Gaspé…..Destination for Americans

The Gaspé region became a popular place for Americans to visit. It attracted the famous and the less famous, the rich and the middle-class. The proof that the Gaspé had “arrived” as a destination can be seen by its gradual entrance into American culture, both popular and literary.

In 1937, the American writer E.B. White (who would later write the famous Stuart Little books for children) wrote in The New Yorker magazine, “the annual chirruping of the recreational centres (Maine, Vermont, Cape Cod, Nantucket, the dude West, the Gaspé, the Adirondacks) has developed into a kind of hogcalling contest. Every state or section which regards itself as a bargain for vacationists maintains a publicity bureau, buys space in newspapers and magazines; and they all shout at each other….”

The Gaspé had become a popular destination for readers of The New Yorker. It may have helped that the Office de publicité of the province of Quebec had its offices in Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan and purchased advertising in American magazines, vehicles chosen to get the message out to readers and influencers.