Canada's Seven Wonders

The CBC radio show Sounds Like Canada is looking for Canada's Seven Wonders. Since no Canadian attraction made it to the short list for the New Seven Wonders of The World, it seems fitting that someone is trying to do something about it. Having moved to Canada about 18 years ago, I am a professional tourist of sorts. I am in love with Canada and not ashamed to admit it. But even though I have been to every region in Canada, I have only seen a tiny, tiny fraction of its almost ten million square kilometres. Nevertheless, at this time I have come up with my 7 candidates for Canada's Seven Wonders. 7 wonders is a very small number. I have a list of 22 top attractions in Canada listed in our Turisticanada website and I'm sure we'll be adding more soon. Many of these are wonders. Anyhow, according to the show's creators your nominee does not neccesarily need to be a landmark or an icon. "Maybe it has a natural beauty. Perhaps it's because of the wildlife. It could be the people who live there. It's up to you. In short, tell us why your special place should be one of the 'Wonders of Canada.'" Here are my nominees, what do you think? Meat Cove, Cape Breton NS; Maligne Lake, Jasper AB; Old Quebec City, QC; CN Tower, Toronto, ON; Louisbourg, Cape Breton, NS;, Long Beach, Tofino BC; and Cirque du Soleil (not a place, but what a Wonder!).

Saludos, Jaime

The Tofino booking

My wife and I decided to book with the Middle Beach resort in Tofino after all (see the other posts under the label "traveller insight"). We ended up calling the resort again to verify dates and book. What lessons could we take from this first phase of "putting yourself in your potential customers' shoes"?

1. Word of mouth will always be the most effective "advertising" (positive or negative) for your business. This means that the guest's experience from contact to departure is critical. In today's world word of mouth may come directly from an acquaintance in person or through social media portals like TripAdvisor. One thing that some resorts may want to include on their sites is customers' reviews (if positive of course).
2. Your website will continue to be very important as an introduction to potential guests/customers. Navigate your website yourself trying to be objective as if your were a potential guest or better yet have someone outside your organization do it to get an objective opinion. (of course if you can afford to survey actual online users, even better) The idea is to catch failure points (you can also use analytics to learn how visitors are using your site, how long they stay on it, where they exit, etc.) and potential turn offs (confusing navigation or confusing content). One issue to consider may be the time potential guests are willing to spend on a given website to research their options (this may depend as well on the nature of the trip, resort, etc. e.g. we took a two week trip to Spain a couple of years ago - that trip demanded more research from our part and we were willing to make the time for it - in the case of Tofino is a two day visit and within our own country so I guess we don't feel like spending too much time researching before we decide - food for thought)

The second phase of this non-scientific experiment will come in August when we actually experience the resort. I will report then.

Cheers,

Jaime

de Mexico a Canada - follow up Tourism Magazine Online

The article "From Mexico to Canada," in the Tourism Magazine's April issue is a good introduction for those of you who have not yet looked at the fast growing Mexican inbound market. The CTC has commissioned studies to further make the case for this growing opportunity. The article, however, mentions that in 2005 Canada received over 175,000 visitors from Mexico. A typo I suppose. That number refers to 2004. In 2005, Canada received almost 195,000 tourists and last year 2006 the number surpassed 210,000.

The article mentions some of the studies' findings as well as some actionable suggestions, mainly that "To capitalize on the Mexican market, the study points out that Canada needs a strong online in‑language presence, well‑developed relations with the travel trade sector, and a major influencer on destination selection."

This year is looking very good so far. Using a small wholesaler tour operator, Abiega Operadora de Viajes, as a proxy for the market sales are up 23% to April 16 compared to the same period last year. And interest in Canada continues to grow online. Traffic to some of the Canada en Espanol websites was up as much as 40% in January compared to 2006

Read the article: Tourism Magazine April 2007

Saludos,

Jaime

The search continues for a Tofino getaway

In th continuing search for a Tofino getaway my wife and I revisited the websites of our accommodation candidates. On closer look we realized that the Long Beach Lodge Resort is not quite what we want given the benefit per dollar equation. This property is a high end resort that seems to cater to high end adult (couples) travelers so we feel it's more like the Wickanninish Inn. Both would be great if it was just my wife and I going. Furthermore, availability seems to be an issue and If I recall correctly they require minimum day stays. So we go back to the Middlebeach Resort website and we try to zero in on a decision. My wife has been exchanging emails with the resort about dates and availability. Originally our party was going to be 6 adults and 2 teenagers, but it's now 4 adults and 1 teenager. One of the challenges for any property like these we've looked at is to continually try and improve their websites because many of us potential travellers want to get all the information on the site before we make contact. This is good for the resort because it saves time from explaining content that is not quite clear on the website. Sometimes a room or suite description may appear clear to the hotel owner but it is quite confusing to the customer. For example, the Middlebeach room descriptions are quite confusing - it's hard to ascertain the difference among their duplex, triplex and sixplex suites (does duplex. triplex, sixplex refer to the building or to the room?). In any case, we spent quite a bit of time looking at the different options and deciding whether we want to get three separate rooms or something large enough for all of us to stay together. We realize that we can't procrastinate or we won't find anything available for our dates. Also, we don't have time to keep researching. We decide on the Middlebeach but not on the number of rooms. We'll decide tonight. (One thing that concerns me a bit is that I did not see a restaurant featured on the site - so I'm thinking they don't have one, which means cooking or going out....I don't know if I want to do that on a two day visit)

Jaime

Do you ever put yourself in your potential visitors' shoes?

One of the lessons in services marketing I learned some years ago at MBA School is to put yourself in your potential customers' shoes. Tourism is a quintessential services industry and as such we must pay attention to the whole customer experience from the moment a potential client thinks about our destination, accommodation business or attraction (of course there is the issue of being on the radar in the first place, but that's a topic that gets covered quite a bit). What I want to do here is let you in on the process of putting together a holiday from the customer's perspective using my family as an example. The process begin with the decision to go to a particular place. It continues through the booking process, then the actual visit, the experience and the post-experience evaluation.

We have been hearing and reading a lot about how travelers are using the Web to research and book holidays. I and my wife are planning a holiday in BC next August and part of this vacation we want to spend in Tofino. Being a tourism professional, I could make some calls to people I know in BC to get recommendations about where to stay in Tofino, but instead I thought I would record the process as a learning excercise.

1. The decision. In our case the decision to visit Tofino was mine. My wife and I have family in BC who have been there and they have told us is worth visiting (word of mouth). I had done research about Tofino and the Pacific Rim National park for my Spanish language websites and I decided that the next time we visited my mother-in-law (she lives on Vancouver Island) we would visit Tofino (or I would go by myself).

2. Begin research. Word of mouth being the most powerful commercial you can have, we first looked at a place recommended by one of my wife's colleagues, Middle Beach (www.middlebeach.com) . The place looks fantastic and from its well designed website we could tell where it is in relation to Ucluelet and Tofino. Next we checked the rates. Not bad. So this is definitely a candidate. (My sister recommended the Seaferers B&B, http://www.seafarersbb.com/, but we have not considered B&B's because it's not what we like for this trip. We are traveling with a 13 year old and my mother-in-law and her husband will also join). But we never just settle for the first recommendation and priding myself in being a Web expert I began the Google search. We want to find a very beautiful spot with access to activities like kayaking (lessons), whale watching, space for jogging if possible (long beach) and good food. Time is of the essence because my wife found out that space at Middle Beach, for example, is limited for our dates (calling a travel agent does not even occur to us).

3. Googling. As for the majority of online searchers, my first stop is Google Canada. I type Tofino and select "pages from Canada." Results: 488,000. The first result is a sponsored link: Hello BC. I quickly browse the first two pages of results and decide to explore two or three sites whose titles seem to be helpful (Hello BC, Tofino.ca and Tourism Tofino). We'll see what happens.

4. Checking out some websites. I first visit Tofino.ca because it seems appropriate given the domain name. I quickly discard it when I see that it's probably a municipal website. So I go to HelloBC, www.hellobc.com (clicking on its Google Ad). I do a search of hotels: Long Beach Lodge Resort looks good. I go the resort's website (https://www.longbeachlodgeresort.com/) and begin exploring it. Trying to find rates. I figure out you have to click on reservations to look at rates. Once I get an idea of price I go back to the site to learn more about the resort and it's location. This is another candidate. The famous Wickaninnish Inn is also listed (and we had looked at it before, but it's not suitable for our family get together - this would be better if it was a couple's getaway and we were celebrating something special). Fickle as we online users may be, I decide to leave Hello BC and visit the Tourism Tofino site (www.tourismtofino.com)

To be continued...

Jaime

(PS. If you'd like to learn more about services marketing you don't need to go to MBA school - just get the book "Services Marketing" by Valarie A. Zeithaml and Mary Jo Bitner (McGraw-Hill Series in Marketing)

How will Global Climate Change affect Canadian Tourism?

Last night, I was fortunate to attend a presentation by the three territories (Yukon, NWT and Nunavut) promoting tourism to the north (see Lookupnorth.ca) I have only visited the Yukon in the past, but the presentation reinforced my wish to visit the North (I really want to visit Nunavut) as soon as possible and perhaps launch a Spanish website to promote it to Hispanic markets. It also reminded me about Global Climate Change because while looking at the great images of the north that were presented (vast open spaces, Musk Ox, Caribou, pristine rivers, mountains and lakes, wonderful Inuit faces carving magical figurines) I thought to myself "my God, all of that could be gone in a few decades."

An article on the front page of the Globe and Mail published on Monday April 9, 2007 began with the following:

"By 2050, snowmobiling could be history in Eastern Canada, a quaint winter pastime from the days of yore. It will be just too warm to have reliable snow. People who like skiing in Banff on real snow better get on the slopes now and enjoy it while they can. The ski season could become truncated, perhaps by as much as 14 weeks a year at higher elevations." (Globe and Mail, April 9, p. A1)

Looking at this past ski season in the Rockies (and Whistler for that matter) one could be tempted to say "Naaah," but the people of Intrawest already know very well how unstable, wacky weather can affect their business as it happened last January when Blue Mountain in Ontario had to layoff hundreds of workers due to lack of cold and snow. The Globe's article based the previous statements on the recently released summary report by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the UN sponosored group of more than 1,000 scientists studying climate change. The report is alarming (but not alarmist) to say the least. 2050 is not that far off into the future. Some of us might still be alive then and certainly our children and their children will be (my daughter will be a relatively young woman then). While climate change has been part of the history of the world and certainly Canada's (as Prof H.V. Nelles wrote in A Little History of Canada: "The story of Canada begins with the melting of the ice") it is not change that is most concerning, but the pace and speed with which it's taking place.

The predictions are so dire that one might be tempted not to believe what activists like Al Gore or scientists groups like the IPCC are saying, but that would be a grave mistake. All evidence points to unstable weather at best and unbelievable climate and geographic changes at worst (with the consequent loss of lives).

The purpose of this posting is a call to action to the Canadian Tourism industry to get involved now. From grassroots (how has climate change affected your business so far?) to provincial and national associations, the industry should organize and begin working groups and committees to study how climate change is affecting and will affect Canadian Tourism by 2050 and whether there is something we can do to either prepare for the changes or to ameliorate the impact. You can download the entire summary report by the IPCC by visiting www.ipcc.ch

Comment, get involved, this is a matter that is not just about the future of Canadian Tourism, but also about the future of our children and our children's children.

hasta la vista,

Jaime