September 26, 2007
In this issue:

Board Meets to Consider Region's Future
SYTA Conference & Marketplace a Success!
Call for Presentations
News on the GST/HST Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive Program
Improvements to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program Will Help BC Tourism Employers Fill Labour Shortages
Web Report and Pay-Per-Click Opportunity
Media Relations Report

Board Meets to Consider Region's Future

Your Board of Directors met for two days recently to lay the framework for developing an Action Plan that will take the region through to March 31, 2011. We were very pleased and grateful that Rod Harris, President & CEO, Tourism British Columbia, was able to join us in our deliberations. The session was expertly facilitated by Brian Follett, who also assisted us in the development of our position statement, "All things are possible!".

As these plans evolve, we will consult with our partners to ensure that we have the most effective, do-able plan to not only take us through this time period, but also ensure that we play our part in doubling tourism revenues by 2015.

SYTA Conference & Marketplace a Success!

The Student and Youth Travel Conference and Marketplace 2007 was held in Western Canada for the first time in SYTA's history. Whistler hosted 800+ delegates from all over North America, with tour operators from Mexico and the Netherlands also attending. It was the highest ratio of actives (tour operators) to associates in marketplace history, making it relatively easy to chat with any tour operator. Although there were scheduled appointments, SYTA business thrives on the casual interaction between actives and associates, particularly their unique roundtable information sessions.

The weather was incredible, and even the bears played their part in ensuring that the Taste of Canada night at the Roundhouse on top of Whistler Mountain was an incredible success. We could not have asked for more!

Without doubt, hosting SYTA in 2007 will result in increased group and FIT traffic to British Columbia. For more information on SYTA, please go to www.syta.org, call Kevan at 604-638-6930, or e-mail kevan@vcmbc.com.

And for some interesting reading? SYTA surveys its associate members, which is done in "real time" during the marketplace and is, therefore, completed only by the delegates in attendance at the associate breakfast.

Food for thought! 
http://www.syta.org/maguploads/WhistlerAssoc.RealtimeResultsReport.pdf

Call for Presentations

The Council of Tourism Associations (COTA) is currently requesting proposals for presentations from members of the tourism industry for the BC Tourism Industry Conference (TIC) 2008.

The Details:
BC Tourism Industry Conference 2008
February 20 - 22, 2008
Sheraton Wall Centre, Vancouver, BC

TIC is the annual gathering of the tourism industry to learn, network, exchange ideas and establish new contacts. The conference is designed to involve a wide range of presenters, including leaders in the tourism industry, professional speakers, public officials, and other related experts.

Tourism operators, marketing/sector organizations or persons involved in the tourism industry in some manner that have experience or expertise in the program topic areas listed in the Call for Presentations will be considered.

This year's conference theme is creating an environment for success. Presentation content and format, along with proposal guides and submission details are outlined at the following link:
http://www.bctourismindustryconference.ca/server/call_presentations_2008.pdf

Deadline for submissions is Wednesday, October 17, 2007. Email info@cotabc.com if you have any questions on this Call for Presentations.

Source: Council of Tourism Associations of BC (www.cotabc.com)

News on the GST/HST Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive Program

Here is a note from the Honourable James M. Flaherty, Minister of Finance on the GST rebate program:

“The new Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive Program (FCTIP) is a more focused, effective and accountable replacement to the former VRP. The FCTIP aims to promote Canada as a destination of choice for group travel by focusing on the most competitive and price-sensitive segments of the tourism industry: foreign conventions ad the accommodation portion of tour packages for non-residents. The program also includes a new accountability framework to ensure the government can better evaluate its effectiveness.”

“Helpful information is readily available from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Members of the tourism industry may find the following CRA webpages particularly useful:

www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/gf/gst106/README.html
www.cra-arc.gc.ca/menu/GHIS-e.html
www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gi/notice221/README.html

Also, if Canadian tour operators wish, they may enter into a power of attorney that would allow the Canadian business to complete and file the required paperwork on behalf of the non-resident tour operator, and if desired, the Canadian business may also advance the amount of the rebate to the non-resident tour operator. Note that this option is not part of the FCTIP. Rather, it is a private arrangement between the parties and they must weigh the risks, costs and benefits or entering into such a commercial arrangement.

The Government continues to provide considerable support to Canada’s tourism industry through a variety of other means. (They) invest $75 million annually in the Canadian Tourism Commision’s global efforts to promote Canada; (they) provide significant funding for our national museums, parks and heritage sites, and (they) make substantial investments in Canadian gateways, infrastructure and national security.

The reduction of the GST rate to 6 percent – and eventually 5 percent – will also make Canada a more affordable destination and will benefit all visitors.”

Source: Letter to Kevan Ridgway from the Minister of Finance, Government of Canada, dated August 10, 2007.

Improvements to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program Will Help BC Tourism Employers Fill Labour Shortages

go2 - the BC tourism industry’s human resources association was pleased to hear the joint announcement made today by the Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, the Honourable Colin Hansen, Minister of Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Asia-Pacific Initiative and the Olympics for British Columbia and the Honourable Olga Ilich, British Columbia’s Minister of Labour and Citizens’ Services. The announcement was on improvements to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program that will help BC tourism employers by making it faster to hire foreign workers when there are no Canadian citizens or landed residents available to fill the positions.

go2 has been working together with other industry associations and government at all levels to address the foreign worker and immigration policies as part of the strategy to deal with labour shortages in the tourism industry. “We view this announcement as positive news for our industry, and believe that the changes will have an immediate and favourable impact on the tourism and hospitality industry’s ability to fulfill its staffing requirements and offset severe labour shortages in some occupations,” said Arlene Keis, CEO go2.

The newly announced pilot program will allow employers who are pre-authorized to expedite the process to obtain approval to hire foreign workers in several key tourism & hospitality occupations. These occupations are: Hotel housekeepers, front desk agents, snowboard and ski instructors, food and beverage servers, food counter attendants, tour and travel guides, and retail sales personnel.

Due to a lack of Canadian workers to fill these positions, employers across the province have been operating their tourism and hospitality businesses without a full complement of employees in these key occupations, (and additional occupations) for at least the past two years.

“We know that BC ski resorts are ramping up for the 2007/2008 season and are scouring BC and Canada for qualified staff. As it gets closer to opening day many will discover, like they did last year, that they will need additional staff. Under this new pilot program, ski areas will now be in a position to recruit from other countries to fill the gap in time for their peak winter season,” said Keis. “Using temporary foreign workers to fill the gaps has had minimum success in the past, and we welcome the federal and provincial government’s attention to both adding resources to this division as well as changing policy to facilitate accessibility to the program.”

go2 will work with industry and government in piloting this new program and will provide regular updates on its success. Full details of the program as well as the application to apply for eligibility can be obtained here: http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/workplaceskills/foreign_workers/index.shtml.

Announcement Highlights:
Of the 12 Occupations eligible under the new program, 7 are in tourism:
Housekeeping Room Attendants
Hotel Front Desk Clerks
Food and Beverage Servers
Food Counter Attendants
Tour and Travel Guides
Snowboard and Ski Instructors
Retail Sales Persons and Sales Clerks

The Pilot Project is a two-step process:
An employer applies to Service Canada to become eligible to access the Pilot program.
If approved, Service Canada expedites all regular requests from that specific employer for ‘E-LMO’ applications.
 
Why is this important?
LMO’s are currently taking anywhere from 12 to 20 weeks to be reviewed and approved or denied by Service Canada. Under the Expedited LMO Pilot Project, the LMO’s will be reviewed and a decision made within 3-5 business days.
Employers will only be required to apply to the program once. A decision by Service Canada as to their eligibility to participate in the program will be made within 5 business days from date of application.

Please contact John Leschyson, Director, Industry Human Resource Development at: 604-633-9787 ext. 225 or via email at: jleschyson@go2hr.ca if you would like more information.

Source: go2 Release: September 24, 2007

Web Report and Pay-Per-Click Opportunity

As we enter into the fall season, our focus for www.vcmbc.com is to keep it high on the search engines. To do this we are still continuing our work with A Couple of Chicks, optimizing all of our pages and then working on each of our partners' listings. Tracking has shown that the number of visitors coming to our site remains quite steady. We have seen that visitors are returning to our site, with over 27,000 visitors for the last month; and also that we are continuing to attract new visitors, with over 25,000 unique visitors.

Some good news with regards to the threat of the high Canadian dollar on tourism, www.vcmbc.com is still seeing that the second highest number of visitors are Americans. Canadians are still our first source of visitors, which relates to the growth in domestic travel, but it shows a substantial number of our American friends are still looking for information about our region.

Recently we have seen a change in the keywords which are used to locate our website online. Currently the top keyword to enter our website is ‘Rivermania’. Rivermania is the BC 150 Year celebration of Simon Fraser’s journey through our province. This celebration will be taking place next year with cities along the Fraser River participating; for more information click here.

We are also launching a new program that will be running with our site and Google. This program is a Pay-Per-Click Campaign focusing on four different travel topics which partners can buy space into. The four topics are:
Weekend Getaways
Shopping Excursions
Romantic Getaways
Last Minute Deals

Each topic will receive a new page on www.vcmbc.com with partner travel packages listed and will be directed from a Pay-Per-Click advertisement link found on Google. Our ads will appear when individuals search specific keywords or phrases. This is an opportunity to pre-qualify potential visitors to our site and to visit our partners. Not just a typical Pay-Per-Click campaign, we are using the resources of A Couple of Chicks to send out Content Syndicated releases to direct traffic to the advertisers, as well as constant monitoring over a two month period to ensure that VCM’s Pay-Per-Click links remain at the top of the keyword searches.

If you are interested in signing up for the Pay-Per-Click Campaign, or if you need any more information on the Vancouver Coast & Mountains’ website or any of our web marketing programs, please contact Kelly Miller, Partner Service Coordinator at 604-484-5366 or kellym@vcmbc.com.

Media Relations Report

‘Tis the season! Christmas may be three months away, but for travel writers this is the season to start gathering ideas for winter holiday features. We’re always looking for new ideas to ‘wow’ visiting travel writers, so please pass along your fabulous holiday specials or events. Send an email to Laura at Laura@vcmbc.com.  

But don’t stop at holiday stories. What makes your tourism business eco-friendly, affordable, quirky, unique…? We want to know! Over 800 travel media (and counting) have signed up or asked to receive our Story Starters bulletin. Our Story Starters bulletin is sent out once a month and highlights the newest happenings, quirky facts and off-the-beaten track secrets of our region. To contribute to Story Starters, please fill out this form: http://www.vcmbc.com/page.cfm/9712.

Baby, it’s cold outside. While the temperature outside may be cooling down, our Media Relations department is heating up. In fact, we want 2008 to be the year of press trips in Vancouver, Coast & Mountains. If you’d like to support a Vancouver, Coast & Mountains press trip by hosting a travel writer please contact Laura at Laura@vcmbc.com. We’ll help you get the media coverage you are looking for!

September has been a busy month for press trips in the region. In the last month we’ve organized 11 press trips for publications ranging from Golf International to New Zealand’s popular On Holiday Magazine. October already looks to be just as busy, but there’s still time to get involved.  

We’re always keeping an eye out for travel articles that feature the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains region. Click here for a sample of some of the articles we have received since September 2007. For a complete list of articles received in Summer 2007, please contact Laura (604-484-5361 or laura@vcmbc.com).