Olivia Sylvestre and Sarah Hana are two of the MBA students behind the 40-40 summer tourism campaign inviting Americans to cross the tunnel and rediscover the best of Windsor. [ANGELA KHARBOUTLI/University of Windsor]
By Sara Elliott
A team of MBA students has launched a summer tourism campaign called 40-40, bringing new energy to Windsor’s business scene.
Five MBA students from the Odette School of Business partnered with Windsor-Detroit Borderlink Limited (WDBL)—operator of the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel—to encourage tourists to cross the border and explore Windsor hot spots.
“We’re trying to bring back old habits of people regularly crossing at the tunnel,” says Olivia Sylvestre, MBA student and 40-40 project lead.
“We’re all YQG lovers born and raised, and we see it’s a ripple effect – the more people that come over here it is growth for the economy, it is good for us, good for the community.”
What started as a University of Windsor class project blew up into a bonafide cross-border interactive web-based experience.
“As a cross-border city, it is our duty to strengthen those relationships and continue welcoming Americans as we’d like to be welcomed over there,” says MBA student Sarah Hana, 40-40 marketing and communications coordinator.
“Just come explore Windsor because we have amazing things and their dollar is worth more.”
The team chose the 40 businesses by going door-to-door to see who was on board in their mission to welcome back Americans to pre-pandemic levels.
Starting in downtown Windsor, they found many receptive business owners.
“Then we targeted districts like Walkerville, Erie Street and Ford City because we wanted to target neighbourhoods where people could explore further,” says Hana.
“We found businesses which are close for walking purposes or spending a day in Windsor.”
The website features an interactive map showing all 40 businesses, available discounts, and real-time directions.
Participants can follow curated tours and earn milestone badges along the way. For every six businesses visited, they receive an entry into a grand prize draw. Prizes include cruises, hotel stays, and two Air Canada tickets to fly anywhere in Canada. Five prepaid Nexpress tags—each offering three months of free round-trip travel through the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel—are also up for grabs.
Hana and Sylvestre do have some favourite spots, which usually involve grabbing a coffee. But Hana says she is happy the ping pong business House of Pong on Ouellette Avenue joined the campaign offering buy one admission and getting the second for free.
“And I like Wolf and Rebel which is a boutique off Drouillard,” says Sylvestre. “It has my matcha and the avocado pit too, so you have coffee, boutique and sushi – that’s my middle name.”
Tal Czudner, CEO of Windsor-Detroit Borderlink Limited, says he’s thrilled with the project’s quality and the students’ efforts, noting that the impact is already visible.
“This is a great example of the University of Windsor and the business community working together to help the City of Windsor,” he says.
The group also travelled to Detroit to rustle up participation.
From dropping off brochures, partnering with the Detroit Downtown Partnership to hosting stateside events at places like Eastern Market, Sylvestre says it is literally doing exactly what they wanted – building relationships.
“It was cool to see how they love Canadians and those are exactly the people we want to target,” says Sylvestre. “Those who understand the deeper meaning behind this and to just come support local business.”
The 40-40 campaign is open to anyone aged 18 and older and runs from June 19 to July 31, 2025.
Register today through the official campaign website and start exploring Windsor.