2008

FELIZ Año NUEVO
Happy NEW Year

Bonne Année

To everyone in the Canadian Tourism Industry: Happy Holidays. May Peace, JOY and Love reign in your homes.

Paix Sur Terre Peace on Earth Paz en la Tierra

Jaime

On marketing Canada, Gordon K. McIvor may have a point or two, BUT...

I recently read an article entitled Time to Brag in the National Post online written by Gordon K. McIvor former president of The Couchiching Institute, The Canadian Club and the National Executive Forum on Public Property. Among other issues (well known to all of us in the industry), in the article Mr. McIvor writes about the continuing decline of US visitations to Canada: "The number of Americans visiting Canada continues to follow a declining trend, with overnight visits down by 22% from where we stood prior to 9/11. Some experts in the tourism industry have estimated the annual lost opportunity costs to be in the billions of dollars..." He goes on to call for the formation of a new tourism organizaton: "Canada needs a new national coalition of all tourism and recreational organizations so that their collective interests can be marketed south of the border." And while he does mention the work of the CTC and TIAC ("In spite of some admirable efforts by the Canadian Tourism Commission, now operating out of Vancouver, and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, a co-ordinated national response to this dramatic downturn has been tepid at best."), it is evident that he has not researched his topic enough.

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I have been following the CTC's and TIAC's efforts on behalf of Canadian Tourism for almost ten years now, and while I may not agree with all initiatives (be it research, or marketing or issues to address), I can assure Mr McIvor that these two organizations do more than any other to keep tourism strong in Canada. Mr. McIvor may not know that in order to better market Canada in the US what we need is not another national tourism organization or coalition. We need a bigger marketing investment coupled with stronger partnerships among the three levels of DMO's (the CTC, Provinces and Cities) in order to achieve sinergies (Mr. McIvor may not be aware that the CTC's budget is quite limited, given the size of the tourism sector in both physical and economic terms as well as the size of global competitors' budgets). I would love to see a Canada Keep Exploring Television Ad during the Super Bowl. However, at $2.6 Million per 30 second spot (not counting production costs), the CTC cannot even dream about it (or can it? - perhaps it's time to dream and make it happen for Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 - air 1 spot per quarter). Yes I would like to see canadian marketing and advertising as big as the country. But I do not in any way want to see a third national tourism organization (or coalition). I hope no one has taken this suggestion seriously.

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We need to strengthen TIAC for it to be more effective, yes (in this Mr. McIvor may be correct in terms of the government seeing Tourism as a fragmented sector with many different voices); and we need to find ways to increase the CTC's reach, yes (e.g. purchasing power vis a vis international media, particularly US Television). And we need perhaps more cooperation among all actors in the industry to send a clear message to all tourism businesses large and small in order to get their support so that the industry can speak as one. We need to market the industry to the industry. Many businesses in the tourism sector may not even be aware of the issues affecting them. But that's another topic....

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hasta la vista,

Jaime

Adding to Ron Taylor's post (below) link to Bryant Park's calendar

Here's the link to NYC's Bryant Park's December Calendar:
http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/dec.php
Alberta's Aprés Ski Lodge - 6 to 12 Dec
Mountie Mondays: 10, 24, 31 Dec

Cheers,
Jaime

What Do Americans Like About Canada???

The following is posted the New York Parks and Recreation site.

"New Yorkers can't get enough of their friendly and 'well-dressed' Canadian neighbors! From now through December 31, officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be stationed at The Pond at Bryant Park every Monday to meet and greet the public and celebrate Canadian activities in the park. Visitors can even take home a free keepsake photo with their new Mountie friends in front of the Holiday Tree, all compliments of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Photo Taken at Haliburton Ontario's Annual Dog Sled Derby in 2007.

Cities 2.0 - My Toronto Holiday Campaign vs. This is New York City

I sometimes visit the official tourism websites for Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, Canada's three biggest urban destinations to see if there's anything new and notable, not necessarily to plan visits since I know the cities quite well by now. I love Tourism Toronto's My Toronto Holiday campaign - it's a great web animation piece that encourages the online visitor to explore different areas of the city- first online and then in person. Hope it generates the results it deserves. The official site needs work, in my opinion, or a total new approach to include some Web 2.0 capabilities and more creative pieces like "MyTorontoHoliday."

But as much as I liked "MyTorontoHoliday" I have to say that I liked the new "This is New York City" video from NYCVISIT.com better. Granted the former is more of a call to action (including contest) campaign while the latter is more of a branding campaign, but both are examples of creative used to sell a destination. The NYC video is a fantastic example of how to inject a sense of FUN into a destination's message. And before you say - "well, but that's New York" - I must say that Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and certainly Niagara Falls can inject more Fun into their marketing (MyTorontoHoliday is a great start). This is where consumer generated content has limitations. Sometimes you do need some great creative supported by strong production values (i.e. Budget) in order to pull off something this good (I'm so jealous). Check it out - This is New York City:

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Jaime

Toronto en Español

Ice Skating in Mexico City with highs of 18 and 20 Celsius.

The Mexico City skating rinks (there are three in total, the Zócalo rink being the largest) were opened this past weekend and so far it looks like they will be a hit. Canada was present at the grand opening celebrations with two skaters (see previous post) doing figure skating demos. I wonder if we could organize a Canada Day at the rink. Maybe it's in the works (or maybe it's not possible). I plan to visit the rink and skate it before it closes by the end of February (update: the rink was closed early in mid-january).

Scenes from the Mexico City Rink this past weekend.

Scenes from the Grand Opening

Greetings,
Jaime

Canadian skaters Chris Mabee and Joey Russell to participate in the Grand Opening of Mexico City's Gigantic Skating Rink

While it won't be an all Canadian cast (I wish), excellent Canadian skaters Chris Mabee and Joey Russell will be skating as part of the Grand Opening celebrations for the Mexico City ice skating rink, the largest of its kind in the world. The city is putting on a show with skaters from the US, Canada, Russia and Mexico (yes, Mexico has some high-level skaters who train in the US, like Ana Cecilia Cantú Félix, a 21 year old, who has competed in World Figure Skating Championships). Mexico City's mayor Marcelo Ebrard has indicated that he intends to make the rink an annual tradition in Mexico City. If so, Canadian Tourism marketers should get their minds together to build relationships with the Mexico City government in order to make Canada part of the tradition and in so doing get mileage out of the media attention the rink generates. It's a great opportunity, not only to market Canada, but also to build on Canada's image as a friendly nation.

Cheers,
Jaime
(photo Yazmin Ortega Cortés - La Jornada newspaper)