Tourism Snapshot - Year in Review

Canada's Travel & Tourism Industry Welcomes Introduction of Ten-Year Visas

The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) enthusiastically welcomed the July 20th announcement of a new, ten-year multiple-entry visa for international travelers wishing to visit Canada.

Internationally, tourism is the world's fastest growing export sector, and much of the growth is being fuelled by a newly-mobile middle class in emerging markets such as Brazil, India, China, and Mexico. Enhancing Canada's ability to welcome these potential visitors has the potential to mean millions of new customers and billions of dollars in foreign currency injected into the Canadian economy.

"A ten-year visa will help to put Canada back on an even footing with other destinations in the competitive international travel market," said TIAC President and CEO David Goldstein. "This is a common sense solution that will make the visa process more efficient for our government, and more convenient for our valued international visitors."

TIAC recognizes the work of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on identifying the need to facilitate legitimate travel from our key allies and trading partners where there is no threat. Increasing access to Canada is one of the tourism sector's key priorities, and the need for modernization of our visa system has been articulated as a vital aspect of enhancing access and to help Canada's tourism sector grow and thrive.

This simple solution will help to bring Canada in line with other destinations, and will provide both travelers and the department with the means to facilitate trade in the tourism sector. It is also a further demonstration of the Harper government's commitment to promote growth in the tourism sector, and will help to support the interdepartmental initiatives in the forthcoming Federal Tourism Strategy.

For more information, please contact:

Kevin Desjardins

Director, Communications,

Tourism Industry Association of Canada

kdesjardins@tiac.travel

(c) 613-240-7225

Travel Trade - Familiarization Tours Demystified

Many of you have participated in one of our “Fam Tours”, while others have heard about them but are not exactly certain what they are or what they could mean to you.

The Description:
A Familiarization Tour ("Fam Tour") is basically a complimentary or reduced-rate travel program for people associated with the travel industry and is designed to acquaint participants with specific destinations and to stimulate the sale of travel. The target participants are traditionally tour operators, travel agents, travel planners, meeting and convention planners and trade show managers, or other travel buyers. Familiarization tours are also offered to journalists as research trips for the purpose of cultivating media coverage of specific travel products or destinations.

The Development:
Most Fam Tours are coordinated by Tourism British Columbia, who contacts Vancouver, Coast & Mountains to arrange our regional portion of the tour. VCM in turn, coordinates the travel arrangements in the region with you, our marketing partners. VCM is also committed to begin to partner with adjacent regions, such as Tourism Vancouver Island to develop Fam Tour opportunities for our marketing partners independently of Tourism BC.
However, whether organized through the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), Tourism BC or Vancouver, Coast & Mountains, it is important to realize that participants are carefully selected for each tour. Therefore when a request comes through Vancouver, Coast & Mountains asking for your participation, you can be confident that the participants are qualified Tour Operators.

Most Fam Tours have a specific focus, such as highlighting a particular area or industry sector such as golf, adventure or history. Fam tours can be anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days depending on where the participants are coming from, the number of products we are showcasing, and whether evening, late-night, or early morning events are part of it. Most Tourism BC coordinated Fam Tours last 5-7 days with the VCM portion being anywhere from 1-3 days. The majority of Fam Tour opportunities occur in the off-season (Oct – April) when airfare costs are lower and accommodation availability are higher.

Some operate as a Pre or Post tour after a tourism marketplace such as Canada’s West Marketplace or Rendezvous Canada. Most Fam Tours operate on a group basis, though individual tours that operate as an Free Independent Tour (FIT) tour are growing in demand.

The Fine Print:
Familiarization Tours require that our marketing partners provide complimentary or greatly reduced-cost services in exchange for promoting your business to the influential participants of the Fam Tour. Tour Operators are invited as guests of the destination and are not usually expected to pay for the tour.

If invited to participate or “host” a Fam Tour group this is your opportunity to put your best foot forward; to showcase your offerings to the Fam Tour guest – who will be either the company decision makers, have some influence in their respective companies or be responsible for selling packages directly to the visitor. Reasons for being on the Fam Tour range from simply wanting to learn more about the area, possibly to look for new product to include in future packages or itineraries, or it could be the first time they’ve been able to experience a product they’ve offered for a while.

While it’s true that you are being asked to provide complimentary tickets, admissions, meals or room nights, remember – for a brief time, you’ll have multiple tour operators who sell to multiple markets as a captive audience. All eyes will be on you, your product or service. How you choose to take advantage of this opportunity is entirely up to you.

For questions or for more information contact Jason Knibbs, Sales Manager – Tour & Travel at 604.484.5363 or jason@vcmbc.com

Welcome to Carmen Melotto

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains staff would like to extend a warm welcome to Carmen Melotto, our newest intern student. Carmen is currently taking a semester off her studies at University in Northern Italy to gain some practical experience before graduation. She is living in and enjoying Vancouver's West End and whether it’s hiking or biking through the woods, relaxing on the beach or shopping on Robson Street before enjoying cheesecake in downtown Vancouver, she is completely thrilled and inspired by the city and can't wait to explore everything it has to offer. Carmen will be with us until December and while here she will be working closely with each department and will likely be in contact with many of our partners. Carmen can be reached at carmen@vcmbc.com or 604.638.6928. Please join us in welcoming Carmen to the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains team.