November 23, 2006
In this issue:

It’s Official – Passports Needed By Jan 23, 2007 For Us Bound Air Travel
Interested in Business from Travel Agents?
Partners call for Community Podiums & Flat Sheets Opportunities in Spring 2007 Consumer Shows!
Media Report
Are You Export Ready? Interested in the Australian Market?
Tourism BC Shines at Canadian Marketing Awards
Submit your festival or event to www.vcmbc.com for free!

It’s Official – Passports Needed By Jan 23, 2007 For Us Bound Air Travel

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Department of State announced today that passports will be necessary for anyone entering the US (including returning US citizens, beginning January 23, 2007.

The travel document requirements make up the Departments of State and Homeland Security’s Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). This change in travel document requirements is the result of recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, which Congress subsequently passed into law in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. WHTI requires all citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda to have a passport or other accepted document that establishes the bearer’s identity and nationality to enter or re enter the United States from within the Western Hemisphere.

In addition to the passport, a valid NEXUS Air Card or Merchant Mariner Document (MMD) will be acceptable.

A separate Proposed Rule addressing land and sea travel will be published at a later date proposing specific requirements for travelers entering the United States through land and sea border crossings. As early as January 1, 2008, U.S. citizens traveling between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda by land or sea will be required to present a valid U.S. passport or other documents as determined by the Department of Homeland Security. While recent legislative changes permit a later deadline, the Departments of State and Homeland Security are working to meet all requirements as soon as possible.

Those wishing to view the Final Rule may visit www.dhs.gov or www.travel.state.gov

Interested in business from Travel Agents?

Then Great Getaways is a MUST program for you. Now in its fourth year, it has become a highly demanded brochure by travel agents all over North America.

The distribution system is unique... brochures are only sent to travel agents that ask for them! Working with our partners, CONTAC Travel Marketing in Canada and Distinctive Mailing Services in the U.S., these two companies continuously create awareness of the brochure and invite agents to order them. In the U.S. alone, 938 travel agents use this brochure to sell product in our region.

Jason Knibbs, Sales Manager, Travel Trade, attends the Addison Travel Shows from Alberta to Quebec, speaking directly to agents about the wide range of commissionable product in this brochure. Booked directly with you, Great Getaways helps you to build your relationships with travel agents.

For more information on one of our most trackable programs, please speak with Kelly Phillips at 604-484-5112 or kelly@vcmbc.com.

Partners call for Community Podiums & Flat Sheets Opportunities in Spring 2007 Consumer Shows!

The unveiling of these new consumer show concepts created a lot of excitement at Vancouver, Coast & Mountains' recent road shows and other related meetings. Therefore, instead of waiting for the next fiscal year to start these projects, we will be offering them to partners for the upcoming Spring 2007 shows.

Because Show season is fast approaching, there will be a VERY short turn around time on these projects. So keep your eyes peeled in the next week for opportunities to participate in our Community Podiums or Flat Sheet Distributions. With the quickly approaching season, we will need all materials by Christmas. But hey, "All Things are Possible" in Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Tourism Region!

For more immediate information, please contact Allison Longshore via email at allison@vcmbc.com

Media Report

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains was represented for the first time this year at the SATW Annual Convention (Society of American Travel Writers), which occurred in October in Santiago, Chile. To date, it was the most well attended SATW Convention when held at an international location. The convention was designed to encourage networking with media at every opportunity and also featured a busy 2.5 hour open marketplace. Without prescheduled appointments, Vancouver, Coast & Mountains met with 19 journalists during this busy session, in addition to all of the contacts made at events throughout the convention. The journalists reached by attending the SATW Convention are primarily from the United States, as well as a small amount from Canada. If you have any questions about SATW, or about how you may get your tourism products noticed at media shows, please contact Jennifer Rhyne at 604-637-9046 or jennifer@vcmbc.com.

Upcoming Media Shows:
CTC Media Dinner Seattle – January 28, 2007
TMAC (Travel Media Association of Canada) – February 16 – 19, 2007
CTC Media Dinner San Francisco – March 8, 2007
Go Media Marketplace – March 19 – 22, 2007

Media Opportunity
Several recent press trips have been planned to include businesses that have submitted to Story Starters, our monthly newsletter sent out to media. While this may seem time consuming to some (it takes around 5 minutes to fill in the information – plus however long it takes you to think of your idea!), it generates free media coverage for your business and gets your name out there in the media circles. If you are interested in promoting yourself at a low cost to you (perhaps a room night or complimentary admission for a journalist) please contact Jennifer at 604-637-9046 or jennifer@vcmbc.com. Need an example of the final product? Follow this link: www.vcmbc.com/storystarters/issue12.htm to see a recent Story Starters issue – don’t worry about the writing, just submit the idea!

Are You Export Ready? Interested in the Australian Market?
Take Advantage of Independent Familizations for Canada Specialists

What is the Objective of the Independent Fam Programme?
The independent fam programme provides Canada Specialist agents with the opportunity to access competitive rates for Canadian product when traveling to Canada on a personal holiday basis.

Obtaining group allocations on aircraft to operate fam trips is becoming more and more difficult out of the Australian market. By offering the Canada Specialists the option of utilizing these special rates it allows them to take their own fam trip with a partner or friend and experience Canada as their clients would. With Canada being such a popular destination and strong seller out of the Australian market, many agents are keen to travel there themselves so they can increase their knowledge of how to effectively sell the destination.

This programme will enable the agents to return with confidence in promoting Canada for an extended visitation period and also provide them with the tools to recommend first hand hotels, attractions and other services that are on offer in the city and surrounds.

How do Suppliers benefit from this programme?
Suppliers that are part of this programme will be capturing the top sellers of Canadian product in Australia. There are only 180 Specialist agents throughout Australia and these are considered the tope performers by wholesalers and airlines. The benefit for suppliers is that those agents experiencing this product will return to Australia and have the product top of mind when relaying their Canadian experience to their clients. It is the opportunity for suppliers to use surplus inventory in order to maximize promotion in this market.

What sort of rates are the agents expecting?
Agents would expect at least 50% discount to utilize the products. These agents are exposed to fam trips all around the world and do not usually have to pay very much to experience some first class products. We need to make the packages competitive to attract these top performers to Canada over other destinations on offer.

How do Agents book these programmes?
Agents will access these packages though TATS, an online travel agents booking system which provides discount deals for travel trade when traveling overseas on personal travel. Many different destinations utilize this service. TATS will make all the bookings direct with suppliers via email and, once confirmed, will advise the travel agents etc. TATS charges a nominal booking fee of around $40.00 per agent per booking. TATS will require a rate code to be attached to each product for ease of booking eg. TATIND1234 or something similar. This will make the booking process simple for them to use as well as the supplier. TATS will pre-pay all suppliers before the agent depart Australia for Canada.

How do we measure the Agents experience in Canada?
A questionnaire will be prepared for agents to complete on return from their trip. This will rate their experience of all suppliers they utilized on this trip. A copy of this will be provided to the relevant suppliers for them to assess this feedback.

How often will the product be updated and changed?
The CTC will update the product as required- approx every twelve months therefore product validity should be based on a twelve month period, subject to availability etc.

Other questions?
To download the participation form for Sightseeing, Attractions, Activity-based tourism companies, click here -
www.vcmbc.com/enews/pdfs/IndependentFAMs.RateInfosheet.Attractions.pdf.

To download the participation form for Hotels and Accommodations, click here -

www.vcmbc.com/enews/pdfs/IndependentFAMs.RateInfosheet.Hotel.pdf .

Do not hesitate to contact Sue Grady on sgrady@ctc-australia.com at CTC Australia if you require any further information.

Tourism BC Shines at Canadian Marketing Awards

The most prestigious and longest-running annual marketing awards competition in Canada was held Friday, with Tourism BC once again holding top spot among national leaders by winning two Gold awards for the success of their 2006 BC Escapes® campaign.

Delivering strong results since 1997, the BC Escapes campaign achieved record levels of success this year, delivering approximately $100 million in tourism revenues to the province - an 18:1 return on investment. In addition, over 82,000 inquiries for information were received, which is important in building a foundation for future business. With recent challenges in attracting the US market to British Columbia, the 2006 program portrayed a unique offering of cities, mountains and water that make a getaway to BC the perfect escape.

Tourism BC has a long tradition of recognition at the CMAs, including four Gold in 2005. This year the organization was recognized with Gold again for excellence in the following highly competitive categories:

• Leisure/Travel Products and Services: Recognizing the overall results and innovation delivered by Tourism BC's 2006 BC Escapes initiative. Running in the spring, 2006, the $5.5 million integrated marketing campaign targeted key markets of BC, Alberta, Ontario, Washington and California. Tactics include direct response television, newspaper, online advertising and direct mail. Tourism BC's tracking confirmed 40% of respondents ended up travelling to/within British Columbia.
• Direct Response - Direct Mail: Awarded to Tourism BC for an innovative campaign tactic that communicated the abundance of diversity in vacation options as well as in terrain by exploring the known and not so known landmarks, events and folklore that make BC the perfect destination. The campaign achieved excellent results, achieving a response rate of 21.44% well above the industry average
  of 5.00%.

RBC Royal Bank, Aeroplan, BMW Group Canada and Bell Canada were also recognized at the Awards.

"British Columbia is lucky to have an effective agency like Tourism BC promoting our province as a world-class tourism destination," said Tourism, Sport and the Arts Minister Stan Hagen. "These honours from the Canadian Marketing Association confirm what we have known all along here in British Columbia - Tourism BC is a true leader in tourism marketing. On behalf of government and the entire tourism industry, I would like to thank Tourism BC for their energy in promoting our province, and congratulate them on a job well done."

The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) Awards represent the pre-eminent recognition for marketing campaigns that achieve solid business results. The CMA Awards bring together all marketing disciplines, channels and technologies to celebrate the year's best marketing achievements. More than 20 categories were featured in the 2006 CMA Awards competition, including interactive media, integrated multi-media, customer management, brand advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion and public relations. Eligible campaigns must have run in Canada with results tabulated within the last 18 months (after December 1, 2005) or been developed by Canadian agencies for Canadian clients running campaigns outside the country during the same time period.

"The tourism marketing environment has become much more competitive and this recognition clearly demonstrates that Tourism BC is doing everything possible to distinguish British Columbia as a preferred destination," added Allen Tozer, Chair of Tourism BC. Awards were presented at the 36th CMA Awards gala on Friday, November 17, 2006 at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto. Attendance at this year's gala topped 2000 attendees.

Tourism British Columbia is a provincial Crown corporation that operates under an industry-led board of directors and is responsible for marketing the Super, Natural British Columbia(R) brand to the world. For comprehensive information about the business of tourism in British Columbia, please visit www.tourismbc.com.

Submit your festival or event to vcmbc.com for free!

Do you have the festival of the season coming up? Is your community known for your fabulous annual corn-popping contest and festival? Make sure that visitors to www.vcmbc.com know about it by submitting the details on-line. Visit www.vcmbc.com/page.cfm/9819 and fill out the form to submit all your event details.