International arrivals and the Mexican market

Numbers for international arrivals for January 2007 are out and again a dissappointing showing by our American friends. US inbound travel was down 5.7% compared to '06. Also of note is the fact that overseas travel to Canada was down also at 7.6% overall. However, China was still up from 2006 at 11.6% as were my two favourite inbound markets Mexico and Spain. Mexico was up 14.4% from last year, not a bad showing, but not great either for my liking. I will remind you that in January '06, Mexico was up 37.2% from '05, and that's more like it. I keep insisting that there is enough potential in Mexico to generate 750,000 visitors by 2012 (half a million by 2010). To achieve this objective the market needs to grow at 25% per annum.

Spain. Olé España. I remember in 1999 talking to many industry leaders about the potential of the Mexican market for Canada. At that time it was like speaking in esperanto. Very few people understood me or were interested. What a difference a few years make. Now Mexico is on everybody's radar (ok, maybe not everybody's). But in recent times, I have been talking to people about Spain, a developed country of over 40 million people with a standard of living very similar to Canada's. The absolute numbers are small, but Spanish inbound tourism growth is exponential. This January this market grew by 30.2%. Overall, Spaniards are discovering Canada more and more with little or no marketing from DMO's. Inbound Spanish tourism grew by 11.5% in '06 (about 57,000 visitors) over '05.

For the small DMO or tourism business the question is: How can we attract visitors from those growing markets in a cost effective manner? The answer? Two words: The Internet. As in other markets, (other than word of mouth) travelers are going to the Web to research destinations (and more and more to book if they can). One important thing to remember though is the #1 principle of marketing: "know your customer." While Mexicans and Spaniards have many things in common (language being the most obvious) their travel tastes are very different. Their cultures overlap in many respects but are still quite different cultures, especially when it comes to travel to Canada.

Hasta la proxima,

Jaime

Renewal and Entrepreneurship.

This post is about renewal, entrepreneurship and risk-taking. In recent years the industry has been beseiged by challenge after challenge (9/11, sars, whti, gas prices, vrp) and so a lot of time and attention has been devoted to these challenges. However, it may be time for the industry to start focusing more on the future (and I don't mean the Olympics).

On July 2006, many people were dismayed to learn that the iconic Montreal Bistro jazz club in Toronto had closed for good. Almost exactly a year before, jazz lovers in Toronto (and other places) mourned the closure of the Top O' the Senator jazz club (I was fortunate to see Diana Krall there right before she became a global star). Now, perhaps one may think these events have nothing to do with tourism, but they certainly do. Great cities are known for many things around the world, but one the most important as far as tourism is concerned is their cultural life. Toronto was hurt by the closures of these icons. So I was very happy to attend the launch of Live@Courthouse, a new jazz club in downtown Toronto, designed for the jazz lover in mind with a top of the line sound system and the best piano for jazz music money can buy. This is the creation of jazz personality Pat Taylor and entreprenuer Nick Di Donato (Liberty Group). These men are taking a risk and are bringing renewal to the jazz scene in Toronto. I don't know if these men think of themselves at all as part of the tourism industry, but they are. Their venue will certainly attract domestic and international tourism to Toronto. Kudos to them for taking this financial risk.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this post is about entrepreneurship, renewal and risk-taking. The industry has weathered recent storms rather well, but I think we all must begin to think and work towards the future. What kind of business, town, city, province and country do we want to have in 5, 10, 20 years time as it relates to tourism? For obvious reasons, I think that Parks Canada and provincial parks organizations do this constantly, but what about the industry as a whole? There has been talk about a National Tourism Strategy for years but we still don't have one. Perhaps what we should look into is how to encourage renewal, entrepreneurship and risk-taking in the industry. As you know there are tax incentives in the film industry to encourage foreign productions to make their films in Canada. Are there tax credits to encourage theatre producers to put on plays? Are there any incentives to open B&B's? Jazz Clubs? Tourism attractions? Are there any incentives at any level to create businesses that can attract or contribute to the attraction of tourists (intra and international)?

One of the focuses of the CTC is to brand Canada internationally in order to attract tourists to the country. The CTC found out that one of the reasons American visits have declined dramatically in recent years is what's called the "been there done that" syndrome. This Been there done that can spread to other markets as well if the tourism industry as a whole does not encourage renewal, entrepreneurship and risk-taking to offer new and improved experiences to visitors and to encourage repeat business. What do you think? Jaime

Lovely comment from Janice Ketchen (and about authoring)

Janice Ketchen, Director, Business Development, itravelcanada, sent me a lovely and very encouraging comment. With her permission, I am including it on this post:

"I read in today’s Canada Tourism Exchange that you are starting a blog for the Canadian tourism industry. Congratulations on advancing a great idea and undertaking to manage it, Jaime. I hope that members of our profession will support you by providing relevant comments and discussion items. Come on people – your comments are important and valued! Let’s take it upon ourselves to improve this important industry from the grassroots level up... If we don’t get involved, then we can’t complain about the outcome."

I value her input very much and I am very happy that she will also become an author on this blog. By the way, authoring is very easy and you can do it from any computer connected to the Internet. So from your office, your home, an airport lounge, a hotel, a Starbucks, your cottage - from wherever you may find yourself with a few minutes to spare add your two cents by authoring a post or commenting on one.

Jaime

Google Analytics on this blog

I have installed Google Analytics on this blog so that every now and then we can all learn how many people use it and how it's doing. Cheers, JH

Any comments about the Federal Budget 2007?

Hello tourism professional, What is your take on the Federal Budget 2007 as it relates to our industry? The VRP (Visitor Rebate Progra) was not kept intact, but we must commend TIAC (Tourism's voice in Ottawa) for their unwavering effort to save the VRP. Their voice (our Tourism Industry voice) was heard by Ottawa and Minister Flaherty responded with the Creation of the Foreign Convention and Tour Incentive Program, which allows for GST/HST rebates for non-resident attendees at foreign conventions in Canada as well as Canadian conventions beginning after March 31, 2007. In addition the program will allow a GST/HST rebate for the accommodation portion of a tour package. This is very important because without a VRP a deal to bring a convention to Canada may not be competitive. In addition, allowing a GST rebate on the accommodation portion of a tour package (I assume for tourists - or tour operators in general) helps the industry be more competitive.

Other Budget 2007 highlights for tourism include:

•$51 million over two years to improve the Foreign Workers Program, which may ease labour shortages for the tourism industry;
•$30 million in funding for new local arts and heritage festivals;
•$10 million investment in Parks protected areas in the Northwest Territories;
•A new $2.1 billion fund for gateways and border crossings to improve the flow of goods and people between Canada and the rest of the world; and
•$5 million for historical sites and heritage buildings.

When it comes to Hispanic tourists - having or not having a VRP is not a deal breaker for most tourists. A VRP may be an added bonus but does not figure prominently in their decision to visit Canada. Out of the budget's highlights, more important for Hispanic tourism to Canada, in my opinion, is support for local arts and heritage festivals as well as the small help for historical sites and heritage buildings. The more festivals and well looked-after heritage sites and attractions we have in Canada the more attractive it will be to Hispanic (and other foreign) travelers. We need to encourage the creation of more festivals and new tourism attractions all over the country. Many years ago, when I visited Hawaii, I had a lot of fun at the Polynesian Cultural Center (don't know if it still exists). On occasion I have thought wouldn't it be great to have a Canadian Cultural Centre where tourists could get a "taste" of every province and territory in Canada as well as culinary and shopping opportunities. The way I envisioned it, this cultural centre would be enormous (would need a site like Downsview Park in Toronto) and would cost many, many, many millions of dollars because I believe that something like that you either do it huge and top-of-the-line or don't do it at all (but that's material for a future post).

Regards,



Jaime

Eagle Watching in Squamish

I had another opportunity to sample the Canadian Outdoors, and went Eagle Watching on the Squamish River - half way from Vancouver to Whistler in beatutiful British Columbia. Paul from our CTC office sold it to me as a fantastic float down the Squamish River as it has the highest concentration of eagles in the world. So here we go...it was great, and it we saw bald eagles.
When you float down the river, you feel connected to nature. In the background you see snow-capped mountains while eagles, ducks, and other birds accompany you on your journey down the river. We were lucky that it did not rain - and as a bonus, our captain served some hot chocolat which warmed us up very nicely. Have a look at some pictures by going to the Tourism Internet Marketing Blog.

My first post - New Molson Ads in the US and the Canada Brand

Many of you might have read the article about the new Molson Canadian ads for the US in the Globe and Mail (Molson ads in U.S. thick with clichés about Canada, Globe and Mail, Canadian Business B3). The article is about the launch of a new campaign to stimulate sales of Molson Canadian in the United States. According to the article the challenge for the brewery (Molson Coors) and its ad agency, Taxi NY, was "How to market Canadian to Americans." Paul Lavoie, the Canadian born Chief Creative Officer for Taxi NY is quoted as saying, "We don't have a clear identitiy internationally...They (the Americans) don't think of Canada, first of all. And when they do think of Canada, they go right for the clichés."

And so, the campaign is using the tag line "good nature," to market the beer with new television ads. In one of the ads "a bottle of Canadian shatters. Computer generated imagery shows pristine Canadian wilderness growing out of the spilled beer."

My question for you the tourism professional in Canada is: Does this kind of campaign help or hurt Canadian tourism? And what, if anything does it do for the new Canada Brand, keep exploring? Would a non-traditional partnership with Moslon wherein the Canada.Travel url would be printed in the labels of Molson Canadian bottles in the US with the "keep exploring" tag help or hurt Canadian Tourism?

Regards,

Jaime

A blog for the Canadian Tourism Industry - Introduction

While reading an article about the new Molson Canadian Ads for the US, it dawned on me that I did not know of any Blog for the Canadian Tourism Industry community and decided to launch this one. I have invited several prominent tourism professionals with a lot more experience than mine to contribute every now and then to this blog. But the blog is open for comments from anyone about anything related to Canadian Tourism. Hopefully this blog will grow and provide the tourism community in Canada with a space to voice opinions and find practical ideas for their businesses. Ideally, it will also be a place to find out what's going on in tourism in different parts of the country that may inspire other parts to improve their tourism capabilities. I think this blog can become a nice complement to other communication tools in the industry like the CTC's Tourism News bulletin and its Tourism Online magazine.

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the Web 2.0 (as oppose to the Web 1.0? or simply the Web?). As I understand it the Web 2.0 refers to using the Web in a more interactive way to communicate, create communities, and to give people (e.g. consumers, voters, travellers) more say about their needs, wants and desires as well as more control over how they spend their time and money (e.g. what brands they favour over others). Big examples of Web 2.0 are You Tube, Slide.com, My Space and Blogger. I use blogs for my own business (Canada en Espanol and Campeche.ca - see links) and find them useful to communicate in a more personal way with visitors to my websites.

kind regards,

Jaime Horwitz