May 24, 2007
In this issue:

5 Great Reasons to Sign up TODAY for VCM’s Regional Tourism Leaders Forum
BC2008: Rivermania
The Show Goes on the Road
Modelling destination Competitiveness
SYTA Is Almost Here – Volunteers Are Needed!
SYTA Annual Golf Tournament
Media Report
Visual Media Update - 2 Exciting New Projects!
Google Analytics Gets a Facelift
Consumer Show Report

5 Great Reasons to Sign up TODAY for VCM’s Regional Tourism Leaders Forum

If you haven’t already signed up for Vancouver, Coast & Mountains’ upcoming Regional Tourism Leaders Forum, what’s stopping you? Here are 5 great reasons to sign up TODAY!

#5. Networking Opportunities – the RTLF is a great opportunity for you to mix and mingle with your fellow tourism partners. Networking allows you to meet new people, build mutually beneficial business relationships, develop and share ideas, and raise the profile of your business.

#4. Informative Speaker Sessions - eco-tourism, the GST question, accessible tourism, getting the results you need from government –- these are all hot issues in the tourism industry. At the RTLF you’ll hear informative speakers discuss these topics (and more!) and have the chance to have your questions answered.

#3. Hear Tiller’s Folly Perform Live – join us at the Adventure Ranch in Pemberton on Wednesday, June 20 to hear a special performance by Tiller’s Folly. For over a decade, Tiller’s Folly has been captivating audiences with their high-energy acoustic roots music experience.

#2. Voice Your Opinion – the RTLF is your opportunity to have your opinion heard at VCM’s Annual General Meeting.

#1. Explore Beautiful Pemberton – world class jet boating, paragliding, horseback riding, golf, canoeing, kayaking, ATV tours, mountain biking, snowmobiling, camping, and fishing are just some of the adventures that await you in our host community, Pemberton. Phew!

For more information on VCM’s Regional Tourism Leaders Forum contact Laura Woodbridge at 604-484-5361 or laura@vcmbc.com

To sign up today, visit www.vcmbc.com/tourismforum/registration.htm

Rivermania has been approved as a recognized and funded project for BC 2008 celebrations. It is a joint project between Northern BC, Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association and Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Tourism Region, who will be responsible for the marketing of the project. Coordination of the project will be handled by Georgia Katz (georgia.katz@shaw.ca; 604-737-9027), who has developed the concepts and partnerships over the past 12 months.

Rivermania honours the Fraser River, and its Peoples in recognition of Simon Fraser's exploration of the river in 1808. Voyageur canoes will begin the journey on August 24, 2008 at Hubble Homestead, 40 km north of Prince George. Many different boat operators will participate in Rivermania, with the final event held in Steveston on Rivers Day, September 28, 2008.

Working with First Nations' communities and Spirit of BC committees, celebrations will be held in several places along, or near, the Fraser River. It is intended that all Peoples, whose lives have touched the river and contributed to the economic activity along the river, will be celebrated.

Tour operators were introduced to this event at Rendezvous Canada last month, with detailed packages now in development with several receptive tour operators. Seats will be available on boats in day or multi-day journeys on the river, and will include different levels of intensity. These seats will be packaged with accommodation and other activity suppliers, with details completed by the end of June.

Campaigns for the BC resident and close-in markets will be developed in the fall. VCM's eNews will include regular updates between now and the event date. Please be aware that this is not a one-time event, but will continue in future years.

For more information, please contact Kevan at 604-638-6930, kevan@vcmbc.com

The Show goes on the Road!

It's that time of year when we can influence our travel trade partners overseas to consider new product, or include new itineraries in their 2008 offerings to their customers.

Jason Knibbs heads to Australia on June 22nd as a member of the BC Downunder sales mission organized by Tourism British Columbia. This will be our third visit with AU tour operators, key travel agents and media, all of whom contribute to the significant growth out of the Pacific market.

On the same day, Kevan Ridgway heads to Europe on a five-city tour covering Zurich, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. This tour is to sell BC 2008:Rivermania. Organized by Wolf Worster of Travel Alliance, this tour will include presentations to several tour operators, plus three media events in Germany. There is space available on this sales mission for qualified, export-ready product with a connection to Rivermania. For more information, please contact Kevan at 604-638-6930, kevan@vcmbc.com.

Modelling destination Competitiveness

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains recently participated in a survey and analysis of the impact of competitiveness attributes conducted by Geoffrey Crouch, Professor of Marketing, School of Business, La Trobe University, Australia.

Of the 36 destination competitiveness attributes examined, the ten most important were found to be: Physiography and Climate; Market Ties; Culture and History; Tourism Superstructure; Safety and Security; Cost/value; Accessibility; Awareness/Image; Location; and Infrastructure.

If you would like a copy of the 50 page report, please go to http://www.vcmbc.com/page.cfm/9544, or contact Kevan Ridgway, kevan@vcmbc.com or 604-638-6930.

SYTA Is Almost Here – Volunteers Are Needed!

Have you heard that the Student Youth Travel Association is coming to the Vancouver and Whistler area this September? Are you wondering how you can increase your exposure at SYTA and meet Tour Operator companies who can help your business grow? A great way is to volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! 

Help is 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 at MarcieO@ettravel.com.

SYTA Annual Golf Tournament

Get your golf clubs ready and join the student travel industry's leaders by participating in the SYTA Youth Foundation's Annual Golf Tournament, which is held each year in conjunction with the Student & Youth Travel Association’s Annual Conference. This wonderful networking opportunity will be held at the Whistler Golf Club on Saturday, September 8. Whether you are signed up for the conference or not, join us for a great day of fun, networking, and giving back to the student travel industry.

The tournament will begin with a shot-gun start at 8:00 a.m. Breakfast and registration will begin at 7:00 a.m. and lunch will follow the play. Please click here for more details and the registration.

Media Report

The weather isn’t the only thing that has been heating up in the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains region… so has our media department! In April, both Jennifer and Laura attended Canada Media Marketplace in New York. Despite high winds and heavy rainfall the Marketplace was a success, directly resulting in at least three upcoming press trips.

Vancouver Coast & Mountains has been busy assisting 11 different writers on recent and upcoming visits to our region. The Sunshine Coast is hot on the media visit list, in addition to the other destination areas in our region.

These press-trips would not be possible without the help of you, our tourism partners. If you are interested in hosting journalists this summer, or if you need assistance in bringing a particular journalist out to you, please let Jennifer or Laura know so that we can help you get the media coverage you are looking for.

We are always on the look-out for articles that have written about the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains region. Over the past two months, articles featuring our region have appeared Northwest Palate, Sunset Magazine, Budget Travel, National Geographic Adventure, Hong Kong Weekend Weekly, CruiseGourmet.com, and Northwest Travel, to name but a few! For a complete list of all the articles received by Vancouver Coast & Mountains in the past few months, please contact Jennifer at Jennifer@vcmbc.com or Laura at Laura@vcmbc.com.

Your Opportunity for Media Coverage 
Our media department is always looking for new story ideas. Is there something unusual or quirky about your business that we (and the media!) should know about? Well, tell us about it. All you need to do is let us know what makes your tourism business unique. If chosen, we’ll spin it into a story idea and include it in our monthly Story Starters bulletin. For a view of the recent issue, click here.

Participating in our media relations program is one of the least expensive forms of advertising a tourism business can hope for; stories are often featured in publications reaching thousands of readers, for only the cost of dinner and a room! Most recently, a submission to our Story Starters bulletin resulted in a press trip with Canadian Geographic Magazine. For more information or to submit an story contact Laura at laura@vcmbc.com or visit http://www.vcmbc.com/page.cfm/9712

Visual Media Update  - 2 exciting new projects!

In the last issue of eNews we told you about the steps being taken to further improve the user experience on www.VCMBC.com.  This project is well underway and moving quickly!  We’re working with Sage Internet, based on Victoria, to take www.VCMBC.com to the next level, and anticipate that in the next 4 weeks we’ll be unveiling a new and improved site. 
Highlights include:

• Improved accommodation search engine.  Visitors will be able to select the type of accommodation that they’re looking for and in which community they wish to stay.
• Partner listings will be enhanced with the inclusion of Google Maps to pinpoint their physical locations.
• Drop down navigation will be incorporated to ensure that visitors can find what they’re looking for in an intuitive manner.
• Video Content will be added, and we’ll be taking advantage of viral marketing by hosting the videos on You Tube.
• The Partners Extranet will be revamped to enable you to find marketing and resource information quickly and efficiently.

Over the next few months, the content on the site will be refreshed and search engine optimized.  By improving the navigation and providing more interactive content, users will find it a lot easier to find the information that they’re looking for, they will stay on the site longer, visit more pages and ultimately link to our marketing partner websites.

In addition to the site redevelopment, Mary Ann Bell, our Director of Visual Media, has been busy with a project of a more personal nature.  As of June 8, 2007, Mary Ann will be taking some time off from Vancouver, Coast & Mountains to begin maternity leave! 

If you have questions about the site restructuring, or other eMarketing topics, please feel free to contact Mary Ann at maryann@vcmbc.com or 604-638-6927. 

Google Analytics gets a Facelift

The key to success with your website really is acting on the information you gather from your web analytics tools. The web is truly the most measurable marketing medium that there has ever been, and tools such as Google Analytics provide huge insight into how your customers are interacting with your website, and what changes you need to make to your site in order to increase conversions. At a minimum, we recommend adding a tracking tool such as Google Analytics – which has now added even more to its arsenal as a recent ClickZ article points out:
 
“The new release marks a paradigm shift, from providing analytics data in isolation to offering a more holistic view of the data”, said Brett Crosby, senior manager of Google Analytics, “In the new version of Google Analytics, data is concentrated into combinations of reports, which will help users to make informed decisions, and put the data in perspective.” “It’s not just one lonely number sitting on the page, telling you if your traffic went up or down,” Crosby said. “We present it with other data, so you can see if the data show that things are good or bad. Maybe your visits are down, but your conversions have tripled,” he said. “Once you have the reports, you still need to understand what the data is telling you.”

The next step then is to ACT on what the web analytics reports are telling you. We really do have the power now with FREE tools like Google Analytics to make changes to our web presence that could make a difference to the bottom line. I am sure that there are still some out there that do not know what their customers are doing on their site, and what is prompting their customers to buy. Add the code and start getting a “birds eye” (no pun intended) view of how your customers are interacting with your website and what you may need to change!

Alicia Whalen is the co-founder of "Couple of Chicks.Com" an Internet Marketing, Distribution & Revenue Measurement Company.  Follow their blog at www.ideahatching.com or visit www.acoupleofchicks.com.

Consumer Show Report

Vancouver International Auto Show (March 31 – April 8)

BC Ferries, Tourism Vancouver Island and Vancouver, Coast & Mountains teamed up to promote the wildly popular Coastal Circle Route (Sunshine Coast – East Coast of Vancouver Island).  The 110,970 consumers who entered the gates of BC Place were thrilled to see us showcasing a close-to-home travel option that is new and exciting.
 
“The 25’ x 30’ booth display stood out especially with a Hummer (part of a prize package) in our booth space.  We had to restock our supply of guides three times over the course of the 10-day show” said Doleen Dean.

JRFM was onsite the first day of the show promoting the Coastal Circle Route Prize Package and the booth live. JRFM also promoted the route on the radio throughout the 10-day show.

Calgary Women’s Show (April 28 & 29)

The Calgary Women’s Show really rounded up the women in Calgary. The show, located at the Roundup Centre, was easy to get to and the soap opera actors and fashion shows brought in the crowds.
 
In addition, Rebecca was interviewed for a few minutes by the local station (Shaw Cable 10) about why we were promoting at the show. She spoke about the region and how consumers can pick up the flat sheet at the show which features accommodations, festivals, and activities in our region. The interview was aired every 45 minutes during the 2-day show. For a clip, please contact Jennifer Rhyne at jennifer@vcmbc.com.

Northwest Women’s Show in Seattle (March 23-25)

23,742 women, and some men who were there to carry bags for their wives, came out to the highly popular Northwest Women’s Show in Seattle. “The Show had a good energy level and consistent traffic” said Kristi Wilson. “Our corner booth location was a huge asset”. Again, the promoters brought in the firefighters and actors and the exhibitors brought in travel info, cosmetics, and of course, one of the most appealing parts of the show, the food samples!