It was January 2020 and I had decided
to return to the family travel business my
grandfather started in 1967. Twenty years
in the travel industry and it was time to
work on something that I could control,
something that I might one day leave to
one of my three children. I didn't know, of
course, that two months later international
borders would shut down, airplanes
would remain grounded and the world
would essentially shelter in place.
One thing became clear to me as we rode
the pandemic wave: domestic travel was
a sleeping giant and it was slowly starting
to stir.
The Birth of Landsby
A few years before the global pandemic
began, I had met with the Destination
Canada team and they introduced me
to the Canadian Signature Experiences
program—a portfolio of authentic, Canadian
experiences designed in 2012 for the
How to
collab
with travel
& tourism
international markets, showcasing iconic
Canadian experiences. What really struck
me was that as a well-travelled Canadian,
born and raised in Toronto with many years
in the travel industry, I had not heard of any
of these experiences prior to the meeting.
Why did they only live as a static PDF on the
tourism board website? Why weren't these
experiences being marketed to Canadians?
So, in the spring of 2020, my mind
immediately jumped to domestic tourism.
Could this be the push we Canadians
needed to finally start prioritizing travel in
our own country? Was this the opportunity
to do something about those experiences
I had been dreaming about since my
meeting with Destination Canada?
Through my family 's company, I
launched a Canadian portfolio with 50
partners from the program and that later
led to the birth of Landsby, named after
the Nordic word for village.
By Jason Sarracini
FOUNDER AND CEO
LANDSBY
March April 2022 | staymagazine.ca | 33
