What a positive start to the spring/summer season! Early warm temperatures helped us on our way. Golf courses opened early and are seeing good numbers, trails were in great shape and hikers & bikers took advantage. Thankfully, through a concerted effort, the Lower Kicking Horse River access issue between the rafting companies in Golden and CP Rail was resolved in time for the operators to confidently confirm staff requirements and take bookings for the season.
On top of that good news, we have an exciting new mountain coaster, called ‘The Pipe’ opening up May 21st at Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR). The original RMR VIDEO for it went viral almost as soon as it was released, creating a lot of buzz and building anticipation.
Last week, the BC Global News duo of Chris Gailus and Mark Madryga visited Nelson and experienced the Kokanee Mountain Zipline, giving it an early promotional kick off and two hearty recommendations. The zipline is currently open and expecting another busy season. To view the Global News video of their experience click HERE.
As well, the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, released new videos on Arts and Culture, one of them specific to the WEST KOOTENAY.
In today’s changing marketing environment, these short video clips and shared content go a very long way. Tied into this, we now know that the millennials officially outnumber the baby boomer generation in North America. This generation born in 1981-1998, were raised by the Baby Boomers and it seems are essentially ‘digital natives’. They ‘have’ to be connected at all times. So where are they likely to get their news, learn about new travel destination and seek new experiences? Through online channels of course. Sharing is fundamental to them and if they see content they like, they will share it with their online network.
To further expand on this, David Colletto, CEO of Abacus Data, spoke at the Canada’s West Ski Areas Conference on the topic ‘The Millennials – What generational changes mean for everyone’. This group of consumers ‘must be connected at all times’ and they are looking for an ‘experience’ wherever they travel. An experience they can talk about and share. I found it very interesting that in terms of a major news item occurring, 37 % of them will learn of it through Facebook, whereas in the 36+ group, 33% would learn of it from an online news website and only 14% would learn of it through Facebook.
Destination BC and other leaders in the travel industry have recognized this major shift in the delivery of advertising messages and are focused on serving the right content to the right consumer through their preferred platform. We are following this lead and focusing effort on ensuring our Social Media and digital outputs are striking the right chord to lead potential visitors back to you, the business operator, to close the sale. Many of our industry partners are doing an incredible job in their own digital media efforts and we applaud them for getting it right early on. Digital media is becoming a key component of any marketing plan & budget, and is one we continue to analyze to decide how best to spend our limited resources and make an impact that results in more visitation, higher revenue and Net Promoter Score®.
On another note, I attended Canada’s largest travel trade show, Rendez Vous Canada in Montreal in late April, and had an unprecedented number of appointments, as did all of the BC RDMO and DBC representatives. There were over 1,700 attendees at the show, one of the largest in recent times. The BC section of the show had a new uniform branded look, with all of the BC suppliers having beautiful on-brand backdrops with stunning images behind them which flowed the length of the aisle and really created an impact. Our ‘Team BC’ area looked visually stunning and comments were very favourable. Operator interest in the Kootenay Rockies is high and we are busy doing the follow-up from the appointments we had during the show.
You may know that National Tourism week runs May 29- June 4, 2016. On April 26th a joint letter was sent by Minister Bond and TIABC to all BC Mayors encouraging them to become official tourism ambassadors and celebrate the upcoming week. We hope your community has embraced this opportunity and will be supporting tourism in some way. We would love to know your plans and so would TIABC, so please share if you will be participating. To review the letter and request to local government, click on this LINK.
Lastly, congratulations to Richard Porges of Destination BC who was recently promoted to Vice President, Corporate Development. This is a new role that will bolster DBC’s leadership strength and focus on core contributors to success. As a key advisor to President and CEO, Marsha Walden, and the Board of Directors, the Vice President Corporate Development will provide strategic guidance on all aspects of tourism and the competitive global marketplace and will lead development of the corporate goals, strategy, metrics, and budgets. As an executive team member, the Vice President will provide strategic leadership and operational planning for divisional responsibilities in Corporate Communications, Research & Evaluation.
After joining Tourism BC’s Research Department in 1999, Richard Porges earned progressively senior roles within government and Destination BC, most recently acting as Executive Director leading Research, Evaluation & Planning, Corporate Communications, and HR & Business Transformation.
Our congratulations go out to Richard!
As always, please share any of your news and updates with us at any time. We are all in the business of tourism together and the more we know, the more we can help each other prosper! And finally we hope everyone enjoys a busy, prosperous first long weekend of the season!
