October 21, 2009
In this issue:

HST Update - COTA Analysis and Government Communications
VCM on HelloBC.com - 6 Months Later
Real Travelers Show They are Ready to Get Away
Congratulations to Gibsons!
Toronto Tourism CEO touts diversity
No Reservations: The Rise of The Nontransactional Travel Web Site

HST UPDATE - COTA ANALYSIS AND GOV'T COMMUNICATIONS

COTA has completed its first draft of a report entitled "The Impact of Sales Tax Harmonization on the B.C. Tourism Industry." To download a copy of the report, click here.

The report's main findings include:

• The average price structure impact (increase) of HST on tourism businesses is estimated to be 4.66%.
• The resulting net taxation increase for the overall tourism industry is expected to be approximately $363 million, which should result in a visitor spending decrease of roughly $363 million to $545 million (depending on consumer responses).
• Tourism-derived tax revenues for all levels of government are expected to decline between $105 million and $157 million due to HST.
• Tourism-related job losses would be in the range of 3,400 to 5,200 direct jobs and 7,000 to 10,500 total jobs (direct and indirect).
• B.C.'s substantial short-haul / domestic travel market will be most significantly impacted due to HST, and this will have a disproportionate impact on regional/rural tourism development opportunities.

COTA presented the report to B.C. Minister of Finance, Colin Hansen on October 20, along with recommendations to mitigate the impacts of HST on the B.C. tourism industry. These recommendations were based on discussions with the HST Tourism Working Group over the past several weeks.

To view a copy of COTA's letter to Minister Hansen, click here.

COTA will also be using this analysis as the basis for its written submission to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services for the provincial Budget 2010. The deadline for submissions is this Friday, October 23rd. To review submission details visit www.gov.bc.ca/fin/.

A more detailed communications strategy will be discussed at the upcoming COTA Council meeting on October 29. Under the advice of the HST Tourism Working Group, COTA is refraining from undertaking public relations activities relating to this report until we have assessed government's response.

www.COTABC.com

VCM on HelloBC.com - Six Months Later

On April 2, 2009, VCM’s official regional website, VCMBC.com, began to display content exclusively within the structure of the official BC Tourism website, HelloBC.com. 6 months later we sat down to examine traffic to the new content on HelloBC.com and compare it to traffic to VCMBC.com during the same time period in 2008. And we have great news! When we compare the previous six months to the same time period in 2008 we see that the number of visitors has increased from 671,024 in 2008 to 933,686 in 2009. Also, the number of page views has increased from 1,081,896 in 2008 to 2,041,374 in 2009. In addition we are pleased to be able to report that over the past 6 months there have been 810,203 pageviews of VCM operators and 185,913 clickthroughs to VCM operator websites from HelloBC.com. That’s a clickthrough rate of almost 23%!

The Vancouver, Coast & Mountains content on HelloBC.com continues to grow as we work with communities throughout the region to update and enhance community content. Shawna Leung, of VCM, has been escorting writers around the region to provide them with the experiences they need to write engaging content. Thank you to all the communities and community tourism partners for assisting us. We’d like to encourage you to keep your sections up to date by submitting any changes to Shawna at shawna@vcmbc.com and make sure you use the festivals & events calendar on the site. In addition, everyone (communities and individuals) can take advantage of the blogging tool on HelloBC.com to highlight key things to do around the region.

For more information on Vancouver, Coast & Mountains content on HelloBC.com please contact Shawna Leung at shawna@vcmbc.com or Mary Ann Bell at maryann@vcmbc.com.

Toronto Tourism CEO touts diversity

While international experts and tourism policy makers gathered in Ghana to “celebrate diversity” at the recent World Tourism Day festivities held in the capital of Accra, travel industry types met with students a world away to mark the annual event in one of Canada’s most diverse cities, Toronto.

“If the best way to market a destination is to create a brand that is appealing to an audience, how do you do that in a diverse world where what’s important to you may be very, very different than what’s important to someone else?” asked David Whitaker, CEO of Toronto Tourism, during the seventh annual celebration of world tourism at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Hospitality Management.

As one of the event’s speakers, Whitaker said that, while the concept of diversity can be an “amazing challenge” to tourism marketers, it can also prove to be a valuable asset. “Diversity is something that you can use as an administrative and a marketing tool to take advantage of opportunities that are there,” he said.

He presented several elements to marketing and branding any destination in which diversity can be used as a tool.

The first element is to recognize that in marketing any destination, it’s important to recognize that it’s all about the customer.

“Whether you’re in tourism and any other related business, you have to be aware of the diversity of your customers because what’s important to you doesn’t matter, it’s what your customers are passionate about, what their interests are,” he said.

The second element is to remember that regardless of a person’s cultural or ethnic background or age, people make decisions based on their emotions.

“It’s hearts, then minds… in a world where we’re making decisions in scant seconds, you’ve got to factor in your diverse audience and know what appeals to them emotionally,” said Whitaker.
Other factors that are important include making your marketing message quick and simple, and incorporating all the senses into the message.

“It’s got to be about all five senses… and diversity can be an advantage to that because the richness of diversity can give you a palette of things with which you can excite people.”
And lastly, Whitaker said that the most important thing marketers can do in our diverse world is “repeat, repeat, repeat.”

While diversity can prove to be challenging to tourism marketers, Whitaker said that the focus should be on accepting it and forging a singular, shared identity.

“ We’re always trying to eliminate diversity, but instead of trying to tear down barriers, we should be spending more time accepting our diverse elements.”

By Mary Nguyen, Canadian Travel Press (October 5, 2009)

No Reservations: The Rise of The Nontransactional Travel Web Site

In the beginning of the online travel boom, bookings were the name of the game. In the past few years, however, nontransactional Web sites have been vying for the consumer's attention. Companies no longer need to sell travel to be a major online travel player, and many don't actually generate any revenue until consumers leave their site. Online brands now can rely on advertising, referral payments and other nontraditional revenue to succeed. Attractions like user reviews and deals listings are resonating with travelers and nontransactional Web sites are growing steadily.

Findings from PhoCusWright's Online Traffic and Conversion Report show that the growing number of nontransactional sites has begun to siphon consumers from transactional sites during the earlier phases of travel planning. The study, conducted in partnership with Compete Inc., found that over the past few years, traffic to nontransactional sites has increased from 29% of all travel category visitations to 33%. Sites in the metasearch, planning and reviews, lead generators, destination and tourism, and travel guides categories clearly play a role in influencing travelers, and impact both traffic and conversion rates on transactional sites.

Click here to read the rest of this article.