I’ve been working in and around Canada’s tourism sector for about 20 years, and I know from first-hand experience that the times, they are a-changin’…

I won’t presume to speak for the industry, but for those of us who made a pretty nice living writing about travel it’s all different now.

Two years ago, I sold dozens of travel-focussed print articles. Now all my dear editors are gone (or waiting to go) and the few who are left have either lost pages or budgets or both.

I’m not whining: it was the kick in the butt I needed to find another way to keep doing what I love to do–that is, write about travel in general, and travel in Canada specifically. Hence, this site, which is growing monthly and already enjoying industry support through sponsorships and paid ads.

Now I have another outlet for my writing: Tourism Vancouver’s new Inside Vancouver blog.

Tourism Vancouver recently joined other forward-looking industry organizations such as Tourism Montreal and invited a handful of travel bloggers to share their passion for the city with regular posts.

There’s no money for the moment, but no constraints either. What I write about is up to me. And heaven knows, I have a lot of ideas and opinions about this beautiful place I call home.

But I’m not the only one: the other bloggers have some great insider tips for locals and tourists alike. It was by reading Inside Vancouver that I first heard about the fun and quirky Japadog phenomenon, in fact.

So please, have a look, and if you like what you see, bookmark the site or sign up for an RSS feed. I’ll try to keep the content on both sites separate, so if you’re reading my stuff there, you won’t be reading the same thing here.

My first post is “There’s no road rage on Vancouver’s watery highways.” Hope you’ll have look!