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Tourism Toronto names Russell Peters Global Ambassador. Russell who?
April 16th, 2009 | in Destination Branding | Leave a comment
If you don’t know who Russell Peters is then you are definitely not hip. Mr. Peters is one of the hottests comics in North America today. A native Indo-Canadian Torontonian Russell Peters has taken the comedy world by storm and is one of the most watched comedians on YouTube.
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“In our business we compete literally with the entire world. Russell canhelp us break through the noise and reveal the true personality of Toronto -the diverse, cosmopolitan experiences that make it such a tremendous place tolive, work and visit,” said David Whitaker, President and CEO of Tourism Toronto. “Russell has demonstrated that sometimes the best way to bring people together is by laughing.”
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“Mr. Peters will appear at major trade shows promoting Toronto to meeting and convention planners and other travel influencers.” Tourism Toronto press release.
It will be very interesting to follow this initiative from Tourism Toronto and look back in a couple of years. One thing is for certain, Russell Peters is a very funny comedian whose comedy is based on great observation skills. If you have never seen or heard any of his comedy, here’s a sample:

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Canadian Tourism in crisis. Critical times require extraordinary measures. My dream Campaign.
April 16th, 2009 | in Destination Branding | Leave a comment

I received TIAC’s Media release entitled Canada’s Tourism Sector on the Brink of Crisis. Among other things, the release mentioned that “Governments have traditionally neglected the industry, and have tended to regard tourism as a source of taxation dollars, burdening business with structural costs and compliance measures which impede its price competitiveness. For example: The continuing insistence on charging airport rents, airport security fees, excise tax on aviation fuel, NAVCAN fees, or the abrupt cancellation of the Visitor Rebate Program and its replacement with the onerous and burdensome Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive Program are illustrative of the problem…Canada’s travel deficit has ballooned to 10.3 billion in 2007 and the latest quarterly numbers for 2008 show a continued deterioration.”

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Given the ongoing weakness of the American economy and, more importantly, high fuel prices that are affecting air travel demand, it is clear that we’re in for a very challenging year for Canadian Tourism. This brings me to suggest a more agressive marketing approach for Canadian Tourism. This is not the time to cut back, on the contrary. This is the time to increase marketing efforts, particularly in the United States. Economic troubles notwithstanding, it is not like America is all of a sudden a poor country. It is still a $14 Trillion economy and with a population of over 300 million people there are surely many millions who will continue to travel and travel in style. But how can we persuade them to come to Canada if most people outside a few major markets in the US do not know anything about this country?
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Here’s my pitch. A television and multimedia campaign in the United States beginning in the winter of 2009. My dream campaign is not timid and would cost several million dollars. The key success factor for the campaign is a television spot during SUPER BOWL XLIII (90,000,000 viewers more or less). This, of course would be the most expensive marketing campaign ever attempted by Canada. A 30 second slot during the Super Bowl will cost close to $3,000,000 USD next year and I propose to show the Ad 1 per quarter during the game. That media buy alone would cost about $12,000,000 (assuming of course that the network accepts the ad since Super Bowl slots are highly competitive). I haven’t been involved with TV commercial production in a while, but I would guess that my spot idea would cost as much as $4,000,000 to produce (depending on negotiations with talent, a critical element). So far we’ve spent about $16,000,000. I would also suggest investing an additional $5,000,000 in multimedia marketing (online and print) following the Super Bowl including distribution in all social media in order to take advantage of the long tail of Internet communications. A new website would need to be launched in order to track results and very importantly offer research and booking capabilities. It would require the cooperation of all major DMO’s and their constituents in Canada. I am sure that the industry as a whole has enough money to launch this kind of campaign. I am sure that the budgets of all major DMO’s in the country (CTC, provinces and cities) combined could afford it.
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What kind of spot would I want to see? Here’s a very rough draft of the spot (very rough - after all, I do have to get back to work).
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WHITE TITLES ON BLACK SCREEN.
Music starts – at first not recognizable – as spot continues it becomes clear it’s a rock/hip-hop rendition of O Canada).
TITLE
Where are you going?

INT. RECORDING STUDIO
Medium shot to Close up of Avril Lavigne

AVRIL LAVIGNE (TO CAMERA)
I’m going to Canada.

EXT. STUDIO BACK LOT.
Close up of Willam Shatner

WILLIAM SHATNER (TO CAMERA)
I’m going to Canada

INT. COULD BE AT A STUDIO OR IN A HOME OR RESTAURANT
Close up of Pamela Anderson

PAMELA ANDERSON (TO CAMERA)
I’m going to Canada.

Quick shots of Canadian destinations and Canadian festivals in all seasons. Lots of action, lots of colour. 5 seconds

EXT. MUSKOKA, ONTARIO
Medium shot of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Cut to: Close up of Ms. Hawn

GOLDIE HAWN (TO CAMERA)
Canada

Camera pulls back to Aerial shot of a luxurious cottage in Muskoka, Ontario. Cut to:

WHITE TITLES ON BLACK SCREEN

TITLE
Where are you going?

EXT. TORONTO. DOWNTOWN ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT
MAN’S BACK. Camera rolls in as man turns around.

MIKE MYERS (TO CAMERA)
Going to Canada, Baby

More Quick shots of Canadian destinations and Canadian festivals in all seasons. Lots of action, lots of colour, cutting back and forth from cities to nature and back.

EXT. MONTREAL OR QUEBEC CITY. DOWNTOWN OLD MONTREAL
CAMERA moves to reveal CELINE DION – pull back to establish Montreal or Quebec City.

CELINE DION (TO CAMERA)
I am going to Canada

EXT. MOVIE LOCATION IN LA.
Close up of Kiefer Sutherland

KIEFER SUTHERLAND (TO CAMERA)
I’m going to Canada

EXT. SOMEHWERE INN TREMBLANT, QUEBEC.
Med. Two shot up of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones

MICHAEL DOUGLAS (TO CAMERA)
Going to Canada

More Quick shots of Canadian destinations and Canadian festivals in all seasons. Lots of action, lots of colour, cutting back and forth from cities to nature and back. Music reaches crescendo. 5 seconds

EXT. VANCOUVER SOMEWHERE.
Shot of a mimic on Robson Street performing to the crowd. Camera gets in close as man turns and we realize id Jim Carey

JIM CAREY (TO CAMERA)
Goin’ to Canada. Somebody stop me!

CUT TO—

FULL SCREEN – CANADA.TRAVEL GRAPHICS.

TITLE
Canada. Keep Exploring

URL: GOINGTOCANADA.COM

THE END

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Cheers and good luck this summer,
Jaime

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Canadian Tourism. Targeting the real decision makers in Mexico: affluent Women
April 16th, 2009 | in Destination Branding | Leave a comment
Women in Mexico are still behind their North American counterparts when it comes to progress in the workplace or politics. Although they have achieved remarkable progress in the last twenty years, the fact is that Mexico is still quite a male dominated society. However, when it comes to the household, women in Mexico are queens. They exert enormous influence in the family or couple’s decision making and in many instances they are the key decision maker. One area where women pretty much make the decision is in that of travel. Whether they travel with their partner or with the whole family, women are the key decision makers when it comes to travel. Men may dominate the workplace, but at home they aim to please when it comes to travel. If a Mexican woman does not want to go to a destination you can be sure the trip won’t happen.

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Swishy is an up and coming publication from one of the largest travel trade publishers in Mexico, Grupo Boletur. It is the first magazine in Mexico exclusively targeting affluent women travellers. According to their data (it would be easy to find other surveys corroborating this. In my case I just have to look no further than my experience living in Mexico and my relatives and friends there):
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•95% of Mexican women are active decision-makers in the planning of a trip;
•1/3 are the main decision-makers
•80% of women consider vacations as a must have

Barely two years old, the magazine is distributed in Mexico, South America and Miami. It is found in key high end spots, including several hotels, around Mexico with a circulation of 35,000 issues plus special inserts in the Mexican Reforma newspaper. It is also found aboard Aeromexico and LanChile flights.
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I have always been aware that content on the Canadá en Español sites should appeal to women as well as men. Going forward, with particular attention to the Canadamigos Social Network, there will be more content that appeals to this segment of the travelling public. For example, last year I covered Toronto’s Fashion Week for my Blog de Canada.com and Toronto en Español. This year I plan to cover Montreal’s Fashion week. When I was in Berlin last march attending the PhoCusWright Bloggers Summit at ITB, I ran into Magdalena Saldivar, Director of Sales at Swishy and Grupo Boletur. Since then we have in contact to discuss potential collaboration between Swishy and Canada en Español. In the meantime, this month I placed a full page ad on Swishy to promote the entire network of websites (clic on the images to see a large version). The issue features Toronto as an international fashion centre in an 8 page article.
Saludos,

 

Jaime Horwitz MBA

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Mexican inbound tourism to Canada continues to grow at a consistent 15% rate
April 16th, 2009 | in Destination Branding | Leave a comment
Statistics Canada published its service bulletin International Travel: Advance Information for May 2008 today. While the news about US visits continues to be dismal with a further 10% decline for the month compared to May 2007, Mexico continues to grow at a 15% rate. 21,658 Mexican visitors came to Canada in May 2008 compared to 18,840 for the same period last year. Total numbers from Jan to May: 86,238.

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Spain remained flat for the month, but South America, excluding Brazil grew 7.2% for the month. and is up 8% for the period from Jan to May.
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Given the global credit crunch and the fuel debacle among airlines it is all the more remarkable that the Mexican inbound market continues to grow at this clip. In my opinion, it is confirmation that there continues to be pent-up demand in Mexico for travel to Canada. The success of the Canadamigos Social Network to date (over 5,000 visits per months and reaching 1,700 active members since December ‘07) and continuing growth in traffic for the Canadá en Español websites (over 200,000 monthly visits) leads me to reassert my belief that with the right marketing mix going forward Mexican inbound tourism to Canada could reach 350,000 visitors by the end of 2010. Furthermore, once Canada begins to market itself in Spain we could see a dramatic increase of Spanish visitors to this country.
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Saludos,
Jaime Horwitz MBA

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Joe Buhler, DMO and eTravel specialist to speak at Canada-e-Connect
April 16th, 2009 | in Destination Branding | Leave a comment
I have known Joe Buhler for a few years and I can verify that he’s a highly respected professional in the eTourism space. Joe is a Senior Analyst with PhoCusWright, perhaps the leading tourism research and eTourism conference producer in the world. He is also principal of his own consulting firm Buhlerworks, which provides consulting services for Vision, Strategy & Innovation in travel & tourism web marketing, with a focus on destination marketing organizations (DMO) at the national, regional and local level. Joe Buhler has Global experience in destination marketing, tour operations, retail travel and the airline industry and since the early days in the largest e-commerce vertical - online travel. He has held senior executive positions in Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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Joe is a member of the international group of Travel industry bloggers, the T-List and is a sought after speaker at tourism events. Joe will make a fascinating and engaging presentation at Canada-e-Connect on Jan 22 at 3:45 pm. He will speak about The Road Ahead On The Smart Web: The focus is shifting fast in online travel, from the completion of a simple transaction to an integrated planning, researching and buying process. Search, user generated content and social media are all important elements but not enough to deliver a superior, integrated experience for today’s savvy and demanding online travelers. There is a need to act now to change the business model to meet the demand for personalization, intelligence and vertical integration of local services on DMO’s sites. Joe Buhler will examine where DMOs are in relation to these innovations in e-travel and look at what new relationships are necessary to compete and take full advantage of this trend.

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A social networking site for the Canadian Tourism Community
April 16th, 2009 | in Destination Branding | Leave a comment

There’s been a lot of talk on and offline about social media and social media marketing in the tourism space for the past two or three years. Most of this talk has focused on social media marketing: how to do it, how to take advantage of it, how to measure its effectiveness, how to participate in the conversation, whether to participate in the conversation or not, how to promote your brand or destination, how to protect your reputation, etc. Most of the talk has been about social media marketing to the consumer/traveler, but not much has been said about business to business social media, at least not within the Canadian tourism industry. While many Canadian tourism professionals have signed up on LinkedIn and many have joined groups on that site or on Facebook, until now there has not been a social networking site solely for the Canadian Tourism Community. Enters www.canadiantourismcommunity.com.

Cactus Rock New Media Ltd. has launched the CanadianTourismCommunity social networking site as a service to the industry and as an extension of this blog. I must admit that the success of the Spanish tourism industry’s site, Turismo 2.0, to which I also belong, made me think as to why we haven’t had a similar social networking site in Canada. Being one of the most connected countries in the world with some excellent work being done in the digital tourism space, I have found it ironic that we don’t take advantage of the capabilites available to us to network, to share knowledge, to stay in touch with our partners, clients and potential partners and clients, to learn from each other. And so I decided to put the industry to the test and see if we can (take advantage).
The Canadian Tourism Community site, built on the Ning platform, is a private social networking site. Membership is free but by invitation only. At the moment there are two reasons why private and why by invitation only. First, it is easier to manage and monitor that way. While I’m happy to manage the site, which I hope will help my own networking efforts in the industry, it takes more time to monitor an open site because there are many spammers out there trying to take advantage of open sites. Second, being a private site it may be more comfortable for members of the industry who are concerned about, well, privacy.
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Having a social networking site exclusively for the Canadian tourism industry and its partners is better than forming groups on Facebook or LinkedIn because the primary purpose of the site is to serve the needs of the members of the industry who choose to use it, i.e. the layout and content are not cluttered by non-tourism related stuff (or ads). Each member has a big page with clear font and can write a blog, upload photos, videos or documents. Members can write on each other’s comments boxes or sent private messages. Also, the site has chat capabilities for those who wish to communicate in real time, a feature that may come in handy to have conversations with partners overseas.
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The success of the site will depend on the involvement of the industry as a whole. The site is not for techies or eBusiness people. The site is for everyone involved in the Canadian Tourism Industry, from restarauranteurs, to hoteliers, to human resources specialists, PR people, suppliers, tour operators, receptive tour operators, etc. As of this writing there are 45 members in the www.canadiantourismcommunity.com. Our Spanish counterpart, Turismo 2.0 (online for a few years now) has almost 5,000! Now more than ever, we need to find better, more efficient ways to communicate among ourselves and this is one tool that can facilitate this (who knows, it might even save you money or get you a new partner/client. The best way to understand social media is to participate. If you are in the Canadian tourism industry or work for or with anyone in the Canadian tourism industry, whether in Canada or outside Canada feel free to join. To get an invite write to jaime (at) cactusrock.com
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Regards,
Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010

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