Cape Breton Island working to face challenges. I see opportunities.

I was a bit surprised to read in the Tourism Daily News, that Cape Breton Island's tourism, one of my favourite places in Canada and one of the most beautiful places in the world is having problems. I understand that there have been challenges for the entire industry in years past, but overall the global numbers released recently indicate that, as a whole, Canadian tourism is strong, mostly because of our domestic tourism.

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I have been saying for years that Nova Scotia is a prime destination to develop in the Mexican and Spanish markets. As I mentioned in my previous post, the CTC's market research study (September 2007) lists a number of attributes "Mexicans strongly associate with an ideal destination." Let's see how these apply to Cape Breton Island and indeed to all of Nova Scotia:

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Seeing as much as possible in the time available. Nova Scotia offers a great many number of places to see in a short period of time. Cape Breton itself can be explored in a couple of days seeing great spots like Cheticamp, Pleasant Bay, Meat Cove, Baddeck and many more. Given the average time Mexicans and Spaniards take for vacation, they would have more than enough time to explore in Nova Scotia.

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Places important in history. If you are interested in Canadian and world history, Nova Scotia is one of the best places to observe and learn. There is living history in Nova Scotia. Of course, Louisbourg is one of the main attractions that Mexican and Spanish tourists would find wonderful, but there is also the Annapolis Valley, Pictou and Halifax itself. So many important events in the history of Canada, France and Great Britain took place in Nova Scotia that anyone interested in history would have a great time learning about them.

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Great food and drink. Seafood anyone? One of my favourite things about Cape Breton and Nova Scotia is the food. Lobster, lobster, lobster. Lobster anyone? Did I mention that Mexicans and Spaniards in general love seafood? Drink? Well, while Nova Scotia is not known for wineries, Mexicans and Spaniards love beer. Perhaps a pint or two of Alexander Keiths would do the trick.

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Buying the latest fashions - OK so we can't have it all. In this regard, we can't pretend that Cape Breton or Nova Scotia are fashion centres. Nevertheless, there is some good shopping in Halifax.

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Exciting travel stories. I still have very fond memories of my first (and unfortunately to date) and only trip to Nova Scotia (recall that I was born in Mexico). Undoubtedly, Mexicans would come away with great memories from their time in Cape Breton.

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A sense of freedom. Anyone who has driven around Cape Breton Island and has stood on the tip of Meat Cove or taken a boat ride to see whales in Pleasant Bay will understand what a sense of freedom one can find in Nova Scotia.

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I am convinced that Cape Breton is a gem when it comes to its potential in the Mexican and Spanish markets. Of course, no destination is for everyone. Markets must be segmented and the right targets approached. Nova Scotia and Cape Breton are for Mexican and Spanish independent experienced travelers who love to fly and drive and design their own itineraries. Much work needs to be done to develop the markets, but I believe it would be worth it.

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Regards,
Jaime Horwitz MBA
www.nuevaescocia.ca

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Mexican inbound market to Canada continues to grow at double digit rates. ¿What's the attraction?

Given the recently published figures from Statistics Canada showing that the Mexican inbound market grew by almost 21% in February '08 compared to the same month in '07, I am following up on a previous post about the Mexican and German inbound markets, and comments from Vicky Brock (Scotland's Tracking Tourism: the Tourism Research Blog).

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In one of her comments Vicky asked : "is there research or are you aware of what the key destination attractors are for the Mexican market segments? For example, in Scotland, the German market is typically thought to be attracted by the rugged outdoors, the beauty of wild nature, exploring, walking and hiking. And I can see that in these respects Canada and Scotland are direct competitors when it comes to the German market."

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"is there research?" and "Are you aware?" Yes and Yes. I have been aware of the key attractors since I launched the "Canada en Español Network," and I've conducted many surveys online to confirm my empirical knowledge about the Mexican market (I was born and grew up in Mexico City among Canada's target markets - i.e. affluent Mexicans). Furthermore, since the Canadian Tourism Commission began marketing in Mexico, it has commissioned various studies and continues to do research in that market.

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So, why do Mexicans come to Canada? What do Mexican travellers like? What are the "key attractors" for Mexicans when it comes to visiting Canada?

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The CTC's latest research, Mexico Consumer & Travel Trade Research (september 2007), lists the following attributes "that Mexicans strongly associate with an ideal destination, they include:

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Seeing as much as possible in the time available

• Places important in history
• Great food and drink
• Exciting travel stories
• Buying the latest fashions
• A sense of freedom

When it comes to Canada specifically, the research lists a number of Canadian activities in which Mexicans are very interested. Number one is "Seeing Niagara Falls," followed by "Visiting Canada's major cities" and, believe it or not, "Aurora viewing in Canada's North." In addition to the above, "Visiting a World Heritage Site" and "Seeing the Canadian Rockies" aslo scored above 70% of respondents.

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My two cents (without revealing secrets) - Why do Mexicans come to Canada? It's new! Canada is famous around the world for being a "nice country," for being the "peacekeeper," and for being cold. In Mexico there is a very very high regard for Canada as a country, perhaps exaggerated, (something I am confirming more and more from Canadamigos Social Network's members), but until quite recently (in the last ten to twelve years) there was virtually no knowledge in Mexico about Canada's tourist attractions, except for Niagara Falls (a wonder of the world). Today, many affluent Mexicans know a lot more about Canada, but mostly about Ontario and Quebec led by Niagara, Toronto and Montreal. This is to be expected since Ontario and Quebec have been the most active in promoting their destinations in Mexico in recent years and Toronto and Montreal get more media coverage internationally than any other Canadian cities. This is due in part because of professional sports (Mexican are avid sports spectators) like baseball and basket-ball (Toronto) as well as high visibility events like the Toronto International Film Festival, the International Jazz Festival and the Grand Prix.

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Going forward, there is a lot of room for growth vis-a-vis the Mexican market as other destinations increase their visibility (BC and Alberta follow Quebec and Ontario) and air access increases. I have heard that Mexicana Airlines will begin direct flights to Calgary and Edmonton this year, although I have not seen official announcements yet. If this is the case, expect significant growth in visitations to Alberta this year (provided the flights are properly marketed).

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What do Mexicans travellers like? Well, (Vicky) one thing I can certainly say (even though no one likes broad generalizations) is that Mexican travellers are not attracted to "the rugged outdoors, the beauty of wild nature, exploring, walking and hiking." As most tourists to Canada, Mexicans certainly want to see and enjoy Canada's natural wonders, Niagara Falls being #1, but they are not into walking, camping and hiking the great outdoors, especially the rugged kind. While there are niche segments of the Mexican travelling public who do enjoy the outdoors and are experienced outdoorspersons who love adventure tourism, most Mexicans who can afford to travel to Canada want comfort. They want to see everything and experience new things (like the Ice Hotel in Quebec, for example) and have fun and gather great stories to tell when they go back home. But they don't want to "rough it" and they definitely want to have time and places to go shopping. Mexicans love good food. They like to go out to great restaurants, enjoy great meals and spend time in the sobremesa (a Mexican term that refers to the conversation that goes on after eating their meals while they enjoy dessert or brandy and a coffee). The CTC research rightly points out that in this regard, Canada needs to do a better job of educating the market about our culinary offerings.

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Finally, this may sound to obvious, but one major thing about Mexicans when they travel abroad. They want to feel welcomed. Mexicans love to make friends and a friendly attitude and friendly service go a long way in making these visitors happy. And not only that, this will also make them word-of-mouth marketers for your destination or your tourism business. Allow me to quote a member of the Canadamigos Social Network, who wrote a description of her first trip to Canada:

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"Puedo decir sin lugar a dudas que Canadá es un país indiscutiblemente bellísimo, es difícil dejar de contemplar todos los tesoros que tiene tan sólo esta parte del país, sin embargo puedo asegurar que una de las sorpresas más gratas que tuve fue descubrir la generosidad y carisma de su gente."
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"I can say without a doubt that Canada is indisputably beautiful, it's difficult to stop contemplating the treasures that you find in this part of the country alone, however, I can assure you that one of the nicest surprises I had (on this trip) was to discover the generosity and charisma of its people."
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I could easily do a half day seminar about Mexican travellers to Canada in all their permutations, I can continue writing about this topic in more detail, but I think the above will suffice for now. Thanks Vicky for prompting me to write about this.

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Saludos,

Jaime

The Canadamigos Social Network hits 1,000 members and counting. Canadá en Español goes 2.0.

Canadamigos.com is a new social network launched late December 2007 by the Canadá en Español Network. The site is intended to foster travel to and within Canada through friendship among Canadians, Hispanic-Canadians and Hispanics around the world. This past weekend, Canadamigos reached and surpassed 1,000 members from many countries including Canada, the USA, Mexico, Spain, Argentina and others. Members communicate in Spanish, English and French. Membership is free for individuals but all memberships need to be approved first.
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The idea for a social network like Canadamigos had been brewing in my head for several months before its launch. Throughout 2007 I had been reading about Web 2.0 and Social Media in tourism. Social Media and Social Networking became the new buzz words for the tourism industry. Marketing experts began to pay attention to consumers' conversations online - reviews, blog posts, discussions, forums (e.g. Tripadvisor, WAYN, VirtualTourist, Facebook). Many hoteliers and destinations began to realize the power of these conversations (positive and negative). Tourism businesses were encouraged to "Participate in the Conversation" as a means to protect or enhance their reputations and the phrase Social Media Marketing was (and still is) constantly referred to as the must do for online marketers.

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Knowing Hispanics around the world are very interested in Canada and witnessing the growth of inbound Hispanic tourism markets to Canada as well as continued traffic growth from the Canada en Español websites I did not worry that maybe I would not find a sufficient number of members, but rather whether the investment and effort involved in launching, managing, monitoring and contributing to the network would be worth it. After reading more about this issue in the blogosphere (e.g. Sponsorships on Social Networks -Niche Social Networks Will Continue To Be Hot In 2008 - Social Media is the Future of the Travel Industry) and feeling the pressure from my own marketing juices, I decided to go ahead.

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Two of my fellow Tips From the T-List bloggers, Vicky Brock and Stephen Budd define Web 2.0/Travel 2.0 as "Community, interactivity, reciprocity, two-way marketing conversation, the long tail, create, modify, self-publish, user generated content, rich media, collaboration," and "Technically: blogs, RSS, flash media (no flash = no YouTube). Economically: (almost) zero cost to entry. Socially: critical mass of chatterers." (Tracking Tourism: The Tourism Research Blog: Travel 2.0: what does it mean and do you need to care? )

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All the elements mentioned by Vicky and Stephen are present in one way or another in Canadamigos. People are interacting, asking questions, participating in groups (e.g. Travel Within Canada Group, Toronto Group, Adventure Tourism Group, Canadian Culture Group, etc). However, we're just in the early stages. The next stage is to achieve the support of the supply and DMO side of the Canadian Tourism Industry. The vision is to create a platform where consumer generated content interacts and complements professional content, where consumers can find great options for travel to Canada and within Canada and tourism businesses can "participate in the conversation" and attract new customers and repeat customers (long tail).

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In future posts I will describe how Canadamigos is doing and provide examples of the Web 2.0/Travel 2.0 elements mentioned above.

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Saludos,

Jaime Horwitz

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Very sad loss for Quebec and Canada - The Quebec City Armoury - Manege Militaire de Québec

I was very saddened to learn over the weekend about the fire that devastated the Quebec City Armoury, la Manege Militaire de Québec, home of the proud Voltigeurs, the oldest French Canadian infantry regiment, built in 1887. Every time I visit Quebec City I walk by this beautiful building and I am always impressed by its architecture and by the cleanliness of the surroundings. It's value to Canadian tourism is ver important, but its historical value is inestimable. This is a terrible loss, not only for Quebec City and the Province of Quebec, but also for the entire country. I do hope that the Federal Government, the Government of Quebec and perhaps the Ministry of Defense do everything in their power to rebuild and restore this magnificent building. I for one would be glad to pitch in as a citizen and make a contribution to the effort, just as thousands of people did when Stanley Park in Vancouver was hit hard by a storm. Just let us know how and where to make a contribution and I'm in. The fire came at a very very bad time when Quebec City is celebrating the 400th Anniversary of its founding and the Armoury is supposed to host some of the celebratory events.

Jaime Horwitz

Quebec en Español.com

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