"Choo Choo Tuesday": How one travel advisor used cookies to build business with Rocky Mountaineer

Sometimes the best blueprint for a creative marketing plan lies no further than your very own backyard.

Or, in the case of Toronto-based travel consultant Paul Nielsen, within the wrapping of a sweet handheld treat.

Last month, the charismatic advisor from Paragon Travel, an affiliate of First in Service, launched a targeted marketing campaign in his neighbourhood of East York using three ingredients: coffee shops, cookies and a love for rail travel.

The idea was simple: Nielsen teamed up with three locally-owned coffee shops in his area – East Toronto Coffee, Oliver Coffee Bar and Remarkable Bean (respected hangouts, with real baristas) – to distribute free train-shaped cookies, courtesy of Nielsen, to customers every Tuesday throughout February.

Why cookies, inspired by trains? Because written on the packaging of each cookie was a call to action: to arrange a one-on-one meeting with Nielsen, at the coffee shops, to discuss the possibility of booking a bucket-list railway trip with B.C.-based Rocky Mountaineer.

And that’s how “Choo Choo Tuesday” – a neighbourhood-focused initiative that bridges free cookies with travel dreams – was born.

“I'm Canadian, and a railway fan, so it works,” said Nielsen, a travel advisor of 12 years. “Railways were critical to the creation of Canada, from East to West. It made us a nation, and Rocky Mountaineer brings some of that experience to you.”

One smart cookie

Nielsen said he first started thinking of unique ways to promote Rocky Mountaineer, which operates luxury rail trips, on spacious trains with panoramic windows, through British Columbia and Alberta (as well as Colorado and Utah), back in 2023.

“I first developed the idea of promoting Rocky through model railroad clubs,” he told PAX.

But Nielsen is a smart cookie. Recognizing the health and insurance-related needs of his demographic (Nielsen is 69), and how that translates into requests for travel, closer to home, (and knowing that not all Canadians have a passport to travel internationally), he took his marketing further, casting a wider net in his own community.  

To independent coffee shops, which tend to attract people “who value a good product,” and “will take time to go in and get a special drink,” Nielsen said.

Baking up adventures

Nielsen began teasing Choo Choo Tuesday, which launched February 4, on Facebook groups for some of the neighbourhoods he was engaging with. Using Canva, he created promotional graphics, such as an animation depicting a Rocky Mountaineer train car and a cookie.

The social media posts alone generated “hundreds of loves and likes, and comments about it being a fun idea,” Nielsen said.

“It entered the consciousness of the neighbourhood in a positive way.”

Each participating coffee shop, which were happy to get involved, received three dozen train cookies each Monday, all month long, to give away to customers, for free, the very next day, on Tuesday. The cookies didn’t last long as customers ate them up.

It was also important that Nielsen choo-choo choosed reliable partners to help bring his sweet campaign to life. He hired local baker Jacqui Collett (of Jax Sweet Snax) to prepare a months’ worth of cookies, shaped like a choo-choo trains. 

Nielsen even teamed up with Little Canada, an award-winning tourist attraction in downtown Toronto that showcases Canada’s cities and landscapes in the form of a miniature model museum.

During the first week of Choo Choo Tuesday, Nielsen inserted handwritten numbers in each cookie package, and using social media, he held a draw, inviting people to contact him to see if their number matched his for a chance to win a $25 dollar gift card to Little Canada.

“It brought in some good live leads,” Nielsen said.

As well, anyone who purchases a Rocky Mountaineer trip from Nielsen receives a free ticket to Little Canada, which has a railway component.

The attraction’s mini models, which depict scaled-down versions of Canadian provinces, feature railway tracks with tiny VIA Rail and GO Trains, for example.

Nielsen soon looped in Gary Armstrong, business development manager for Canada at Rocky Mountaineer, taking him to Little Canada for the first time.

(“It blew him away,” Nielsen shared).

During that visit, Nielsen, Armstrong and Nick Lawley (owner of Paragon Travel) “shrunk themselves” into three-quarter inch, 3D-printed figurines, which were placed, beside a railway track, inside Little Canada’s model of Vancouver.

Nielsen also sent Armstrong home with half a dozen train cookies.

"We are truly fortunate to work with the travel advisor community in Canada, and this initiative by Nielsen exhibits all the hallmarks of a well-crafted and executed advertising venture,” Armstrong told PAX. “It is hyper-local and reaches the right guest demographic for Rocky Mountaineer, while also supporting local businesses in our communities.”

“As a proudly Canadian company, we would not be the globally recognized luxury rail experience we are today without the ongoing support of professionals like Paul Nielsen."

Far from cookie-cutter

From promoting brand awareness to planting seeds that spark conversations about future travel, Nielsen’s Choo Choo Tuesday campaign is far from a cookie-cutter idea.

The campaign also comes as more Canadians decide to spend their travel dollars closer to home amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Canada – a situation that just happens to work in Nielsen’s favour (he began mapping out Choo Choo Tuesday long before the trade war began).

And Nielsen funded everything himself, from the baking expenses to the cost of Little Canada tickets.

While the campaign has led to phone calls, it has yet to generate a direct Rocky Mountaineer sale. Still, Nielsen said the investment was worth the dough – especially as it supported other local businesses.

“From the general neighbourhood vibe, to the enthusiasm of the coffee shops and Jax Sweet Snax, it has absolutely been worth it,” he said. “It has given us an opportunity to highlight the Paragon Travel brand in East York so people know we’re here to look after their travel needs.”

Choo Choo Tuesday was just a February thing, but Nielsen has plans of reprising it this July, with a focus on Belmond’s luxury trains.

“It’s all about creating brand awareness in the neighbourhood,” he said. “When people think about going somewhere, Paragon Travel will be top of mind.”

For more information on Choo Choo Tuesday, click here.

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