Fredericton — In light of news of wildly inaccurate information being circulated about New Brunswick, some European operators are now admitting that they didn’t really pay attention when meeting with the province’s tourism department.
Last week, it was revealed that New Brunswick tourism officials took extravagant trips to Paris and London on the taxpayers’ dime. Moreover, they stayed at luxury hotels and expensed outings to Stonehenge, Palace of Versailles and the London Eye — none of which promotes New Brunswick tourism.
Tourism Minister Tammy Scott-Wallace justified the trip saying that they met with tour operators to promote provincial tour destinations. However, the tour operators say that they mostly ignored government officials during their impromptu meetings.
“Right. Here’s what happened,” recounted British tour operator Penelope Shufflebottom. “We were working at our London office we we get a cold call from some people from ‘New Brunswick.’
“We were like, ‘What? There’s a ‘new’ Brunswick? We barely knew the old Brunswick.
“Anyhow, they urgently begged us to go to lunch with them so they could write off some travel expenses or something. We were going to give it a pass, but they offered to pay for a very posh lunch at an elite restaurant,” she said. “It was too good to pass up.”
Shufflebottom admits that she was mostly concerned with the kobe beef, white truffles and almas caviar, and neglected to pay attention to their ostensibly wealthy benefactors.
“I was on my second bowl of bird’s nest soup saying, ‘Right, right, right. Saint John, capital of New Brunswick, got it’ or whatever. I just kept ordering every expensive thing I could find and taking pictures for my Insta. It’s great content for my followers. Afterwards, we never heard from them again.”
When asked if she had any more travel that would alarm taxpayers, Scott-Wallace says she’s in the clear.
“No way! I’ve learned my lesson,” she said. “But hey…do you know anyone who’d like to buy some ivory or a tiger pelt?”