A Calgary-based travel company is apologizing after mixing up two of Canada’s best known islands.
An Anderson Vacations brochure offering an 11-day tour to Newfoundland and Labrador instead shows a map of Cape Breton, labelled with the names of cities and towns in Newfoundland.
“I just can’t believe somebody didn’t do their homework and they published a thing like that,” says Mary Harris, who works at a gift shop in Sydney. “I think that’s outrageous.”
“Coming from Cape Breton, we can’t believe that we would be misunderstood,” says Bernadette MacNeil, the marketing manager for the cruise line in Sydney.
“We’re Cape Bretoners. We’re an icon. How in the world can this mistake be made?”
Corey Marshall, the CEO of Anderson Vacations, apologized for the error in a statement to CTV News:
“We apologize to our partners and friends across Newfoundland for the map error. Although our content management company, whom we contract to create the destination planner series, tried to use the best in technology mapping tools, in this case there was a major technical error,” said Marshall.
This isn’t the first time Cape Breton has been mistaken for someplace else; some passengers have arrived at the JA Douglas McCurdy Airport in Sydney thinking they were in Australia.
“There’s many stories where we are believed to be Sydney, Australia, whether it’s visitors coming in thinking they were flying into Sydney, Australia,” says MacNeil. “They landed in Sydney, Nova Scotia, lucky for them.”
While the company has apologized for the error, luck doesn’t appear to be on its side. After correcting the mistake, it made another when it spelled the province’s capital as Saint John, instead of St. John’s.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore
