk, deer and bighorn sheep than people, though you'll want to avoid the mountain lions and grizzlies. (Andre, our ever-grinning guide, assured me that he'd never yet lost a tourist to an animal.)
    And if, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, you come across a snowman that looks suspiciously Israeli, you'll know we were there first!
    What is civilized is tastefully unobtrusive. There are new resorts such as Boundary Ranch in a region called Kananaskis Country, which has a remarkable range of activities.
I mean, if you get tired of alpine hiking and helicopter sightseeing, you can pitch horseshoes, enter a log-sawing contest, join a gunfight or be on a bus that's held up by those nasty "Boundary Bad Bunch" who, if you're lucky, will snatch you away and ride you off into the sunset. Sounds like fun if you've never done it for real.

ONE FINAL word:
    Banff.
    This has got to be one of the most spectacular towns in the world. Nestled among the soaring Rockies, it somehow manages to host millions of visitors without being a tacky tourist trap. Even the main drag is quaint and charming, and a feeling of conviviality pervades.
    According to our guide Andre, the town fathers (and, for all I know, mothers) are most punctilious about preserving Banff's dignity and will not allow, for example, shops to hawk trashy shmontzes. If there was a McDonald's I didn't notice: its golden arches certainly don't rise up against the red-rock backdrop.
    Guests at the Banff Springs Hotel don't have to go far to see one of Canada's greatest attractions -- the hotel itself.
    A sprawling, majestic Victorian palace, the legendary hotel will show you around even if you're not staying in one of its 815 rooms. There are some 50 shops, a European-style spa, an Old World ambience and one of the world's most scenic golf courses.
    Next time I come here, I'm going to stay three weeks in the hotel -- though I'll definitely make a side-trip to Calgary.

(Box)

'Who the hell is Air Canada?'

DOING some research for this newspaper some years ago, I came across an odd ad published in the Post in the early 1970s. It read, in its entirety: "Air Canada? Who the hell is Air Canada?"
    Israelis are only now beginning to find out.
    Perhaps fed up with indifferent and sometimes downright abrasive "service" of an airline that shall remain nameless, travelers on the Canada routes are sampling The Big Maple Leaf In The Sky, which began connecting with Israel in June 1995.
    There is a noticeable difference, as Air Canada seems to have fine-tuned what is best termed "professional friendliness."
    The airline flies nonstop Tel Aviv-Toronto four times a week, with plans to add more flights at a later date. (Direct flights to Montreal are available only via El Al.)
    An Air Canada official told us that, to their surprise, its burgeoning business is not just Israelis traveling to Canada and vice versa: many Americans find it convenient to use Toronto as a transfer point.