Campbell's boyhood fantasy turns into career

'When I think of the potential we have... I sometimes get frustrated when I look at some of the lack of progress'

ANDREA MACDONALD
The Daily News, July 7, 2007

Dennis Campbell is president of Ambassatours Gray Line, which was recently named one of the 10 most innovative coach operators in North America by industry publication Metro Magazine. Campbell was also named Business Person of the Year for 2006 by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

Q: How old were you when you started out in this business?

A: Seven. That's when I started touring around with my sister. (When I was 14, I actually did my very first tour.)

My sister was babysitting me and she got a call from her boss at the last minute, saying 'You've got to fill in for somebody who didn't show.' She said, 'I've got my little brother. I was going to take him to swimming lessons.' And her boss said, 'Skip the Waeg. Take him with you and just tell him to sit at the back of the bus and be good.'

Of course, I didn't really do that but I was on the bus and realized very, very quickly that I was with happy people and people that were there for a good time.

So I had a ball at age seven, going around and touring around the Eastern Shore and Sherbrooke Village. That's what was kind of momentous, when people were getting off and handing my sister tips and then one of them handed me a tip. More tips started to go into my hands and I partially joke but it's true - at that moment I realized that little old ladies have a lot of money. And they wanted to give it to me, which was even better. From then on, Jennifer's boss allowed her to take me on a number of tours.

Q: Is it true you inadvertently hired a prostitute early on?

A: It's absolutely the truth. I can laugh about it now but at the time, it was no laughing matter. It was maybe one of the most terrifying revelations that I've ever had in my life. Because you can imagine finding out that you're employing a prostitute when you have no intention of doing that.

At a young age, that was just very, very scary.

Admittedly, I've made lots of mistakes but it was one of those things: I truly didn't understand that there was anything other than a tour escort. I thought escort was escort was escort.

When you take a little ad in the Yellow Pages, even though it said Tour Guides and Escorts, this particular escort decided she also wanted to be a tour guide. All the power to her but in my naiveté, I didn't realize.

When I look back now, I kind of shake my head and think, 'How did I not see it?' Even when I gave her my kilt, I'm not kidding you, our ladies' kilted skirts go down to the ankles. Well a few days after I gave it to her, I noticed she had modified it and it became a mini-kilt. It certainly wasn't any help when I said, 'My God, what if she has a pimp and he finds out about me?' and my brother said, 'Well, you really are her pimp.'

Q: Why did you sell Harbour Hopper look-alike Seymour Splash?

A: We learned that the amphibious business is good for amphibious operators and Murphy's on the Water do a great job of it. When they bought us out, it was good for everybody. It allowed them to focus on that end of water-based tours and allowed us to focus on land-based tours. It was a win-win all the way around.

Q: Why were you unable to make a go of it?

A: It started to become successful. As a matter of fact, that's why Murphy's bought us out in the end. But it's not an easy business. Boats are not meant to bounce around on the land. That's a fact. And as soon as you own them you realize you need to have 24-hour-a-day service and you need to have crews working on them all night long. So we learned that and started to do that. The difference is Murphy's knew that early on and they are very good at it.

Q: Do you ever get flak for promoting Celtic culture so heavily?

A: I can't say that we have. I think the reason is that every time the question comes up, we always are very careful to say that while we are an Atlantic Canadian company and there are so many great cultures, the Celtic culture is just one of them. It just happens to be the one that we chose to promote because we do live in New Scotland.

Q: You've been a vocal critic of Ottawa's proposal to scrap the visitor tax-rebate program. What else do you think governments need to do to help the ailing tourism industry?

A: Some of our liquor-licensing laws are absolutely archaic. We're Maritimers. We say we're some of the most hospitable people in the world, or so we think. And yet you go to the Caribbean or most any part of Europe or even parts of Canada, one of the first things they'll do is give you a nice warm smile and an ice-cold beer. Especially when you go down to the Caribbean, that's the first thing they do when you get on the shuttle bus.

When they get on here, we'll give them a nice warm smile and warm welcome, but we have to say, 'Sorry, no Keith's. No Grand Pré. No Jost.' Even though we are in a professionally chauffeured, controlled environment.

When I think of the potential we have as a region, there's a lot of good but I sometimes get frustrated when I look at some of the lack of progress.

The best example I can cite is dealing with the City of Moncton. There's just an attitude of, 'The answer is yes. What's the question?'

I must give [HRM Mayor] Peter Kelly a lot of credit. He's done a lot of good but I think there's a regime and a way of thinking here that, without necessarily pointing the finger at him, the answer isn't always so progressive and so open-minded. That I find frustrating.

Q: What more can private operators do?

A: Keep delivering quality service in whatever we're doing. Over-deliver and under-promise in general. Private industry can continue to market like mad and keep being persistent.

Q: Your sister Jennifer has obviously been a big inspiration. How much does she still influence your decisions?

A: She still influences me quite a bit. Unfortunately, because she's in California, it's not on a daily or weekly basis but she is my West Coast cheerleader.

I think because I'm her little brother and the youngest of seven, she always took care of me and still believes it's her job to take care of me today, so she is drumming up business for us all the time. She is an incredible salesperson. So I'm constantly hearing from people saying, 'Jennifer told us we had to come to Nova Scotia and that we had to take one of your tours.'

Q: You tell a great story about having to rely on cash advances from Canadian Tire to make payroll one time early on. Do you think a person has to be hungry to make a great entrepreneur?

A: I was hungry and I think that's a very good feature to have. But when I think about it, I know others are very good entrepreneurs whose family businesses were passed down to and I have to be very frank and say I think they have it now, it's just maybe not quite the same. If you come from nothing, it makes it a little easier to work a little harder at times. Here's what critical: If you don't have the hunger, you absolutely must have the humbleness.

Q: What other qualities does a person need to survive in this industry?

A: There's no question about it. You absolutely have to have an open mind, you have to be hard-working, you have to be humble. You have to have a good sense of humour because when you think nothing else bad can come, it does.

Q: What's the craziest thing that's ever happened on one of your tours?

A: Some of them, unfortunately, are a little tragic. Like once we had someone who passed away on the bus and the wife didn't tell us until the end of the day. They were at the Lord Nelson Hotel and she got off the bus and said, 'I just thought I should let you know that Bob passed away.' One of them jokingly said, 'That explains why he didn't play bingo this morning.' They thought she had to be joking. Turns out she wasn't joking. He had passed away during the coffee break before lunch. She'd put his hat down over his head and they thought he was asleep all day. She said, 'I just didn't want to disrupt anyone's day.'