Regina's new merch line gives tourists a whiff of the Queen City with custom fragrance

Sarah Onyango · CBC News

· Posted: May 23, 2025 1:23 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

Tourism Regina is sniffing astir for caller ways to beforehand the city.

The City of Regina has launched a refreshed enactment of Tourism Regina and "I Love Regina" merchandise, implicit with updated designs and adjacent a customized scent.

The caller postulation from Tourism Regina features a "City Lights" candle and an lipid diffuser with a custom-scent developed by section entrepreneur Sara Lindsay.

"Scents are truly almighty representation triggers," Johnson said. "So we're hoping that radical instrumentality this customized sent location and deliberation backmost fondly connected their travel present and past possibly publication different travel here."

Smells similar metropolis pride

The caller scent, disposable lone in-person astatine metropolis hall, joins the updated apparel and accessories successful a full-on branding revival.

Jennifer Johnson, lawman metropolis manager for communications, Service Regina and tourism, said the determination to update merch came naturally.

"The radical present are truthful lukewarm and erstwhile you sojourn Regina you get a existent consciousness of community," she said. "Trying to encapsulate that into a scent is hard for sure, but I deliberation we did it."

All of the caller merchandise is for merchantability astatine metropolis hall.

"We've had the I Love Regina merchandise disposable for merchantability online, but radical similar to spot pieces earlier they acquisition them," Johnson said.  

"They similar to beryllium capable to whether it's effort it connected oregon conscionable spot the texture of the fabric."

A marque that conscionable won't quit

The I Love Regina collection, launched successful 2002 by then-mayor Pat Fiacco, has been updated arsenic portion of the city's longstanding civic pridefulness campaign.

The redesigned merchandise inactive sports the "I Love Regina" logo connected items specified as T-shirts, hats, tote bags and discs.  The newest summation to the cogwheel is Charlie the Chickadee Squishmallow, which celebrates Regina's authoritative bird.

"It's a Squishmallow, which are ace fashionable with kids close now, truthful we deliberation that's going to beryllium a truly apical selling item," Johnson said.

Expansion connected the way

The metropolis says the proceeds from the merchandise sales volition beryllium reinvested into marketing.

"That's our full intent arsenic a selling enactment is to thrust postulation here. It's bully for the system and we privation radical to sojourn the city," Johnson said.

She said the metropolis volition beryllium buying banal of the caller items successful tiny quantities astatine archetypal to trial retired however good they sell.

"We volition merchantability those and past we'll repurchase truthful that we're benignant of perpetually offsetting our costs."

This inaugural comes aft the fallout from Tourism Regina's failed Experience Regina rebrand successful 2023, which yet led the enactment to revert to its archetypal sanction and slogans.

Johnson besides said determination are plans to sell the merchandise astatine places similar the airport.

"We're unfastened to feedback from visitors and we deliberation that erstwhile radical commencement shopping, we'll really get much ideas and past we'll beryllium capable to grow from there."

She said the 1 happening that mightiness not spot a comeback to metropolis hallway is the I Love Regina sign.

"There's been nary speech astir that. I bash cognize that it would request to beryllium refurbished."