June 23, 2010

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains celebrates another year!
Sharing with and Listening to our Business & Community Partners
Social Media
Rendez-vous Canada Report
Submit now for the New Product Bulletin - It's Free!
Tourism BC Special Offers Program
Tourism BC's 2011 Approved Accommodation Program
Survey - Airport/Hotel Shuttle Service Demand

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains celebrates another year!

For those of you who were unable to join us, we thought we would give you a little summary of this year’s Regional Tourism Leaders Forum.

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains celebrated our 38th Annual General Meeting by playing host to more than ninety tourism industry representatives during the Regional Tourism Leaders Forum from June 8th to 10th at the Coast Chilliwack Hotel in Chilliwack, BC. The roster of speakers included Ben Vadasz from Think! Social Media, Bruce Dewar from 2010 Legacies Now, Keith Henry from Aboriginal Tourism British Columbia, Martin Littlejohn from the Mountain Bike Tourism Association and many more. If you would like to view the presentations and for a list of all the speakers, please click here.

As part of the conference there were various opportunities for the group to network, including an evening at the magical Minter Gardens, laughter and fun throughout the Amazing Race and a great evening of dancing while listening to Steve Elliott perform an Elvis tribute. As part of the Amazing Race through Chilliwack, teams of four raced through Chilliwack testing their golf swing, paddling on Cultus Lake, racing pedal cars and various other activities before ending at the Chilliwack Visitor Centre where they either named the provincial flags or completed a Sudoku puzzle. It was smiles all around as they came back to the hotel waiting to hear what place they finished. The winning team were awarded a chance to win $10,000 (scratch & win) and other donated prizes from around the community…thank you to Tourism Chilliwack and especially Joldie Hayes for organizing the Amazing Race, it was definitely a highlight of the conference.

We want to thank all the sponsors and attendees of the conference and hope to see everyone next year!

Photos of all the events can be found in the VCM Tourism Partners Flickr Group.

Sharing with and listening to our business and community partners

Over the past month, we have held meetings with our stakeholders in several communities and at roundtables during the Regional Tourism Leaders Forum. We appreciate that it is not possible for everyone to attend in person, so there will be a free Webinar on Tuesday June 29th at 2 p.m. for about an hour.

To register, please visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/925935801. After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

This will be our last communication before we begin the process of developing a business and marketing plan for the next fiscal year, April 1, 2010 – March 31, 2011. Our learning from these sessions has also led us to changes to our existing plan, most notably in the area of Social Media.

Our ability to meet the needs of our stakeholders is reliant on communication, listening to how we might be able to make a difference and add value for our business and community partners.

Looking forward to hearing more next week!

Rendez-vous Canada May 8 -12 2010

On your behalf, VCM made a triumphant return to the annual Rendez-vous Canada trade show this year held in iconic downtown Winnipeg. Rendez-vous Canada is the largest trade show of its kind in Canada and offers a one-stop shop for VCM to meet with tour operators and travel sellers from a multitude of exotic lands. Vancouver, Coast & Mountains had over 50 pre-selected appointments heavily weighted toward the key markets of Germany, England and The Netherlands. Key themes discussed included motorhome/RV travel to all destination areas, the Sunshine Coast and its Resorts and outdoor activities for the FIT (free independent traveler) markets. With relationships forged and relationships renewed, your representative at Rendez-vous bid a tearful and fond adieu to the bustling prairie metropolis, returning to the office with an appointment book brimming with follow up ideas and much information to distribute to Operators the world over

Social Media

The Vancouver, Coast & Mountains staff have completed a full day seminar to increase their understanding of the relevance and importance of social media. At the recent Regional Tourism Leaders Forum in Chilliwack, William Bakker (Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Arts) and Ben Vadasz (Think! Social Media) presented practical applications of this latest trend in destination and product marketing.

VCM is creating a pilot project with Think! for this summer, likely July 15 – September 15, to increase our learning and enable us to develop additional projects in the fall and winter. This pilot will also demonstrate how social media delivers measureable results for our business partners, and sells communities within our region. Stay tuned! We will also be looking to add two other social media tactics with our partners in the next three months.

Submit Now for the New Product Bulletin – IT'S FREE!

After a brief delay, the New Product Bulletin (NPB) is back! Don’t miss your opportunity to get noticed by the Travel Trade sector in this bulletin designed especially for trade operators.

Sent out by Tourism BC to their trade database, the NPB is available to the trade online or as a downloadable pdf format. To be included all you have to do is send the following information to jason@vcmbc.com:

• Choose a Category – new business or product/ new product from existing business/ improvements or renovations to existing business / name change or new owner
• Commissionable - yes or no
• Contact name – first last
• Contact details – phone # – toll free phone # – email – website
• Description- 100 words max

Don’t miss it, the deadline is Friday July 9. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Jason Knibbs at Jason@vcmbc.com.

Tourism BC Special Offers Program

Do you have a special promotional offer that you want to share with over 5.5 million consumers in the planning stages of their trip to British Columbia? If so, you can now list your offer on www.hellobc.com for FREE! In response to the tourism industry's requests to post special offers and promotions on our consumer website, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & the Arts (Tourism British Columbia) has launched their "Special Offers" program.

Consumers will see a summary of your Special Offer on HelloBC.com. For more detailed information about your Special Offer they can click on a weblink from HelloBC.com to the ‘specials page’ on your business website, thereby linking the consumer directly to your business. Since offers are time limited, once yours is no longer in effect, it will automatically be removed from HelloBC.com. Once expired, you can add a new offer to the system, and you can update or change your existing offer as often as you choose.

How do you take advantage of this new opportunity? It’s easy! Simply go to www.tourismbc.net and enter your User Name and Password. From the My Account Home page, click the “Add New” button at the bottom of the page. Next choose the product that you want to associate the Special Offer to from the “Create New Product” drop down menu; then enrol in “Special Offer” from the drop down menu under “Select a Program”, complete the required information fields and your special offer will appear on HelloBC.com within approximately 48 hours of ‘checking out’ of the system. Hint for Success: have all your information, including a photo you want to post, readily available so you can get your offer submitted quickly.

If you have any questions about this program or if you have misplaced your User Name and Password, contact a Tourism BC Product Service Coordinator at productservices@tourismbc.com or by calling 1-800-822-7899.

We hope you take advantage of this new Tourism British Columbia initiative.

Tourism British Columbia’s 2011 Approved Accommodation Program

Tourism British Columbia may have already contacted you to enroll for the 2011 Approved Accommodation component of the HelloBC® Listings Program. We wish to ensure you are aware of this program and its benefits to you and our community.

The Approved Accommodation Program includes a listing on HelloBC.com and in the full colour 2011 Approved Accommodation Guide, delivered in early 2011 and available to visitors at the Visitor Centre.

Why Enroll?
Say hello to over 8 million consumers. Enrolling in the HelloBC Listings Program gives accommodation properties exposure to consumers in the planning and purchasing stages of their trip – via an online listing at HelloBC.com, and a printed listing in the 2011 Approved Accommodation Guide, distributed through Tourism BC’s Call Centre and the provincial Visitor Centre network:

• Over 6 million consumers visit the HelloBC.com website network annually
• Over 3 million consumers drop in annually to one of the 115 Visitor Centres located throughout the province
• 275,000 copies of the Approved Accommodation Guide are distributed annually
• Over 66,000 consumers call into the Call Centre annually

Enroll Early – Tourism BC is offering a special reward for those enrolling by July 21, 2010. Complete your enrollment and check out of the shopping cart no later than midnight, July 21, 2010, and get two free online photos and one free weblink.

Enrollment Deadline – To ensure your property is included in the 2011 Approved Accommodation Guide, you must enroll by August 31, 2010.

Get started today at www.tourismbc.net.

If you have any questions about enrollment in the 2011 Approved Accommodation Program, including:

• You have a new property to enroll;
• Your property has undergone a name change;
• You have forgotten your username (if you know your username but forgotten your password, you can reset the password when you enter www.tourismbc.net);
• You are a new contact for your property; or
• Any other aspect of the Approved Accommodation Program,

visit www.tourismbc.net or contact Product Services directly at productservices@gov.bc.ca or 1 800 822 7899.

Survey - Airport/Hotel Shuttle Service Demand

Aerocar Service would appreciate a couple of minutes of your time to answer a brief 10 question survey. This survey is response to an overwhelming demand for a hotel - airport shuttle service. All respondents will be entered into a draw to win a "$50 Gift Certificate to Samba Brazilian Steak House."

Please follow this link to complete the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2RC5ZPQ