Did you know that there are sand dunes in Saskatchewan? Gisele Danis, executive director, strategic initiatives, Canada program at the Canadian Tourism Commission knows.

Created by DDB Canada’s Vancouver office, Localsknow.ca contains details on the best surf beach in B.C. or small town basilica in Quebec, all uploaded by users. The CTC is tapping insider knowledge for its first domestic campaign in three years to convince citizens to stay home for their summer holidays.

‘In focus testing people said, ‘I’ve seen it all, and Canada’s too expensive,” says Danis. ‘We wanted to break down those barriers. Canada’s got value and intrigue; it’s still exotic and has cool places.’

Contributors have a chance to win one million miles from Aeroplan, one of the site’s major partners, and Air Canada is offering a special deal on its Explore Canada pass. Other partners, from tiny tour companies to major hotel chains, are featured on the deals page. Provincial tourism partners chipped in on the $8 million media buy in the first phase of a two-year, $20-million stimulus package by the Canadian government to support Canadian tourism. It includes ads in 26 newspapers and four 15-second TV spots running across all channels in prime time, in an effort to reach the benchmark of 235,000 ‘stay-cations’ this year.