August 28, 2007
In this issue:

Travelers Find Online Booking for Holidays Stressful
Hosting an Event?
Get the Recognition you Deserve with TIP
The Press Release is Alive and Well
Trade Report
Web Data Report

UK Travelers Find Online Booking for Holidays Stressful

Although more and more people are doing it, according to a recent survey by travel search company, SideStep.com, 50% of people in the UK find booking their holiday online stressful. Perhaps surprisingly it’s younger people in particular who find the online travel experience overwhelming with 70% of those under 25 years expressing stress over the multitude of options presented to them.

Ensuring you get yourself the best deal is the biggest reason for stress, particularly amongst women. Even when on holiday nearly half of all people suffer from deal envy and believe that their fellow travellers have got a better deal than them.

The next biggest cause of stress is researching and deciding where to go, closely followed by finding the time to actually do the research. (Although one or two of those surveyed stated finding naturist resorts was their biggest anxiety!!)

Unsurprisingly for those under 25 years, finding the best deal was particularly high but for a quarter of those aged 35-44 juggling busy lives and find the time to research and book their holiday was the biggest cause of stress.

Source: http://www.traveldailynews.com/new.asp?newID=39159&subcategory_id=95 printed on 8/28/2007 ; Michael Verikios (michael@traveldailynews.com) -- Thursday, August 23, 2007

Hosting an Event?

Here is a great new place to promote your latest event or festival: http://www.gofindevents.com/default.aspx. Just follow the directions for posting and voilà – you have just utilized one more terrific marketing tool to get your event noticed!

Get the Recognition you Deserve with TIP

Proud to be in tourism? Want others to know it? Enter the TIP card. The TIP card lets Canadian tourism workers and students carry a symbol confirming their connection to the industry. It also gives them access to benefits exclusive to TIP card holders.

The card costs $30 for a student, $50 for a practitioner, and $70 for an executive. For a list of the benefits and for more information, visit www.tip.travel.

The Press Release is Alive and Well
Call off the funeral; a well-written release still has some kick.
By Christopher Parente - Strategic Communications Group

The press release is certainly not dead as some PR people may have you believe. Yes, it’s been loaded up with jargon. Weighed down with buzzwords. Scrubbed clean of any meaningful executive quotes. But, in spite of it all, the press release can provide more value and is read by more people than ever before.

You may have heard about this ongoing debate in the PR community. It centers on the usefulness of the press release in its current state and whether a new tool is needed to better harness social and other emerging media. Some PR professionals believe the Social Media Press Release (SMPR) is the logical update to the existing press release. A SMPR does away with the need to write clearly and concisely in a news article format. It deconstructs and separates press release copy into its core components plus adds sections for RSS feeds, podcasts, photos, graphics, videos, and other media and linking tools. Some people even go farther and argue that changing the format of the press release is not enough. They believe the entire concept should be thrown out, and some even talk about overturning the existing media paradigm. Heady stuff indeed!
 
In all the theoretical debate about the future of the press release it’s sometimes overlooked that PR professionals’ first priority must be delivering results for their clients. Today, the reality of b2b and b2g PR is that clients aren't that interested in being on the bleeding edge of innovation. They want PR counsel, strategy and execution that connect clearly to their business objectives. They care about using the most effective PR methods and the press release is still the most efficient, far reaching, and versatile platform to deliver messages to both the media and the public at large.
 
Today, more people are using press releases to find the information they need to do their jobs -- and not just journalists. According to a report last year by research firm OutSell, press releases have surpassed trade journals as the leading source of information for knowledge workers. In the same way journalists have, these workers rely on the press release for fast access to updates on companies, organizations, and products. The press release is particularly important to investor relations where messages and news flow are subject to a higher level of scrutiny and governed by strict regulations. These full disclosure regulations regulate how public information put out by public companies must be distributed and the reach of the traditional press release distribution companies make them the logical choice to ensure compliance.
 
Press releases have other important advantages for clients as well. Because they are presented as a coherent news story, they can help tell the evolving story of a company’s business momentum in a way that the piecemeal SMPR template can’t. This is especially true when releases are posted on a corporate website news room or used as printed collateral where they are ideal for supporting sales, marketing, and employee recruiting. The cut-and-paste ethos of the SMPR simply doesn’t lend itself to this type of role.
 
Of course, PR agencies, as do all businesses, need to stay current on the latest technology trends and can work to eliminate many of the most common complaints about press releases. There is certainly a place for blog and social media strategy in an integrated public relations campaign. RSS feeds and tools such as Digg and Del.icio.us make sense and increase the effective reach of a message. Increasingly, these features as well as links to video and podcasts are being integrated into the press release with great results. Press releases can also be greatly strengthened by understanding your audience and their information needs. No matter who is reading them, it’s wise to provide relevant industry context while eliminating technical jargon and empty marketing slogans.
 
But the bottom line is that the press release is alive and well and will be for a long time to come. It’s an extremely efficient, multipurpose tool that can support the business objectives of clients in many different ways. Is that as sexy or as trendy as talking about toppling the existing media paradigm? Definitely not, but that doesn't make it any less true.  

Source: http://aboutpublicrelations.net/ucparente1.htm

Trade Report

BC Downunder Australia Sales Mission                June 26-29, 2007

Jason Knibbs - Sales Manager, Tour & Travel - participated in a Sales Mission to Sydney, Australia led by Tourism BC. Australia is one BC’s fastest growing international markets and is the third largest market for BC from the Asia-Pacific region. This Mission focused on expansion of products available in all of our destination areas.  During the three day mission, Vancouver, Coast & Mountains met with 30 of the largest tour operators or “key accounts” as determined by Tourism BC. The format consisted of one day of individual 20 minute meetings with sales managers and product buyers, a second day with a “marketplace format” to meet with travel agents and reservation agents from the key tour operators, and a third day devoted to a “Canada Day Celebration” networking event hosted by the Canadian Tourism Commission.

European Sales Mission              June 26-29, 2007

While Jason was in Australia, Kevan Ridgway was on a whirlwind tour of Europe, creating excitement about the Rivermania event happening in 2008. Travelling to Zurich, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Amsterdam, Kevan met with tour operators and media in each city to present the Rivermania concept and to drum up support from the markets most likely to be interested in packaging up Rivermania for 2008 and beyond.

Using a community celebration and reconciliation focus, Rivermania is designed to spotlight the Fraser River as the cradle of British Columbia and the Peoples along the river as the creators of the history and culture of British Columbia. Rivermania is a symbolic trip down the river, which will initiate celebrations created by a local community volunteer group under the leadership of their local Spirit of BC Committee.  The project will span the river from Prince George to Steveston to create a “snowball effect” of festivals and celebrations. River communities will host major celebrations and festivals spotlighting their unique character. From Prince George to Mission all boats will be powered vessels. At Mission, where the river is calmer, the fleet will form a water parade consisting of a wide variety of boats with canoes and other non-powered boats leading the procession followed by power rafts, fishing boats, tugboats, etc. Rivermania starts in Prince George on August 24, 2008 and ends in Steveston on September 28, 2008.

Upcoming:

Student & Youth Travel Association (SYTA)                      September 7 – 11, 2007

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains will again be attending the annual Student & Youth Travel Association (SYTA) convention held this year in Whistler, September 7-11 2007. SYTA is a non-profit, professional trade association whose mission is to promote and support integrity and professionalism among student and youth travel service providers and to promote quality student/youth travel services that enhance social, cultural, and educational growth.

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains is excited by the possibilities in this market, especially as Whistler, BC has been chosen as the site for the 2007 convention. Current active tour operator members of SYTA accounted for almost $2 billion US in student and youth travel in North America, providing trips for over 1.5 million participants each year. According to the Youth Tourism Consortium of Canada (YTCC), the market in Canada exceeds 12 billion, comprising 23% of the entire travel market.

SYTA WHISTLER IS ALMOST HERE – VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED!

As the convention draws near, volunteer help is still needed in several areas.  To help make a wonderful, welcoming first impression, volunteers are needed at the airport to direct delegates to the correct baggage claim areas and then on to catch the transportation to Whistler.  Please also consider volunteering in Whistler at registration, where you can be one of the first to welcome the delegates to the conference.  Meal Counters and Meal Greeters will be needed for all of the scheduled meals.  We’ll even give you a “clicker” to use so you don’t have to remember the number while you’re busy smiling and saying “hello”.  Other opportunities include Educational Session Room Monitoring and Direction Helpers/Tour Guides to help the delegates get from one place to the next while they’re in Whistler.
 
No matter what your interest, we can find a place for you.  All it takes is a short time commitment and LOTS of enthusiasm! 

For more information you can contact Marcie Ellison Outerbridge of Ellison Travel & Tours at MarcieO@ettraavel.com.

Request for New Product

Let us know what you have happening that’s NEW! Periodically throughout the year Tourism British Columbia and Vancouver, Coast & Mountains mail a "New Product Bulletin" to domestic and international tour operators to highlight new product in the province. 

New packages, new tours, new marketing partners, changes to existing properties – if it’s new, we want you to be included!

This is a FREE opportunity to get exposure to the Tourism Trade. The next Bulletin is going out in November and deadline for inclusion is Oct 26th 2007.

Submissions must follow the Tourism BC form guidelines exactly and can be downloaded here: http://www.vcmbc.com/page.cfm/8533. Partial submissions will not be included.

Send all forms, or if you have any questions, to Jason Knibbs, Sales Manager – Tour & Travel at jason@vcmbc.com.

Web Data Report

www.vcmbc.com is thriving following a successful move this past spring to syndicate content and complete the appearance of the redesign. While keyword strategies are ongoing and there are more improvements occurring daily, here is some of the data pulled from the last three months of site usage.

Average Numbers for the Site for the last three months (June, July and August).

1. Total visits to our site – 87,358
2. Total page views – 222,473
3. Average number of pages visited – 2.55
4. Average time on site – 3:58
5. Percentage of new visitors – 86.19%

What our visitors are looking at:

The top page which visitors are viewing is RiverRock Casino’s web listing. It received 7,500 page views in the last three months with a 1:13 min. average time on the page.

Our second and third highest viewed pages are our home page, both www.vcmbc.com and www.vcmbc.com/1. There are a combined 11,994 page views and 8,430 unique page views for the past three months, with the second page (www.vcmbc.com/1) maintaining a low exit rate of 14.73%, likely indicative of the visitor moving on to searching the rest of the site.

The fourth highest viewed page is our “Specials for Canadian Travellers”. This page received 4,127 page views, and 3,153 unique page views with an exit rate of 14.80%. If you are interested in getting your special packages and products noticed on www.vcmbc.com, please contact Kelly Miller at kellym@vcmbc.com or 604-484-5366.