Also Selling:
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September
9,
2009 COTA Council Meeting Resolutions |
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COTA Council Meeting Resolutions On Wednesday, September 2 nearly 80 tourism
industry leaders that make up the COTA Council convened in Vancouver.
The meeting advanced four resolutions that focused and strengthened
industry's response to recent announcements made by the Government
of British Columbia.
These resolutions will be communicated to government, the industry, and other stakeholder groups in order to clarify and strengthen the industry's positions going forward. |
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Over the past few months, the on-line team at Tourism BC have been working diligently to improve the visitor experience on HelloBC.com. Significant recent changes include:
Experience the upgrades yourself by visiting HelloBC.com. |
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Canada
Travel keeps its strength amid Mexico’s turmoil You have to feel for Mexico in 2009. A global recession and a spiralling peso were bad enough; then came the H1N1 flu virus outbreak. But despite all the deepening gloom, the latest Global Tourism Watch report for Mexico just released by the Canadian Tourism Commission’s (CTC) Research department finds some good news. The likelihood of Mexicans taking a short trip to Canada has fallen to 43% since 2007; those planning a longer stay are down by six percentage points over the same period to 41%. Even so, overall interest in Canada is strong, which indicates this decline is linked to Mexico’s economic woes and a weaker peso versus Canada losing its allure. This was backed up by data for unaided brand awareness. Although Canada lost five percentage points this year—down to 30%—many other long-haul destinations, including the US, Spain, France and Germany, slipped as well; Canada kept its strong second place in the country rankings. British Columbia (93%) and Alberta (72%) stood out from the crowd with a rise in destination interest. Ontario also stayed high (92%), but was bumped from top spot by BC. Vancouver, BC, topped the list for individual destinations (87%), while Edmonton, AB (31%), and Whistler, BC, (17%) also posted significant gains. Mexican travellers’ interest is primarily piqued by nature, with beautiful scenery, visiting natural parks and observing wildlife all rating highly. That said, Mexico is fast becoming one of the commission’s most intriguing markets for winter travel: winter fun raises pulses more than in most other GTW markets. These combined interests make Mexican travellers ideal for “active adventure among awe-inspiring natural wonders,” one of CTC’s five “Unique Selling Propositions” (USPs) for Canada. And the 2010 Winter Games are still to come. Harris/Decima Research conducts the Global Tourism Watch survey for CTC. The company asks thousands of participants from across the globe to comment on their perceptions of Canada and the CTC’s “Canada. Keep exploring” tourism brand. The fieldwork for this study was carried out before the H1N1 flu virus outbreak in Mexico and the implementation of new visa requirements for Mexican visitors to Canada. |
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The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) is offering an enhanced opportunity for travel tourism operators to advertise their travel offers on the Locals Know website. LocalsKnow.ca offers good visibility to a highly receptive audience:
Offers must be available between November 1st and December 31st. Click here for more information and to download the template required to submit your listing. Deadline to submit any travel offer is September 18th. |
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2010 BC Tourism Industry Conference Survey Tourism Industry Conference Survey - Your Input is Encouraged! Specific elements and topics for the 2010 conference are being designed around a survey COTA is currently conducting, plus suggestions provided by a committee comprising industry leaders. To participate in the survey, please click here. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2009. Visit www.bctourismindustryconference.ca for more information. |
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Has your Director of Marketing or Sales Manager changed recently? Do you find it irritating to continue to receive email addressed to the old employee long after they’ve left? Vancouver, Coast & Mountains’ wants to ensure that we aren’t one of the sources of that irritation, but our database is only as good as the information that we receive. Please make sure that you let us know when you experience changes to your staff. If we have accurate contact information it’s less likely that you’ll miss that “once in a lifetime” opportunity!! Please send any staff updates to Doleen Dean at Doleen@vcmbc.com or 604-638-6932. |
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Building your Tweet-cred By Definition – (according to Wikipedia anyway) “Street-Cred” refers to: “the objective and subjective components of the believability of a source or message – with two key components: trustworthiness and expertise.” So – How do you build your credibility on Twitter? The first step in knowing that you need to build your Twitter
credibility – so
congratulations you have taken the first step! You have just opened your Twitter account and are starting to look around and get comfortable. (I guess that is the first tip – don’t just dive in and start tweeting – that would be like joining a group mid conversation without knowing who they were and what they were talking about)
And most of all – don’t get stressed out because you think everyone is looking at you because you are a newbie. We were all newbie’s once! Ok one more thing – don’t tweet about what you are “doing now” even if that is what Twitter tells you to do. (that’s just not cool). Reprinted from ideahatching.com, the official blog for A Couple of Chicks E-Marketing. Alicia Whalen is the co-founder of "A Couple of Chicks.Com" an Internet Marketing, Distribution & Revenue Measurement Company. |
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Your feedback is most
welcome on any subject – please e-mail kevan@vcmbc.com. |
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LocalsKnow.ca – Free
Listing Opportunity