In this segment, the host introduces a remarkable tourism promotion that originated not from a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) but from a local Nanaimo creator, Tod Maffin. Reacting to trade tensions, Tod posted a TikTok video inviting Americans to visit Vancouver Island, promising city‑provided keys and highlighting outdoor activities and craft breweries. The host notes that Tod expected only modest interest, yet within days the video attracted thousands of enthusiastic responses. The excerpt includes live read‑outs of several commenters from various U.S. states and cities who pledged to travel, illustrating the rapid, grassroots viral spread of the campaign. The narrative underscores how a simple, authentic call‑to‑action can generate massive, organic tourism interest without traditional DMO resources.
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I wanna tell you guys about the most impressive DMO campaign that I've seen in a while that didn't come from a DMO. It actually came from just a guy in Nanaimo. His name is Tod Maffin. I've actually been following him on the internet for a while. Shout out, Tod, you're doing a great job. And Tod loves where he lives. And when the trade war was happening, when the tariffs were coming in, Tod thought, why don't I just invite a whole bunch of Americans to come and check out Nanaimo? And so he created this video and put it on TikTok.
Hey, Americans who support Canadians, I have an idea. What if we picked a day in like a month and a half or so where all of you come up here to Vancouver Island. I'm not kidding. Hear me out. If we do this, the city would, like, give you literal keys. They would be so excited. We have incredible outdoor activities here. We have hiking. We have some of the best brew pubs in the world. We just pick a day and all of you show up, and I can, like, host an event.
Should we do this? I don't think that he ever could have imagined the results that he got. Initially, when Tod describes it, he says if this had been wildly successful, he may have had enough people to fill a dinner party. But in just the first few days, he got literally thousands of Americans who were like, Yeah, I would love to come visit Nanaimo.
Two coming from Belton, Texas. Two coming from Sandpoint, Idaho.
Two from Olympia, Washington. Yeah, four from Marysville, Washington. Two from Kirkland, Washington. Disney, there's Indiana. Two registered from Everett, Washington. Hey, this is Alan and Liz Cohen from near Portland, Oregon. There'll be two of us and we are coming from Oregon. We're coming from Spokane. There's two of us.
There's now a Notion board where he's got tons of information about what to do in Nanaimo, how to plan a trip, where to book a hotel. There's a section about local businesses and how they can lean in and become a part of this movement. And he's been posting updates on his TikTok where literally people from all over the United States are saying, yes, I'm coming. I can't wait to see what Naimo is all about. And so what I love so much about this is this is what makes the internet amazing, right? Just people coming together and just doing something ridiculous because why not? But also I think we can learn a lot from Tod Maffin is that he didn't overthink it. He didn't have to have everything perfect and done. He just put it out there and he said, hey, here's an idea that I have. And sure enough, people loved it. Then once it really started to catch fire, that's when he doubled down and that's where he created follow-up content. And as far as I can tell, he's now working with tourism in Naimo and he's reached out to all the local businesses, but he didn't let perfectionism perfection stand in the way of his idea. So I love this. Check out Tod's Nanaimo Infusion, and if you're watching from the States, why not sign up? We'd love to see you up here in BC.
