April 12, 2007
In this issue:

President’s Report - April 2007
Get Ready for Vancouver, Coast & Mountains’ Annual General Meeting!
Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive Program - Advice to tour operators
RBC 2010 Legacies Now Speaker Series
Launch of the Culture and Heritage Institute (CHI)
The Five-Step Process of Permission Email Marketing

President’s Report - April 2007
Kevan J. Ridgway

There’s one thing that’s constant about running a regional destination marketing organization, and that’s “change”! It’s important that our business evolves to meet the changing needs of the customer, be it the prospective visitor or our tourism partners.

Our partners’ input to the development of our annual marketing plan has always been valued, but we heard how difficult it can be to attend meetings wherever they might be held in the region. We listened and introduced CONNECT, an online community for communication and discussion. Tested with select groups this year, you’ll see and hear more of this in the coming months.

Listening to consumers comments at shows led us to develop experience-specific activity directories for boating and biking. Supported by appropriate physical and online distribution, look for more of these in this year’s tactics. Moving from a membership organization to a stakeholder, or partner, model also was a critical success factor in enabling us to create now opportunities to match prospective visitors with our partner businesses and communities.

Our commitment to Tourism British Columbia’s Community Tourism Foundations program for development and marketing built on the history that our region has developed with our community partners. We were very pleased with the number of communities that participated in each of these programs, and look forward to continuing this important work.

Having other dominant DMOs in our region is a great asset, and enables us to look for niche opportunities where we can make a difference without duplicating what others do well. Eight years ago, golf was a niche, and we led the way in marketing golf cooperatively. Our current top priority is Student & Youth Travel, both from North America and international markets. We are pleased to be on the organizing committee for the 2007 Student & Youth Travel Association conference and marketplace in Whistler from Sep 7 – 11. Go to www.syta.org for more information.

We can never rest on our past successes, and must always look to the future to see what we can do better. Research plays a significant role, and we are pleased to have been a participant in an Australian study “Modelling Destination Competitiveness”. We have also participated on the committee workshop for Community DMO Best Practices.

Our year ended March 31, 2007 has been a great year, but it’s over. We move forward with optimism and excitement!

Contact Kevan anytime at kevan@vcmbc.com or 604-638-6930.

Get Ready for Vancouver, Coast & Mountains’ Annual General Meeting!

Date: June 20, 2007
Venue: Pemberton Community Centre
Location: Pemberton, BC

Mark your calendars! Vancouver, Coast & Mountains will hold its Annual General Meeting in Pemberton on Wednesday, June 20, 2007. The AGM will last for one hour, and will be part of the two-day Regional Tourism Leaders Forum on June 20 and 21, 2007. Expect to receive your invitation for the RTLF shortly!

At the AGM, we will be electing 15 persons for the 2007/2008 Directorship (3 each from Mighty Fraser Country, Sunshine Coast and Sea to Sky Country; 6 from Greater Vancouver). Each nominee shall be the operator of a tourism business and a member (marketing partner) in good standing of Vancouver, Coast & Mountains. To nominate an individual as a Director of Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Tourism Region please click here.

Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive Program - Advice to tour operators

The March 19 announcement creating the Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive Program (FCTIP) has sparked confusion for industry and government alike. The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) recently held meetings with Canada Revenue Agency and Department of Finance officials seeking clarification on eligibility requirements of the new program and how it is to be implemented. Some information is now available on the CRA website and officials have committed to providing more detail after the Easter break.

While there are many issues surrounding the implementation of this new program, TIAC and its partners delivered four key and priority requests in this week's meeting with Finance officials.

• Clarifying the intent of the budget announcement and interpretation of the existing definition of tour package
• Securing a longer transition period to April 1, 2008
• Removing the requirement that offshore tour companies and wholesalers file directly with CRA and continuing to allow assignment of rights provision
• Granting a 6% rebate on both accommodation and services sold as part of a tour package to foreigners to stimulate tour and bulk travel to Canada

Read more at www.cotabc.com/members/news.aspx#News110

RBC 2010 Legacies Now Speaker Series

Felicity Shankar
Olympic Games Professional
Chief Executive, Javelin Europe, Marketing Consultants

Learn from the experts about tourism and business opportunities resulting from hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Join Felicity Shankar, Olympic Games specialist, as she shares over 15 years of Olympic Games experience. Felicity will stress the importance of creating local marketing plans, developing retail strategies and making the most of related tourism opportunities.

Live Webcast - 12 noon PST
Thursday April 19th
Log on to www.2010LegaciesNow.com

The RBC 2010 Legacies Now Speaker Series is also visiting:

Whistler - Tuesday April 17th
In partnership with the Whistler Chamber of Commerce

Vancouver – Wednesday April 18th
In partnership with The Vancouver Board of Trade

Coquitlam – Friday April 20th
In partnership with the Coquitlam Spirit of BC Community Committee and the City of Coquitlam

Visit www.2010LegaciesNow.com for more information.

Launch of the Culture and Heritage Institute (CHI)

To celebrate the official launch of the Culture and Heritage Institute (CHI), the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culture is honored to announce CHI's inaugural conference - The Annual Symposium on Cultural and Heritage Tourism scheduled for June 5th, 2007 the first of its kind in Canada. The theme is 'Exploring the Cultural and Heritage Tourism (CHT) Landscape- ' Linking Arts and Culture with Tourism & Heritage with Tourism.' This event will be an opportunity for us to launch the Institute as well as provide interested stakeholders with a common platform to share, learn, and work together.

The CHI - a multifaceted educational, training and community outreach facility - is sited within the Centennial College Residence and Conference Centre which is located at the main Progress Campus in Scarborough. One of the nation's centres of cultural and ethnic diversity, geographically, Scarborough forms the eastern gateway to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

We invite you to be part of this exciting landmark event and come join us on June 5 for an enlightening and educational experience. Earlybird and regular registration for the conference is available and can be accessed by following this link: www.centennialcollege.ca/future/culheritage_home.jsp

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us: chi@centennialcollege.ca

The Five-Step Process of Permission Email Marketing

There is a simple five-step process in putting a successful permission-based email marketing campaign in place. This process is reviewed below.

1. Start using a permission-based email marketing software that allows you to easily create newsletters, automatically manage subscribes, unsubscribes, bounces, and view reporting statistics like opens and clickthroughs.

2. Decide on the type and frequency of email communication you will be sending. We recommend sending at least a monthly newsletter. You can certainly send multiple newsletters if you sell different types of products. You can also send promotional messages offering a discount or coupon for a product or service.

3. Add a sign-up form to your web site so you can start collecting subscribers and import any existing lists of subscribers that have already requested your communications. It is generally also safe to import the names of anyone who has done business with you in the past year, provided you will be sending content relevant to what they purchased.

4. Create a good email template by using a template provided within the email software, having your in-house team create one, or using the custom design services of the email software company.

5. Develop quality relevant content for your newsletter or message and send it out to your list. Continue sending your newsletters, announcements, or promotions with consistent frequency. As your list grows, you will notice increased traffic (and if applicable, increased sales) on the day of and the days following an email send.

By providing quality relevant content you will succeed in keeping your brand mindshare at the front of the mind of your customers and cement strong relationships with your subscribers.

Ryan P. M. Allis is the CEO for Broadwick, Corp. Broadwick offers the leading permission based email marketing software, IntelliContact. We Simplify Email Marketing. (c) Broadwick, Corp. 2000-2006 http://www.broadwick.com All Rights Reserved