March 31, 2008
In this issue:

Save the Date for...
Register for the 2008 Tourism Educators Conference
On the Lookout for the Staff FAM Tours
Google Analytics New Tool – Web Report
Would you Like to Join go2’s Board of Directors?
Travel Between Canada and Other Countries
Consumer Show Update – Golf Shows

Save the Date for...

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Tourism's Regional Tourism Leaders Forum
and Annual General Meeting  

Wednesday, June 11 - Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tsawwassen, British Columbia

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains' annual Regional Tourism Leaders Forum is just 85 days away. Hear informative speakers share key advice on how to grow your tourism business, voice your opinion at the Annual General Meeting, and network with your fellow tourism business owners.

Registration begins in April 2008.
 
For more information contact Laura Woodbridge at laura@vcmbc.com or 604-484-5361.

Register for the 2008 Tourism Educators Conference

Tourism & hospitality educators, human resources professionals and others are invited to register today for the 2008 Tourism Educators Conference, May 8-10 at the beautiful Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Online registration is available at www.bctli.ca/main/?TEC, with an extended early bird offer until March 31st.

The conference has secured a number of high-calibre speakers to complement the theme of Taking Action: Global Climate Change and Tourism/Hospitality Education. Guests will be inspired by presentations from Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation; Ann Duffy, Director of Sustainability for VANOC; and Anna Pollock, CEO of DestiCorp and Co-founder of the Icarus Foundation. Anna will be coming to Whistler from Bangkok where she will have helped to facilitate the PATA CEO Global Leaders Challenge conference on Tourism and Climate Change.

Their presentations will complement a special two-part program. In “Part A”, the educators’ issues and opportunities forum, delegates will discuss a range of peer-identified topics and learn strategies for success. In “Part B”, a set of interactive sessions will focus on the ways tourism educators and HR professionals can influence their students and employees as the industry comes to grips with the issue of global climate change

Conference partners at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler are providing incredible delegate room rates starting at only $99.

Registration and hotel bookings are open online at www.bctli.ca/main/?TEC  with a great conference early-bird rate of $299 now extended to March 31st.

For more information on the 2008 Tourism Educators Conference, please visit www.bctli.ca/main/?TEC or contact Jackie Challis, conference coordinator at 604.986.1911 x3567 or jackie@linkbc.ca.

On the Lookout for the Staff FAM Tours

With all the new faces at VCM, and with new tourism partners joining every day, the staff at Vancouver, Coast & Mountains has decided to hit the road, to tour around our region and bring us up to speed with the fabulous businesses around our region.

The FAM tours will be ongoing from March until August, with different groups of staff heading out, and reporting back their findings to the office. Jennifer Rhyne, Laura Woodbridge, Jason Knibbs and Jane Stark were the pioneer group, and they spent last week touring the communities of Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Burnaby, New Westminster, Delta/Ladner, White Rock and Surrey. It was a busy 3 days – and they returned to the office loaded with informational goodies and full of stories (which they are delighting in sharing with everyone). Our community partners were a huge help in setting up the best their communities had to offer, with tons of media and trade products and a few interesting sightings (there is just something really strange about a Hair Wreath!). So thanks to our community partners so far, and keep your eyes open for sightings of VCM staff.

Jennifer also had the opportunity to join STS Guiding Service on Friday for a jetboat tour up the Fraser Canyon to Hell's Gate. Remember Friday - that strange spring day with snow? Yup, it snowed at Hell's Gate, but she enjoyed the rapids nonetheless, and is anxious to try that journey again in the sunshine!

Future Tour de White Rock winner? Here is a shot of Media Relations Manager, Laura Woodbridge, pedalling away on a bicycle from the special display at the Surrey Museum!

If you have questions about the Staff FAM Tours, please contact Jennifer Rhyne at jennifer@vcmbc.com.

Google Analytics New Tool – Web Report

Do you feel like spring is only teasing you and the winter just doesn’t want to go away? We all know that Vancouver, Coast and Mountains might be known for receiving a ‘little’ bit of rain; however it is still a fact that we get spring first in Canada! With this in mind, we have been seeing our monthly visitation numbers to www.vcmbc.com increase. We have seen an overall 9.76% increase in the average number of visitors to the site for the last three months. We have also seen the number of page views and pages per visit increase.

A new analytic tool from Google Analytics is Benchmarking. Google has asked for companies using Google Analytics to share their website data, anonymously, for the industry they represent. Depending on the size of the organization, this is good way to see how your website is measuring up to other industry sites. Our first benchmarking stats are showing impressive numbers. 466.41% above the industry benchmark for visits to our site, and 234.60% for page views when compared to other industry numbers. 

We all want to make sure we are tailoring our e-marketing efforts to the right audience. The following is a look at the top ten countries that seem most interested in our wonderful region from site visits:

1. Canada
2. United States
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. Germany
6. Netherlands
7. Japan
8. France
9. Switzerland
10. Ireland

These countries usually remain quite similar; however we do normally see changes between the 4th to the 10th spots. The changes all depend on the time of year, but this information should help with developing not only your e-marketing plans but also your other marketing plans.

Our numbers do change daily and we are still continuing to work on the optimization of our pages to ensure that www.vcmbc.com and our partners are easily found on search engines such as Google. If you have any questions about our reports or would like a report of your listing on www.vcmbc.com, please contact Kelly Miller at 604-484-5366 or kellym@vcmbc.com.

Would you Like to Join go2’s Board of Directors?

The go2 Tourism HR Society will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, June 24, 2008. At this meeting go2 will be required to elect or re-elect new Board members to replace Directors whose terms are expiring.

go2’s Governance Committee is seeking nominations of senior leaders in the tourism industry who are committed to advancing the knowledge and practice of world-class leadership, management and human resources principles within BC’s tourism industry. Click here for more details regarding the qualifications required for Board members.

Nominations must be made by a Voting Member, signed by the nominee and submitted to go2 no later than April 18, 2008. Once all submissions are received, the Governance Committee will review the nominations against the qualifications, and their policies for sectoral and regional representation. A slate of recommended candidates will be determined and circulated to the Membership prior to the AGM. All Director appointments are two-year terms.

Please note that you must renew your membership in go2 for 2008/2009 in order to make a nomination to the Board of Directors.

go2 appreciates the support of all of their members and current and past Directors. They hope that you will continue to guide and support the work of go2 through participating in the governance of the Society. Remember the deadline for nominations is April 18, 2008. Please fax or mail the nomination form to the contact information listed below:

Fax: 604-633-9796
Mail: #450 – 505 Burrard Street, PO Box 59
Vancouver, BC V7X 1M3

TIAC Update - Travel Between Canada and Other Countries
January 2008 (Seasonally Unadjusted)

INBOUND TRIPS TO CANADA

1. In January, non-residents made just 1.38 million trips to Canada, an 11.4% decrease compared to January 2007, and the lowest level on record.
2. Total overnight travel to Canada reached 718,000 trips in January 2008, a 1.9% decrease compared to last year.

From the United States:

1. The total number of trips to Canada from the U.S. declined 14.0% to 1.16 million trips.
2. Compared to January 2007, total automobile travel from the U.S. fell to 906,000 trips due mainly to a 20.4% decline in same-day auto travel. 
3. In January, same-day auto trips from the U.S. fell to another record low, reaching just 624,000.
4. Compared to last year, the total volume of overnight travel from the U.S. fell 4.6% in January as overnight auto travel decreased 5.3% and non-auto overnight travel fell 3.8%.
5. Travel modes other than automobile also registered declines in January compared to the same month last year as bus travel fell 3.5% and travel by air decreased 5.5%.   Trips by train, boat and other methods remained flat.

From all other countries:

1. Compared to January 2007, the total number of trips from overseas destinations increased 5.5% to 218,000 trips.  This represents another record monthly high for overseas travel to Canada.
2. Trips to Canada from all but one of Canada’s six major overseas regions posted increases in January 2008: Oceania (26.0%); Central America including Mexico (19.3%); South America (9.8%); Africa (6.6%); and Europe (2.7%) while trips from Asia remained unchanged.

OUTBOUND TRIPS BY CANADIANS

1. Due to the continuation of a strong economy and positive consumer outlook, total outbound travel by Canadians reached 4.1 million trips in January 2008, a 9.8% increase compared to January 2007.
2. Compared to January 2007, total overnight outbound travel by Canadians increased 10.8% to reach 2.25 million trips. 

To the United States:

1. Compared to January 2007, the total number of trips to the U.S. increased 10.5% to 3.2 million trips in January 2008.  The Canadian dollar averaged 98.9 US cents in value during the month.  
2. Total overnight trips to the U.S. increased 13.1% in January 2008 due to a rise in both auto and non-auto trips.
3. Compared to the same month last year, total automobile travel to the U.S. increased 11.6% to 2.5 million trips.  Almost 1.8 million same-day auto trips were made, a 9.6% year-over-year increase, while overnight auto travel increased 17.5%.
4. In January 2008, the number of Canadians travelling to the U.S. by air increased 8.9% and set a new record.  Travel by train, boat and other methods remained flat (+0.2%), while the number of Canadians travelling by bus decreased 3.5% compared to last year.

To Overseas Countries:

1. Canadian travel to overseas destinations registered a 7.8% gain in January 2008, reaching almost 935,000 trips.

Source: Travel Industry Association of Canada (TIAC)

Consumer Show Update – Golf Shows

Southern California Golf Show
Kevan Ridgway attended the Southern California Golf Show at the Long Beach Convention Center. The show ran from February 29 to March 2 with attendance estimated at 6,000, which was slightly lower than last year. Attendees were about 70% male, 30% female, with aprroximately 50% of those attendees being retired, and 50% between 30 – 45 years of age. VCM was the only British Columbia booth at the show.

Toronto Golf Show
Despite the heavy snow fall, 28,000 Ontarians came out to the Toronto Golf Show. Kelly Miller attended the show on behalf of VCM and found it to have a great atmosphere. The VCM booth was in a row with booths with British Columbia destinations and golf courses. Attendees at this show were about 70% male.

Seattle Golf Show
Over the St Patrick’s Day weekend, Rebecca Vossepoel attended the Seattle Golf Show. This year the show had 40% more attendees than last year. They also spent about 20% more on marketing the show this year. As usual, the shows attendees consisted mostly of men in their 50-70’s. However, on Saturday and Sunday there were also couples aged 30-40 with young kids (babies and toddlers). Attendees were interested in coming to BC to golf as well as fish. There were many comments about the Canadian dollar and some attendees were not as interested in coming to BC as they used to be because of border hassles and the exchange rate.