November 5, 2007
In this issue:

A Year Ahead
The Latest on .travel!
Word of Mouth Marketing Manifesto
The Impact of the Skilled Labour Shortage
Travel Between Canada and Other Countries - August 2007
www.vcmbc.com Update!
Environmental Tip of the Month
We’re Gonna Miss Her

A Year Ahead

It is that time again – Vancouver, Coast & Mountains has completed their marketing plan for FY2009. While the official plan won’t be up and on-line for a couple of weeks, our infamous Marketing Partner Opportunities Booklet is completed and available right now! Comprised of all the advertising opportunities for the next year and a half, the booklet describes program details, pricing, and upcoming publications that our partners can look forward to advertising in for the year to come.

For a downloadable copy, please click here. Or if you prefer a printed copy, or have any questions or concerns, please contact Kristi Wilson at Kristi@vcmbc.com or 604-638-6931.

The Latest on .travel!

Well, here is some good news for organizations that fear that they will lose their established search engine rankings if they migrate from their existing address to .travel.

EnCirca, specialists focused on the creation, management and protection of online brands, have completed an examination of travel destinations that have migrated to .travel addresses and found that most have achieved top Google search rankings.

So, how does your own website measure up?  Use EnCirca's free Google Rank tool to find out. To test your website's Google rank and read the summary report, go to EnCirca's State of .travel Report.

Word of Mouth Marketing Manifesto

1. Happy customers are your best advertising. Make people happy!
2. Marketing is easy: Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for you, for free.
3. Ethics and good service come first.
4. UR the UE: You are the user experience (not what your ads say you are).
5. Negative word of mouth is an opportunity. Listen and learn.
6. People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation.
7. Be interesting or be invisible.
8. If it's not worth talking about, it's not worth doing.
9. Make the story of your company a good one.
10. It is more fun to work at a company that people want to talk about.
11. Use the power of word of mouth to make business treat people better.
12. Honest marketing makes more money.

Source: Andy Semovitz, www.wordofmouthbook.com

The Impact of the Skilled Labour Shortage

Recently, Vertical Bridge Corporate Consulting Inc., www.verticalbridge.ca, conducted a survey of organizations located in the Greater Vancouver area to find out how the skilled labour shortage is directly impacting them. Please feel free to share this report either in part, or in its entirety with your industry colleagues, members or partners. Click here to view a copy. 

We do ask however that you contact Vertical Bridge if you wish to publish the survey on your own website, or in a newsletter, in order for them to track where the information will appear. If you have any questions about the survey report, please feel free to contact Sandra Reder, Managing Partner at sreder@verticalbridge.ca or 604-682-2262.

Travel Between Canada and Other Countries - August 2007

INBOUND TRIPS TO CANADA
In August, the total number of trips to Canada reached 4.2 million.  However due to a further drop in same-day auto trips from the U.S., this total is a 3.3% decrease compared to August 2006.

However, total overnight travel to Canada reached 2.76 million trips in August 2007, a 1.9% increase compared to the same month one year earlier.

From the United States:

• The total number of trips to Canada from the U.S. reached 3.6 million in August 2007, a 4.2% year-over-year decrease.  In August 2007, prices for regular gas dropped slightly averaging $2.79/gallon nationally, while the greenback was worth $1.06 CAD, compared to $1.12 in August 2006.
• Compared to August 2006, total automobile travel from the U.S. recorded a 5.3% decrease in August 2007 as same-day auto travel declined 13.2%.  Overnight auto travel, on the other hand, rose 3.4%. 
• The total volume of overnight travel from the U.S. rose 1.9% in August 2007 compared to August 2006 as overnight auto travel recorded a 3.4% increase.  Non-auto overnight travel decreased just 0.7%.
  
• Travel modes other than automobile registered small declines in August compared to the same month last year as bus travel fell 1.8%, and plane travel dropped 1.3%.  Trips by train, boat and other methods remained fairly stationary (+0.2%).

From all other countries:

• Compared to August 2006, the total number of trips from overseas destinations increased 2.3% to reach 625,500 trips.
• Trips from four of the six major overseas regions posted increases in August 2007: Central America including Mexico (8.4%); South America (7.3%); Oceania (6.0%); and Europe (3.3%), while Africa and Asia posted decreases of -17.5% and -1.3% respectively.

OUTBOUND TRIPS BY CANADIANS

• In August 2007, total outbound travel by Canadians reached 5.35 million trips, a 7.8% increase compared to August 2006.
• Overnight outbound travel by Canadians increased 12.3% compared to August 2006, reaching 2.9 million trips. 

 
To the United States:

• In August 2007, the total number of trips to the U.S. reached 4.7 million trips, which represents an increase of 7.4% compared to August 2006.  During this time, the Canadian dollar averaged 94.4 US cents, more than the average experienced in August 2006 (89.4 US cents). 
• The number of Canadian tourists returning from overnight trips to the U.S. increased 12.8% in August 2007 compared to 2006, reaching almost 2.3 million trips.
• Compared to the same month last year, total automobile travel to the U.S. increased 7.3% to slightly more than four million trips.  Almost 2.4 million same-day auto trips were made, representing a 3.0% year-over-year increase, while overnight auto travel increased 14.1% to reach 1.6 million trips.
• In addition, the number of Canadians travelling to the U.S. by air increased 7.9% in August 2007 and the number of Canadians travelling by bus to the U.S. rose 5.6%.  Furthermore, travel by train, boat and other methods increased 13.1%.

To Overseas Countries:

• Continuing the growth trend, Canadian travel to overseas destinations registered a 10.7% gain in August 2007 compared to August 2006, reaching almost 658,000 trips.  This is the sixth month this year that the number of overseas trips by Canadians surpassed the 600,000 mark.  Prior to 2007, this threshold had never been reached.

Source: TIAC – Travel Industry Association of Canada August Update

www.vcmbc.com Update!

Vancouver Coast & Mountains has been running a contest in partnership with the Sunshine Coast Tourism group to win a trip to the beautiful Sunshine Coast. To enter this contest, an online form was created on www.vcmbc.com and promoted through print media (the online submission form can be found at www.vcmbc.com/prize). We have seen an increasing number of visitors to this page, and have also seen that the contest has been frequently used as a keyword phrase to enter our site.

We are still seeing our on-line visitation numbers stay steady over the last few weeks. An interesting note is that when dips do occur, they are typically on the weekends. This may indicate that many of our visitors are looking for information during the week and have most likely chosen their destinations by the weekend.

Another common keyword to our site is ‘Rivermania’ – the 2008 BC150 Years celebration. Vancouver, Coast & Mountains is assisting the communities along the Fraser River to develop events to support this celebration; thus we will continue to see our numbers increase with relation to this event.

It is always interesting to see where the visitors to our site are from; the following are the top 10 visiting countries (order, 1-10): Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil and Mexico.

If you are interested in learning more about the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains website, please contact Kelly Miller, Partner Service Coordinator, at kellym@vcmbc.com or 604-484-5366.

Environmental Tip of the Month

This month’s environmental tip is an excerpt from the United Nations Environment Programme “Integrating Sustainability into Business, A management Guide for Responsible Tour Operations.” Often the first environmental steps a business will take involve internal operations – specifically energy and paper use in the office.

1.1 IMPROVE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF OFFICE OPERATIONS
The basic mechanics of running an office – from purchase, use and disposal of materials and equipment to energy and water consumption to staff travel, both for business and to and from work – can cause a wide range of environmental impacts. A sustainable internal management strategy for office operations should first aim to reduce operational costs by using fewer resources, made from more sustainable sources. Savings can then be used to invest in other sustainability actions that might have a longer repayment period. Table 2 lists management actions that can be used to minimise the overall impact of office operations.

Since it is unrealistic to tackle all aspects of office operations at once, it is advisable to start in areas where the biggest savings – both environmental and economic – can be made, and where the up-front investment is not too onerous. Examples of relatively low-cost actions that can yield high sustainability results include:

Installing energy-efficient light bulbs. Lighting accounts for about 25 percent of office energy bills, so replacing conventional light bulbs can drastically cut costs. Although energy-efficient bulbs are more expensive, they last much longer than conventional ones and use less energy per watt.

Efficiently regulate heating and air conditioning. Heating and air conditioning can account for about 60 percent of office energy bills, so increasing their efficiency by fitting thermostatic radiator valves, using timed thermostats and teaching people how to use them will also cut costs.

Reduce unnecessary packaging. Packaging can be as much as 45 percent of the cost of cleaning materials and other supplies, so buying in bulk not only reduces waste, but also lowers supply bills.

Changing electricity suppliers to one which produces energy from renewable sources. Buying electricity from a supplier of renewable energy could lead to tax exemptions (for example, in the UK, consumers of energy from non-renewable resources now have to pay a Climate Change Levy).

Promoting the use of public transport and more sustainable forms of travel. Encouraging employees to use public transport for travel to and from work, and supporting the use of more sustainable methods for business travel, such as trains instead of planes or private cars whenever possible, can result in a significant reduction in travel-related energy consumption and pollution production per employee.

1.2 MINIMISE THE IMPACT OF PAPER USE
Tour operators use large amount of paper products, for everything from internal printing to travel brochures. A strategy for minimising the impact of paper use involves changing standard business practices in four ways:

Rethink the type of paper used, choose more sustainable paper, and promote recycled and recyclable materials;

Reduce the amount of paper used, through more effective logistics and alternative communication and marketing channels;

Reuse paper wherever possible; and

Recycle paper that cannot be used again, promote recycling by travel agencies and suppliers and establish a return policy for brochures and other materials.

The place to start in implementing a sustainable paper policy is to measure the amount of paper currently used, both within the office and as promotional materials. This assessment can be organised according to the type and environmental quality of the paper used (most paper is certified to an environmental standard), including paper of unknown origin (which may come from forests that are not managed sustainably); paper certified as coming from sustainably managed forests; and paper certified as having a high content of postconsumer recycled materials. The focus of future purchasing decisions should be on paper in the latter two categories, whilst the use of paper of unknown origin should be phased out. Chlorine-bleached paper should also be avoided.

Marketing and distribution systems can also be reviewed to make sure that fewer brochures are wasted each season. For example, unused brochures can be collected from travel agents at the end of the season and recycled. Alternatively, travel agents can be asked to recycle the brochures themselves. The number of travel agents involved in this process can be noted, with the aim of achieving a year-on-year increase. Customers can also be encouraged to recycle any unwanted promotional materials.

Excerpt from: United Nations Environment Programme “Integrating Sustainability into Business, A management Guide for Responsible Tour Operations” (pages 16 – 17).
The complete document has information on sustainable tourism in relation to internal management, product development and management, supply chain management, customer relations and cooperation with destinations. The document can be downloaded from http://www.toinitiative.org/about/documents/Sustainability%20in%20Business%20-%20Management.pdf

We’re Gonna Miss Her

For those of you who do not know, our Director of Community Relations, Shawna Leung has grown considerably over the summer. Now it is about that time that Baby Leung is ready to enter into the world. Shawna has officially started her year long maternity leave from Vancouver, Coast & Mountains. We wish her all the best and will keep everyone posted on Shawna and her soon-to-be-expanded family in the months to come.