After a successful career in media and more than a decade in advertising
sales with Rogers Broadcasting, Simon Ratcliffe co-founded JPS
Media Works. Together with partners Patrick Curling and Justin
Booth, and the contributions of several tourism organizations,
the last ten years have been spent developing video production
and a unique approach to tourism video with their continuing “Simon
Sees” episodes. 
Marketing Opportunities
|
 |
 |
March 1, 2011 Congratulations to the new
Premier-Designate, Christy Clark |
||
Congratulations to the New Premier-Designate, Christy Clark Congratulations to Premier-Designate Christy Clark! Our region looks forward to working with her and her teams to realize the promises made in her February 18th news release. It was very appropriate that her announcements were made at one of the top paid attractions in the tourism industry, Capilano Suspension Bridge. Key words and phrases included “listen to the industry”, “new market-driven regime”, “supported by government” and “have predictable funding”. For the coming year, we are pleased that Minister Margaret MacDiarmid confirmed “status quo” funding for British Columbia’s Tourism Regions, and we are now moving forward to implement our plans with your support and investment. Please review each of the offerings in the coming months, and let us know if there are tactics missing that you would support. We are very excited about one such tactic, 604Pulse. 604Pulse is direct outcome of listening to our partners about their desires to be more active in social media and online marketing. See below for more information about his exciting project. Vancouver, Coast & Mountains NEW Vision and Mission Statements Over the past few months, Vancouver, Coast & Mountains has been working on updating our Vision and Mission statements to reflect the changes that have occurred in our organization, and the industry, over the past decade. The process began with a facilitator, whose goal was to guide the staff in the creative process, as we identified the key components of what our mission is. Many flip charts, brainstorms and cups of coffee later, the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains staff and our Board of Directors are ready to unveil the new and improved Vision and Mission statements. Vision Mission If you have any questions or would like to share your comments about the above statements, do not hesitate to contact Kevan Ridgway at kevan@vcmbc.com or 604-638-6930. 2012 Travel Experience Guide Announcement: We wanted to send out a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the recent Publications Survey which was sent out January 27, 2011. The survey was intended to help us plan our 2012 Publications and identify any need for change, improvements, and if there are components of our guides (primarily our annual Travel Experience Guide) that you are proud of. Before we reveal the highlights of our key findings we also wanted to introduce to you our new face for the 2012 Travel Experience Guide (disclaimer: some of you may recognize him!).
Simon is now also selling advertising again and will be heading out this spring with the 2012 Travel Experience Guide. "This is a perfect fit for our company", Simon says. "With the integration of print, online magazines, social media and rich video content - our expertise in these areas, coupled with a strong advertising background, puts us in a great position to assist the VCM tourism partners with the multitude of choices for their marketing dollars." Simon is excited about his additional responsibilities and looks forward to the opportunity of speaking with many familiar faces about advertising in the 2012 guide. "It's going to be awesome!" And without further adieu, back to the survey results. The following is a brief summary of the key findings:
Planning is well underway for the 2012 publication; keep your eyes on your inbox in early April for the sales piece. Please contact Jennifer Rhyne (jennifer@vcmbc.com or 604-637-9046) if you have any questions about VCM’s publications (or would like more feedback from our survey results) and don’t forget to introduce yourself to Simon (simon@jpsmediaworks.com or 604-218-8675) if you haven’t yet met him – he is a terrific ball of energy! Vancouver, Coast & Mountains
Forms New Partnership with Vancouver, Coast & Mountains recently announced the launch of a partnership with Quote EndQuote Cross-Cultural Strategy as part of a pro-active marketing strategy targeting the local British Columbia Chinese residents as tourists in the region, who in turn invite their friends and relatives in China to visit. We are excited to be leading the regional tourism industry with this innovative partnership by offering tourism businesses an opportunity to participate in an integrated promotion with Chinese language tools, customs and cultural responsiveness at the forefront. An initial tactic has been the development of a customized website, soon to be launched as part of the campaign. The new URL will be www.laVAN8.com, which means “come to play” and it has an interesting history of creation. The phonetic spelling of the Chinese phrase is Lai Wan Ba. For the English-language URL, Lai is changed to La to make the name more attractive to local residents. By omitting the last letter “i”, the URL looks and sounds more European, eliciting a cosmopolitan flair. Wan is changed to VAN to specify the city of Vancouver. For English speakers, the pronunciation of VAN is more similar to the original pronunciation of Wan in Chinese, and VAN is the shortened name for Vancouver. Finally the last word Ba is replaced with number 8 for two reasons. First, the Chinese pronunciation of the number 8 is the same as the final modal auxiliary Ba in the phrase Lai Wan Ba. Secondly, number 8 is believed to be a lucky number for Chinese people. Vancouver, Coast & Mountains partners are eager to begin learning how to customize their businesses to reach this growing niche market. Capilano Suspension Bridge, Pacific Centre, Honeyview Farm and Tourism Langley are among the initial partners in this campaign, which will include contests, social network sharing, Chinese language materials, and coupons. For more information on this program please contact Jennifer Rhyne at jennifer@vcmbc.com or 604-637-9046. 2011 Tourism Passport
It's live! Click here for a sneak peek of 604Pulse, Vancouver, Coast & Mountains' exciting new micro-site! We're very excited and anticipate that it will be a valuable resource for the near-in market to stay current on what's happening in the region. Featuring a combination of original content created by VCM staff writers, traditional media sources and blogs, 604Pulse will highlight tourism experiences based on upcoming events, deals, weekend activities, weekday activities, locals secrets trip ideas. Want to be a part of it? Join Vancouver, Coast & Mountains in a targeted 6 week campaign to encourage BC residents to take advantage of spring, and travel throughout the region. Designed to inspire, this campaign will reach consumers while they are making their weekend and mid-week leisure plans. Click here for more information, or contact Kayla Seib at kayla@vcmbc.com or 604-638-6931. Promote your Community and/or Events with Photos! Vancouver, Coast & Mountains is looking for your fabulous photos, descriptions and press releases of events or terrific activities happening in your community or business. Highlighted photos will be an ongoing feature on the Ministry website, and will be changing 1-2 times per week. We will be submitting photos continually, so please mark your calendars to keep sending your images and accompanying descriptions/press releases as the events happen over the year – or whenever you come across a fabulous photo! Here is an example of what the website looks like: Click here What do you need to send?
Don’t worry about the writing – we will do it for you. We just need to know the general information about what is happening in the photo you have submitted. If you have any questions at all, please contact Jennifer Rhyne at jennifer@vcmbc.com or 604-637-9046. Tourism BC Announces new online Tourism Industry Resources As part of the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Investment, Tourism BC’s mandate is to support and promote the business of tourism throughout the province. Tourism BC is structured to develop and deliver programs and services that attract visitors to British Columbia and help ensure that the quality of their vacation experience keeps them coming back for more. Tourism BC has a number of resources available to assist tourism operators, communities and sectors in growing and developing their businesses. Explore the collection of tools by following this link to the new Tourism Industry Resource area of the Tourism BC website. Monthly Feature of the Tourism Industry Resource section: How-to Guides Watch for new guide announcements on the following topics: Chinese Visitors, Cultural and Heritage Tourism, and Research. Congratulations to the Baerg Family, 2011 Inductees to the Fraser River Hall of Fame Vancouver, Coast & Mountains would like to take this opportunity to extend our warmest congratulations to Darwin & Sue Baerg and their family on the news that they will be inducted into the 2011 Fraser River Hall of Fame. Each year, the Fraser River Discovery Centre Society recognizes significant achievements and contributions made by a family, individual, business, corporation or organization to the Fraser River. The Baerg's will be inducted at a gala dinner held in the fall. As owners and operators of Fraser River Raft Expeditions, Darwin, Sue and their family have made signifcant contributions to, not only the health and sustainability of the Fraser River, but also towards education about, and promotion of, the river to local and worldwide markets. The Baerg's are true ambassadors of the Fraser River and we are thrilled with the Fraser River Discovery Centre Society's decision to induct them into the Fraser River Hall of Fame. Job Posting - Tourism Surrey Tourism Surrey is currently interviewing for the position of Sales and Marketing Coordinator. This part-time position is responsible for implementing and promoting partnerships and marketing programs to the Surrey business community. The Sales & Marketing Coordinator will work closely with the Marketing Manager and Executive Director to implement programs as outlined in the annual marketing plan as well as provide ongoing administrative support where required. For the complete job posting click here.
|
||
Your feedback is most welcome on any subject – please e-mail kevan@vcmbc.com. |
||
|
||