Canada-e-Connect to feature two Marketing magazine award-winners

This just in from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada:

Canada-e-Connect to feature two Marketing magazine award-winners: Sid Lee and Canadian Tourism Commission to provide prize-worthy insight at CEC

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Marketing, Canada’s leading advertising and media magazine, named two organizations with significant connections to Canadian tourism as recipients of its highly-coveted and prestigious National Marketing Awards.

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In its highly-anticipated and influential awards issue released earlier this week, the magazine selected Montréal-based agency Sid Lee as the Marketing Agency of the Year, while the Canadian Tourism Commission was named as the Marketer of the Year.

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And because TIAC aims to showcase the best of the tourism industry at the Canada-e-Connect conference, it stands to reason that both of these award-winners were already scheduled to appear at the 2010 edition of Canada’s premier e-tourism event this January in Montréal.

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“Sid Lee is known for pulling, pushing and simply playing with the industry's traditional definitions of creativity,” wrote Marketing’s Jeremy Lloyd. "Though many agencies are trying to work their way deeper into client operations to do more than straightforward advertising, Sid Lee has never been afraid to shun advertising in favour of retail design, product creation or, as it recommended to Tourisme Montreal, drop all traditional advertising to focus on online and social media outreach."

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Bertrand Cesvet joined Sid Lee in 1997 and led its transformation from a fledgling graphic design shop into one of Canada’s most dynamic creative services agencies. Cesvet will give Canada-e-Connect’s opening keynote presentation on January 27, 2010 at 10:00, and will share some of the ideas and concepts he developed for the book Conversational Capital which he co-authored with his Sid Lee colleagues Tony Babinski and Eric Alper.

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The Canadian Tourism Commission was also acknowledged for its efforts in online and social media. "In the past few years, a lot of marketers have experimented with social media and user-generated content in their marketing. But in our opinion, few have done it so well as the CTC," said Rebecca Harris, co-managing editor of Marketing.

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In particular, the magazine profiled the CTC’s successful Locals Know campaign, which showcased little-known yet enticing destinations across Canada and encouraged travellers to report back to share their memorable experiences. “What impressed us the most was CTC's groundbreaking social media strategy, which included videos showcasing travellers' real experiences,” Harris wrote.

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The CTC’s Lesly Braby will detail her organization’s social media experience in a plenary session, Thursday January 28 at 16:15 during Canada-e-Connect 2010. Lesly will describe how the CTC creates and distributes content on social media channels, what challenges they have encountered, and what they have learned along the way.

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For more information on Marketing's 2009 awards, please click here.

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Join us at Canada-e-Connect 2010 Register at www.canadaeconnect.com

www.tiac.travel

Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada addressed the Mexican Senat

December 8, 2009, Mexico City, United Mexican States

It gives me great pleasure and is an honour for me, as governor general of Canada, to speak in a Chamber that is so essential to democratic life in Mexico, especially this year, as we celebrate 65 years of diplomatic relations between our two countries.

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I would first like to mention the unshakeable, willing and unparalleled ties of friendship that have developed over the years between our people and our institutions. It is certainly no secret—and I am proud to say—that Mexico holds a special place in the hearts of Canadians.

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Moreover, our commitment to increasing security, improving prosperity and promoting democratic values across the entire hemisphere make Canada and Mexico key partners. It is vital to the well-being of our respective peoples that we work together to fight the threat of sophisticated, organized crime networks that have spread across the entire continent with their illegal activities. I am referring especially to the trafficking of people, narcotics and influence, and to the corruption, money laundering and violence that are ravaging our communities. In order to succeed, we must join efforts and establish joint strategies because, as we all know, the situation is extremely serious.

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This willingness to strengthen hemispheric cooperation is, in fact, one of the cornerstones of Canada’s foreign policy and we salute the efforts you are making along these same, promising, lines. We must be bold and build on the dynamic relationship between Canada and Mexico, and this in a number of important aspects of society.Not only are we major trading partners, thanks to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, but we have also implemented innovative mechanisms, such as the Canada‑Mexico Partnership, launched in 2004, to promote co‑operation and dialogue in such areas as investment, innovation, agribusiness, housing, the environment, human capital development, energy, and labour mobility.

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Moreover, the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, which has been in operation for the past 35 years and allows us to receive temporary workers from Mexico, is seen around the world as a model with a great deal of promise. This State visit is an opportunity for us to explore new areas for co-operation and partnership in order to diversify our investments and business activities. We can certainly do much better and we must double our efforts and stretch our imaginations.We also share a commitment to multilateralism and maintain a productive dialogue within several international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the G-20, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development.

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There are so many opportunities for us to build on our existing solidarity at this pivotal moment in our collective history, as we face a major crisis of values, one that we cannot reduce solely to its financial component and that demands that we redefine an ethic of sharing and hemispheric responsibility in this era of globalization. In addition to these many ties are nearly 400 agreements between universities and several studies centres and programs that promote academic exchange and an improved sharing of knowledge between our two countries.

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I would say that the same excitement and exuberance can be found in the cultural ties forged between the creative minds of our two countries and of which our peoples are so fond. As proof, we need look no further than the programming at the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, one of the largest artistic gatherings in Latin America and one of the largest multidisciplinary festivals in the world, whose 37th edition, which ended last month, featured several Québécois artists. Our artists share that desire to increase the opportunities for collaboration and to enrich the cultural diversity that distinguishes our histories and lands with their unique contributions.

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We are delighted because, like Octavio Paz, we believe that “[a]ll cultures are born out of mingling, meetings and clashes,” and, as he warns us, “[c]onversely, civilizations die from isolation.”

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And it is precisely from a desire to highlight the close ties that bind us that my husband, Jean‑Daniel Lafond, our delegation and I will be going out to meet with the people and organizations that form the backbone of Mexican society—from entrepreneurs to students, from non-governmental organizations to decision-making bodies, from artists to women’s associations—here in the centre of the country and in Chiapas, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez and San Cristóbal de las Casas.

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I like diplomacy on a human scale and our dearest wish, in a reinterpretation of Carlos Fuentes’ beautiful phrase, is to work together to ensure the continuity of a few ideas over time.

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It is therefore in this spirit of solidarity and fellowship that we begin this State visit in Mexico, with an unwavering willingness to remind our respective populations that we are brothers and sisters, in spirit and in heart, and with the hope of creating new opportunities for co-operation.

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Thank you very much for offering me this special invitation to address you and I wish long life to the strong, cherished friendship between Canada and Mexico!

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And I would like to extend our best wishes for your happiness and prosperity as we approach the bicentenary of the Mexican War of Independence and the centenary of the Mexican Revolution!

(source: Office of the Governor General of Canada, www.gg.ca)

The Free Times Cafe Toronto

A tradition in Toronto, many songwriters come to the Free Times in Kensington Market to sings new songs and practice old ones.

-- Post From My iPhone

Psycographic segmentation in Canadian Tourism

Canadian DMOs as I suppose DMOs everywhere are spending a lot of money researching consumer and travel behaviour, their demographics and psycographics, their online habits and many other attributes. The Canadian Tourism Commission, for example, devised a segmentation tool called the Explorer Quotient that classifies people as traveller types. The EQ is basically a psycographics and lifestyle segmentation tool. There are other tools and ways of segmenting consumers, all of which may be valid and helpful. However, psycographic segmentation has its limitation and cannot be considered the be all and end all of marketing. One of the issues with this kind of segmentation is that people are constantly changing, their circumstances change, their different life stages force them to change. You can surmise this by examining your own life and that of people close to you. For example, my EQ is Free Spirit, one of the highest yielding tourist types. But I am also a Cultural History Buff and a Rejuvenator. I don't have the resources to prove this, but my sense is that most travellers may be one or another type depending on the circumstances, the mood and their financial resources. While I prefer to travel as a Free Spirit (luxury accomodations, the best of the best), I can't always afford it. I might sacrifice luxury for a cultural experience, which I've done on many occasions, and I every year my family and I try to take a Rejuvenating vacation. When I took the EQ questionnaire a few years ago, it turned out I was a Free Spirit. I often get marketed to as a Free Spirit even though I may feel like a Cultural History Buff or a No Hassle Traveler (which I definitely am as well).

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In conclusion, while segmentation tools are very important, one must keep in mind that people are not as easy to classify as plants. In the era of instant direct communication one-to-one, one-to-many it is critical to listen to travelers and be ready to respond with the right message at the right time so whenever a traveler expresses Free Spirit desires or No Hassle Traveler needs, you'll be ready to address their wishes with the right offer.

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Happy travels,

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Jaime

PhoCusWright 2009

I was not able to attend the PhoCusWright Conference in Orlando this year, but I kept more or less informed by following comments on Twitter and Twubs. Now that the conference is over I can recommend UpTake's Elliott Ng's summary for those who want more details as to this year's conference revelations. Elliot's takeaways:

• Mobile will open up new opportunities for in-trip planning, shopping, and booking.
• Sensors, system data, and geolocation-tagged data will be everywhere
• An Epic Battle over the social web is ensuing between Facebook and Google, creating opportunities for all
• Online search and discovery is still the biggest problem in travel planning and shopping (in other words plenty of need for the kind of stuff UpTake is doing)
• The industry continues to focus on using data to drive better ad targeting and site conversion.
• Social media is changing travel marketing, distribution, and customer service, and new tools are being created to help companies monitor and manage this new channel.
• Many consumer-oriented startups still seem to be in the “build it and they will come” approach toward traffic acquisition. C’mon, don’t do that to yourself. Stop it. Now.

Read Elliot's complete wrap up on UpTake's Travel Industry Blog

Cheers,

Jaime

Canadian tourism international inbound

The Advance Travel Information bulletin for September 2009 is out. Canada continued to face significant challenges from all markets. From the US to Brazil, Europe to Asia we continue to see weakness in inbound numbers:

The US declined levelled off somewhat in September with only a 2% decline from a year earlier.

Europe was down 13%

Asia down 12.4%

The impact of visa requirements on Mexican visitors continues. Visitors from that country dropped 55.6% compared to September 2008.

Only China, Taiwan and Switzerland showed some growth in September.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/66-001-p/66-001-p2009009-eng.pdf

Jaime


-- Post From My iPhone

Authentic Neapolitan Pizza in Canada's Capital

Earlier today I had a wonderful lunch with Jantine, Ottawa Tourism's Director of Communications, and a local expert in all things Ottawa. We had a delicious lunch at The Grand, an Italian eatery specializing in Neapolitan pizza. I love pizza and The Grand did not disappoint. Jantine explained to me that the restaurant is working to obtain certification for their pizzas from the Avpn (l'Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana), the Neapolitan organization that gives a stamp of approval to pizzerias around the world that want to prove that they really make authentic Neapolitan pizza. Currently there's only one Pizzeria in Canada that has the certification (Pizzeria Libretto in Toronto). I think The Grand has a very good chance at getting the certificate. If you love Pizza and happen to be in Ottawa try The Grand (nope, this is not a paid endorsement, but even if it was, great pizza is great pizza, and this would be an honest blog post - that is, if you like real Neapolitan pizza).

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This post is an example of what we, as tourism marketers would like to see happen more and more out there in the blogosphere and the social media world. Jantine and I talked about how powerful a recommendation can be when it comes from a trusted source, on or offline. I had mentioned to her that my favourite food is Italian so she chose the Grand for our lunch. I found the pizza very, very good, but the fact that this restaurant is seeking approval from this Pizza Authenticity organization in Italy made the restaurant that much more intersting from a blogger's perspective. How do you get people to spread the word about your business or destination? Ah, that's the "holy grail" isn't it? Easier said than done. But it really comes down to a simple concept we focussed quite a bit on at the last Canada-e-Connect eTourism Conference: Engagement. You must engage your audience (don't like to use the word target. Tourism marketing is not a war, it is a courtship.)

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Cheers,

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Jaime

PhoCusWright begins.

The leading technology and travel conference in the world is almost underway in Orlando, Florida. I am very disappointed that I was not able to attend this year. But there's always Twitter. Or, you can also purchase an online ticket that allows you to attend from your desktop or laptop. Visit http://www.phocuswright.com/ for details

To follow the conference tweets, I suggest

On Twitter
http://twitter.com/phocuswright
Hashtags to follow #pcw09 and #PhoCusWright

or

On Twubs (www.twubs.com)
http://twubs.com/phocuswright

Cheers,
Jaime

11.11.11 Lest We Forget

Made this video with and for my daughter Maddy Rodriguez back in 2007 over a period of weeks on different trips. While the production is not what we would have liked as far as camera and sound equipment, the sentiment is sincere. My daughter wanted to dedicate this to our Canadian Armed Forces and their families.

We do not forget,

Jaime

20 years ago I arrived in Toronto for good. It's been the best decision I've ever made.

It was a cool November evening very much like tonight. I arrived at the old Pearson International Airport, way before the billion dollar Terminal 1 addition. The Rogers Centre, then Skydome was just a few years old. There weren't that many condo and office towers in Toronto, but it was already an impressive city. As for the rest of the country, I had been to Vancouver a few times to visit my sister and my Mother, who had moved there a few years earlier. I had been to Niagara Falls as a tourists many years before, but other than that, I hadn't seen much of my new country.

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I arrived with dreams of a new life, a life with more order and tranquility. I went through a couple of rookie immigrant years, going through what many immigrants go through. Furthermore, soon after I arrived, a big recession hit the country making it more difficult to find a good job. But I persevered and slowly, gradually, I started to feel like I belonged here. I met the love of my life and four years and a month after I arrived in Canada our daughter was born at St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto - they are the best thing my life. Several years later, in 1998, after completing an MBA degree from the Schulich School of Business, I started the Canadá en Español Network, a virtual company to promote Canada to Spanish speaking people around the world.

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In the last twenty years, I have been fortunate to visit all the corners of this incredible country, albeit not enough. There's so much still to see. From the tip of Cape Breton Island to the Yukon to Tofino to our great cities - Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Halifax, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and Victoria, Canada is just a breathtakingly beautiful and exciting country. And while it is not the perfect Utopia we would like it to be (but perhaps someday will be), I have found that the fundamental values that unite us are far more stronger that our regional differences: our love of freedom with compassion, our belief and practice of respect for the other, our care for nature (tar sands notwithstanding), our understanding that the public good benefits us all, our love of Hockey, our mistrust of arrogance and ostentation, and our unspoken love for this beautiful country. While there are always exceptions to the above as there are when we talk about Canadians, for the most part, I have found my fellow Canadians to be some of the most - perhaps the most - polite, respectful compassionate and caring people in the world (if not always fun, let's face it, we need to loosen up a little).

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I love Canada with a passion, but also with a clear head. While my life in Canada has not always been all I would want - my business is suffering now, but this can happen anywhere to anyone - I truly found my home in this country, just like countless millions before me. I am grateful to all the nation builders who came before us and I can proudly say that I believe Canada is not just a country worth dying for, but that the idea of Canada, a place where people from all races, nationalities, cultures, sexual preferences, backgrounds, can live in peace (with again some exceptions) is worth living for.

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This November 11th remember those who paid the ultimate price for us.
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Jaime Horwitz Rodriguez

TIAC's National Tourism Leadership Summit underway (sorry I'm missing it).

Today is the last day of Canada's Tourism Leadership Summit taking place in St. John, New Brunswick. This year it must be one of the most important summits of recent years, given the enormous challenges the industry has been facing and will continue to face in the foreseeable future. The global economy is the number one challenge, of course, as it has affected travel everywhere. Canada has been hit particularly hard, and if weren't for the domestic traveller, the industry would be in much worse shape. Going forward, there are some who believe the Winter Olympics will give a boost to our tourism performance. That remains to be seen. The Games will not fix America's economic challenges. The US economy has been showing growth lately as a result of the massive economic stimulus. But, as economists point out, recovery in employment always lags other economic indicators and employment will the key component of a sustainable recovery. Add to that the massive deficits that Americans are incurring to try and get out of the hole Wall Street dug for them and you can see that there will be continuing downward pressure on the greenback, which will continue to make the Canadian dollar attractive to foreign currency traders. The combination of a weak US dollar and a strong Canadian dollar is a double whammy for Canadian tourism.

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What to do? We must continue to work hard to differentiate Canada from other tourism destinations and try as much as possible to offer the most benefit per dollar compared to other places. The CTC efforts to continue the LocalsKnow campaign to stimulate domestic tourism (or at least minimize the impact of a high loonie that entices Canadians to travel south in the winter) should help a bit, but in the long run it will be the quality of the tourism experience that will sustain us. Everything from infrastructure to guest services should be world class to not only attract domestic and international travellers, but also to make them advocates for our destinations and incent them to create conversational capital in the digital social space.

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Unfortunately, the economic environment and Canada's imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors has impacted my business in a material way which has forced me to cut back on travel and conferences. There's much work to do and little time available. So I had to miss this Tourism Leadership Summit for the first time in years. But I look forward to attending Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010 in Montreal as Co-Chair and seeing many of you who attended this years TIAC Summit.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.
The Canadá en Español Network
CanadAmigos Social Networking

Ottawa hosts Ontario's Council of Folk Festivals' Conference

A gorgeous weekend in the Nation's Capital attending the Folk Festival's Conference. I am writing this from the Songwriters Association of Canada's Showcase. I'm listening to a lovely singer songwriter by the name of Karyn Ellis. Music and Tourism, a powerful combination.

Jaime


-- Post From My iPhone

photos Ontario Tourism Summit 2009 - Windsor

The beautiful Boardwalk in Windsor (great jog on a sunny day).

The famous Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit.

The Caesars Casino (yup, I lost a few bucks, rather not say how much). Wonder what that squirrel's doing in the picture? see below.

The impressive Caesars complex in Windsor was the OTS 09 headquarters. I had never been there before. Shout out to the Caesars staff. Everyone was friendly and welcoming.

I went for a jog on the beautiful Boardwalk and stopped just a few seconds to take a picture of the great public art along the way. Unfortunately this photo was ruined by this squirrel! It's the Banff Crasher scoundrel! How does she do it (is it a she)? Perhaps she's trying to tell me something, like "visit Banff" perhaps. Squirrel's don't talk (thought they twitter). Maybe she will send me an invite.

Jaime

Some key take-aways from the Ontario Tourism Summit Conference

Canada's economy is in good shape relatively to other industrialized countries - particularly the United States. The recovery will continue this quarter and good growth is expected for 2010. However, employment will lag growth in other sectors. The Canadian dollar will stay strong perhaps fluctuating between $0.85 and $1. This last point is the most important to remember from Don Drummond's economic overview at OTS '09 because it means that our tourism product will not be as competitive relative to other destinations. A strong dollar will also allow Canadians to travel more abroad impacting the growing travel deficit.

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Peter Yesawich gave a very intersting and helpful update from the Ypartnership sureveys (travel habits-intentions of Americans and Canadians) . Some key points: we are currently in a very price sensitive era. Even the affluent are price sensitive (though 66% of affluent, high-end travellers are still shopping for value not price). Yesawich mentioned the importance and proliferation of meta search engines, a topic that is somewhat outdated, since sites like Kayak are maturing and a significant sector of eTourism is moving towards travel inspiration and trip planning (that's not to say that price comparison shopping is going away anytime soon - or ever).

Canada trails Europe by a wide margin when it comes to places Americans would like to go to.

Intergenerational travel is growing, e.g. grandparents taking the grandkids on a Holiday.

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Mr Chris Rodriguez, Chair of VisitBritain gave an eloquent presentation about tourism marketing, DMO's (Destination Marketing Organizations) and DMMO's (Destination Marketing and Management Organizations - see comments). Mr. Rodrigues made several good points that may not be new, but are worth remembering. A destination must first make sure that it's attractive to the locals before trying to attract international visitors. Making the best better is not easy. DMO's and, more importantly DMMO's need to focus on common goals, cooperation and a strong understanding of partnership. For DMMO's to work well, leadership is key.

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Michelle McKenzie and Robin Garrett gave good presentations about converting brand equity into sales. Ms. McKenzie provided an overview and update of the LocalsKnow campaign, which had over 4,000 spots uploaded and over 800 deals. If I recall correctly, I think she said there were over two million page views and over 400,000 visits to the site during the summer campaign. I would have liked to learn, though, how much money the whole campaign cost and how much money in bookings was generated?

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Ms Garrett spoke about Ontario's accomplishments during the past year and the success of the There's No Place Like This campaign (made special mention of Justin Hines' appearance on the campaign). She also talked about Ontario's international marketing. Basically Ontario is aligned with the CTC when it comes to international markets.

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Speaking of markets, both Ontario and the CTC are working to open up the Indian and Brazil markets in addition to the other overseas countries they already market to. I made a comment at the session with TIAC's president Randy Williams and TIAO's president Bill Allen that the imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors is a red flag vis a vis emerging markets and how much they can grow. Ontario and the CTC can do a great job of marketing Canada to Indians and Brazilians creating demand for travel to Canada, but visa processing is the responsibility of Immigration and Citizenship Canada (and CBSA). Indians and Brazilians who want to come to Canada must apply for a visitor's visa. There's a limit of how many visas can be processed at any given time.

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I personally believe that there are still many international opportunities for Canada in countries where Canada does not require a visa, including the United States. I would look at Italy and Spain in particular. Spain is the only European country that's showing any growth in inbound tourism to Canada this year (and one of only two countries overall).

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference Montreal 2010

Ontario Tourism Summit at the Caesars Windsor

Delegates having a good time at the Cosmos bar after a day of interesting sessions about "the Road Ahead" at the Ontario Tourism Marketing Summit 2009 in Windsor. (more posts coming)
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Jaime Horwitz
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010
CanadAmigos Social Networking Site
Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

Thumbs up for tnooz

Great site for tourism and etourism professionals. Congratulations to Kevin May, editor of tnooz. Kevin's experience in eTourism (travel, technolog, Internet, media) and his global connections in the space make tnooz a premier web destination for the tourism industry worldwide.

www.tnooz.com

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-chair Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference Montreal 2010
www.canadaeconnect.com

in reference to: http://www.tnooz.com/author/editor/ (view on Google Sidewiki)

International inbound tourism to Canada in July took a big dive

Not surprisingly Mexican inbound tourism to Canada was down 39.4% in July compared to July of last year. This decline was directly related to Canada's imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors on July 15. It will take some time for Mexican numbers to recover to pre-visa requirements. My best guess is two to three years provided we continue to market Canada in a creative, engaging and effective way to Mexicans, positioning the country as a premium destination. (There is a faint hope that the Government of Canada will implement reforms to the Refugee System in which case visa requirements for Mexicans might be lifted - at least that's what I infer from Prime Minister Harper's remarks after last August's NAFTA Summit in Guadalajara). Even with the visa issue, Mexico surpassed Japan by almost 30,000 visitors in the period from Jan to July.

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So that's Mexico. But what about the rest of the world? Well, according to StatCan's International Travel: Advance Information Service Bulletin for July 2009, all markets where down, some significantly in July. Spain was an exception with growth of 1.5% (Greece and the Philippines also showed growth)

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Compared to July 2008 these are the dismal figures for July 2009:

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UK - down 19.5%

France - down 5.1%

Germany - down 1.5%

Australia - down 4.8%

Japan - down 35.4 %

China - down 17.8%

Hong Kong - down 24.5%

India - down 7.9%

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For the period between January and July 2009 only the Philippines and SPAIN show growth. I am not sure why the Philippines shows growth, but for the first 7 months of this year Phillipines is up 13.5% (40,197). It may be mostly VFRs (visiting friends and family), but it would be interesting to find out what kind of visitors come from that country. As for SPAIN, it showed growth of 2.3% for the same period (40,075 visitors). For some time now, I have been saying that SPAIN can be a great market for Canada. I believe that with the right investment in marketing and trade relations, we could easily reach 200,000 to a quarter million Spaniards visiting Canada every year (just look up how many Spaniards visit New York City annually to get a better grasp on that country's potential). Spaniards, as you may know, do not require a visa to visit Canada as tourists (and it's very unlikely they will ever need one). When it comes to airlift, there aren't many direct flights between Spain and Canada, but there are multiple connections from Europe.

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And the USA? Well, it just continues to slide. Visits from the US where down 11.3% in July compared to July 2008 (biggest declines were seen from same day Americans visitors (-24.6%) and Americans coming by bus (-23.8%)

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Wishing you all a recovering Fall season and a come-back-from-behind 2010.

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Jaime Horwitz

www.canadaenespanol.ca

Sept 16, 2009 a conversational capital day for Toronto

I like the term "conversational capital." My friend Carmen Ciotola of Tourism Montreal first mentioned it to me when she introduced me to the book by Bertrand Cesvet (with Tony Babinski and Eric Alper. The book is called Conversational Capital, but with a subtitle that reads "How to Create Stuff people love to talk about." Thought the book clearly presents a framework to analyze something (or someone) from a conversational capital perspective, "create stuff people love to talk about" is easier said than done.

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Conversational Capital, according to the book refers to "a series of observations that can help generate and spread positive word-of-mouth." Examples in the book of brands/products/services that have generated enormous amounts of conversational capital are Cirque du Soleil, Apple, adidas, Red Bull, Schwartz's (smoked meat sandwich deli in Montreal). The book offers 8 attributes or engines of conversational capital, most of which must be present in your product, service, brand, artist or tourism attraction in order to create conversational capital. These engines are: Rituals, Initiation, Exclusive Product Offering, Over-delivery, Myths, Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement and Continuity. I won't go into detail about these engines here. Read the book in order to get the entire lesson. I am merely using Cesvet and friends' framework to talk about word-of-mouth (positive or negative) about a tourism destination and how difficult it is for destination tourism marketers to create word of mouth about their destinations, particularly cities.

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In my opinion, a city's tourism board per se cannot really create conversational capital for its destination (Let me interject here and mention that the book's website - ConversationalCapital.com - has a section on conversations where the book's readers can interact and debate about conversational capital - unfortunately every time I clicked on this section the browser freezes and I have to reboot it). A city's conversational capital (except perhaps for Las Vegas, Dubai, NYC and Paris) is created by what happens in the city. The city itself is nothing without its events, its people and its architecture (architecture is something that happens - e.g. the ROM's Crystal Gallery, Gehry's renovation of the AGO, the OCAD building). And this brings me to what happened yesterday, September 16, 2009 in Toronto.

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Three major events where happening at the same time last night in Toronto in and around the entertainment district. I drove into the downtown core to meet my wife because we had tickets to U2's 360 Tour concert at the Skydome (Rogers Centre for some, but for me it's always the Skydome). I heard on the radio what was going on downtown so I made a point to get downtown early. In addition to U2 performing, the Maple Leafs had their opening game at the ACC against the Boston Bruins and the Toronto International Film Festival had its ongoing shows and galas in the downtown core. Needless to say, the area was hopping. Front Street and side streets felt a little like New York City with people and cars everywhere. One could also feel the energy of hockey, music or film fans building with anticipation of their respective events. For tourism and tourism related businesses it was an outlier evening I'm sure. I saw line-ups at small coffee shops like Tim Horton, fast food places and restaurants along Front Street.

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These three events provide more visibility to Toronto than any ad campaign could (unless of course, Toronto places an ad during the Super Bowl). The challenge for Toronto tourism marketers is how to harness and encourage the conversation in order to increase the conversational capital. One Google search for "U2 Toronto 2009" comes back with 1.3 million hits and change. A Twitter search for "U2 Toronto" comes back with pages and pages of related tweets (you have to tolerate many spammers' tweets though - one problem Twitter is wrestling with). A Google news search for "U2 in Toronto" gave up about 62 results, many of major media outlets that covered the concert. Similarly if you search for "Maple Leafs" or "Bruins" you will get many hits. And the Toronto International Film Festival? Well I'll save you the time you could spend on searches about TIFF. TIFF is the single Canadian event (cultural or otherwise) that towers among any other in media coverage. Two years ago a study was mentioned in the Toronto Star revealed that TIFF is by far more covered by the media than Bay Street and it's light years ahead of any other Canadian event ( a Google search for "Toronto International Film Festival" results in over 26 million hits).

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When you look at the three events mentioned in terms of the engines converational capital all three have elements of all or most of the engines. A tourism marketer cannot create this. One of the tourism marketer's many obvjectives (but one at the top of my list) should be to look for those brands, events, personalities or businesses that create conversational capital about their destinations, support them and find ways to be a participant in the conversations and use them in the destination's marketing initiatives.

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Regards (by the way, Bertrand Cesvet will be the opening keynote speaker at next year's Canada-e-Connect conference in Montreal).

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

The 850 Race a crazy endeavour for a great cause. Support it.

The impact of Canada's imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors in the middle of July has taken most of my time in recent weeks. It's been a very challenging summer to say the least. But I am an optimist and an entrepreneur. I am looking at Spain to pick up some of the shortfall. But that's another post.

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Today I want to call your attention to a crazy but admirable idea, one of those that create conversational capital for a destination. One of my followers, whom I also follow on the micro-blogging service, is the eco lodge E'Terra Inn, an award winning eco friendly luxury estate in Ontario's Bruce Peninsula, by an "ancient coral reef known as the Niagara Escarpment next to the diamantine waters of Georgian Bay." E'Terra alerted me to the 850 Race, a fundraising event whose website introduces as follows: "Think about doing the impossible. Dream. Raise one million dollars to help kids in need. Impossible? How is this for impossible? Run a marathon. Run two marathons, back to back. No. That is not impossible. It may be painful. But not impossible. How about running two marathons a day for six days in a row? Starting to sound impossible? One last thing, let’s not do it on a road. Let’s do it off road on trails..." Now, I am a runner myself and would say have excercised regularly most of my life. I once ran the full Mexico City Marathon and in recent years I ran a half marathon at the Toronto Waterfron Marathon. I am aware of extreme sports and, of course we all know Terry Fox's story. But no matter how you spin it, running two marathons daily (84 kms) for six days does sound like an impossible (and dangerous) thing to attempt.

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The 850 Race is a project in support of the Global Child Health Program which is the collective strategy for SickKids and partners in developing nations to address the Millennium Development Goal #4 - Reduce Child Mortality. David Battison and Brian Culbert are the men behind the 850 race. David, a well known coach in skiing circles, and Brian, an avid cyclist, are both avid extreme sports practitioners. Not the leisure runs I take around my home or in parks and cities wherever I travel. No, these guys don't excercise for health or fun reasons. They like crazy challenges. Apparently on day they were talking about coming up with new challenges and making a "bucket list." One of the items of the list was to run the entire Bruce Trail. Ah, but this not being enough of a challenge they thought "why not make it a race...in six days!" (my quotes).

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And so David and Brian are running as I write this. I would have loved to at E'Terra near Tobermory this Friday to see them cross the finish line (thank you E'Terra for inviting me), but other commitments and my work precluded me from driving up there. Best of luck with your feet (and knees, and ankles, and backs) guys. Godspeed!

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Please visit the 850Race website and support this worthy cause. Follow the race on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/the850race. Visit E'Terra's website to learn about this unique Inn in the Province of Ontario.

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Jaime Horwitz

www.canadamigos.com

Twitter.com/jaimehorwitz

Canada's Best Theatre This Weekend in Quebec City

The Plains of Abraham in Quebec City will have the best show in Canada. Commemorating 250 of the battle that determined the future of North America and Canada. It will be an interesting display of partisan speeches, opinions, mixed with a little fact and fiction.

The ghosts of Wolfe and Montcalm will be drinking good French wine and strong British Ale arguing over who really won the war. See a selection of many of the best articles and blogs discussing the pre-Canada battle for North American supremacy.

Canadian Tourism is getting hammered. What are you doing about your destination or business?

Because the tourism industry is a very fragmented one and employment is spread over hundreds of thousands of businesses, from large hotels to small burger joints along Ontario's Highway 400, to beds & breakfasts in Cape Breton to soft adventure outfitters in the Yukon and so on, it's an easy industry to ignore. It's not like a big automotive plant closing and laying off 2,000 people at a time which gets the attention of unions, the media and consequently the politicians and society at large. In tourism there are thousands of jobs lost when small kayak rentals operators, small receptive operators, restaurants, and others fold. Many thousands more go unreported as lost jobs because businesses froze hiring this summer and thousands of young people who otherwise would have been employed in the industry were not. The lack of jobs concentration makes it difficult for the media to write stories about the problem. And of course, we could also do better integrating all the voices of tourism across the country (Join the Canadian Tourism Community social networking site).

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Notwithstanding the above, the industry made the front page of today's Globe and Mail. The natonal paper reports that "Cross-border travel hits lowest levels on record. New passport rules prompt 26% drop in same-day trips from U.S. to Canada in June." But that's just part of the story. According to StatCan's International Travel: Advance Information Bulletin for June 2009, just about every market, primary or otherwise, was down in June and most are down significantly for the period Jan to June. And this after what was perhaps the worst May on record as well. If the year continues going this way, 2009 may see half the numbers of tourists Canada had in 1999! While it is undeniable that the last ten years have seen numerous challenges for the Canadian tourism industry, in my opinion, there are other reasons why the numbers of visitors continue to tank, one being the lack of impactful, creative marketing and advertising. The reasons for this are debatable and one reason must be, of course, a lack of sufficient resources, but another, again in my opinion, is the lack of risk taking to make our marketing and advertising break through the clutter. I believe provincial and national tourism marketing is hindered by a playing it safe mentality so as to not create any controversy (I again think of advertising in America's Super Bowl). If I sound frustrated is because I am. I believe Canada can do much better selling itself to the world (and to ourselves). And when marketers like Rod Harris leave a DMO (or are ousted), it gives me less confidence in the powers that be. By any measure of success in marketing, Rod Harris is indisputably is one of the best tourism marketers in the world (but I think even he was limited by the political considerations that sometimes - like it or not - come into play in Canadian Tourism marketing).

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On a final note, I am happy to report that of all our European markets, the ONLY one that is showing growth in the period from January to June 2009 is SPAIN. Gracias amigos españoles , Olé.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

The Canadá en Español Network

www.canadaenespanol.ca

http://twitter.com/jaimehorwitz

Social Media is not a FAD. It's the new way to communicate and stay in touch.

I don't know if all the data on this video is correct, but it is undeniable that social media and social media tools are here to stay and are changing the way a significant percentage of the world's population behaves in their daily lives. Digital everything, as Prof. Ian Fenwick has said, is the new standart gauge. And digital technology is what enables social media.

The enormous challenge for tourism marketers is understanding how best to take advantage of the new normal in communications. At Canada-e-Connect 2009, we focused a lot on engaging people as oppose to targeting target markets. This is easier said than done. Travel is very unique in terms of engaging people and creating relationships with destination brands. Destinations are not like iPods or Nike Airs. Many people visit a destination just once or twice in their lives. They don't interact with the destination on a daily basis like people do with their iPhones, Blackberrys, Nike Airs, Honda Civics or Swatch watches. How then to take advantage of the conversation out there. Currently, Twitter is the rage, but the micro-blogging service is just one in many tools that tourism marketers can use. No tool will accomplish everything you need to accomplish as a tourism marketer. Sometimes, old style call-to-action price-point advertising may be just what is needed. Social Media should be more of an ongoing activity regardless of the season.

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Canoe as Art in Canada--Not just a sport!!

Canoeing-Paddles in both artistic and competitive waters

Only in Canada can you mix sports and artistic paddling in the news on the same day. Canada has winners in the C4 in Nova Scotia, while Saturday August 15
features "Festival de canotgraphie" in a Quebec City. Festival de canotgraphie is a multimedia dance and freestyle canoe show. Now in its second year, the festival showcases the unique discipline of artistic canoeing.
Anyone contemplating a canoe experience this summer should check out the Canoeing and Kayaking Getaways at Ontario resorts, inns, and lodges north of Toronto. Most Ontario resort destinations have opportunities for new and experienced paddlers.

Nelly Furtado launches new album entirely in Spanish

This past weekend Nelly Furtado introduced new songs from her upcoming Spanish language album "Mi Plan" at the Hard Rock in Mexico City. Canadian born of Portuguese descent (her parents are Portuguese immigrants who settled in Victoria, BC, Ms. Furtado is a bona fide international star. The fact that she chose to produce an album entirely in Spanish as oppose to Portuguese was probably a business decision given the size of the global Spanish speaking market and a testament to the importance of Spanish in the music world. Could this be an opportunity for Canadian DMO's? Did the CTC or Tourism BC sponsor her presentation in Mexico City? I don't think so, but to me this is a no brainer.

Could a Portuguese album be far behind. I think Nelly should produce an album of Brazilian bossa nova and samba inspired tunes. It would probably be a big hit not only in Brazil, but also in Latin America and Spain. Nelly Furtado's official site.

Jaime Horwitz
www.canadamigos.com

Canada top of mind among Mexican travellers, but less competitive.

"The spirit is willing, but the wallet may be weaker. That’s the message from the latest Global Tourism Watch report for Mexico, released by the Research department of the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC). Canada boosted its performance on a number of unaided indicators in 2008, making it the No. 1 destination brand in Mexico in those criteria: destination awareness, advertising awareness and destination consideration." CTC

The Canadian Tourism Commission conducted the survey for its latest report on Mexico in 2008 so the effects of the Global Recession, the H1N1 scare, and mostly Canada's visa imposition do not show in the results. What I have observed in the last several months via my network of websites, my tour operator client in Mexico and the continuing growth of the CanadAmigos Social Networking site where I have direct contact with a large number of people is that Canada is still a desirable destination for Mexicans, albeit a more expensive one. One of the byproducts of the visa imposition to Mexicans is that their travel to Canada went up in cost anywhere from 5% to 10% or more (short term visits like a long weekend escape may not be worth their while now). This has to do with the cost of obtaining a tourist visa (temporary resident). A single entry visa costs CAD $75 per person (multiple entry visas cost $150 per person). If a couple buys a package that cost them $1,100 per person before the visa, they now have to pay 6.8% more for the same package (not counting any courier costs, etc.) While many people were able to switch dates for their trips to Canada the first week after the imposition (July 15th), I know that many changed their plans and chose to go to the States instead. At the present time, Canada has become less competitive in Mexico vis a vis the US and other destinations like Spain and South America.

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Jaime

A unique piece of Canadiana. Call for Sponsorship. Voyageur, the Six String Nation Guitar.

I'm a big fan of all things Canadian, including Canadian music and Canadian artists. Recently, while attending a concert where my daughter performed I came across Voyageur. When I learned about Voyageur I couldn't believe I had not heard from it before. Voyageur is a guitar. It was given this name by Lt. Col. Susan Beharriel who attended the ceremony launching the 2008 Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg-St. Boniface. Voyageur was Jowi Taylor's idea. Jowi is an award winning writer and broadcaster who was inspired by the looming Quebec Referendum in 1995. The guitar is made out of wood from every part of Canada. Some pieces have significant cultural and historical value for Canadians. For example, there is a piece from a hockey stick used by Paul Henderson at the famous game against the Soviet Union (september 1972); a piece from former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle; and a piece of shelving from the office sideboard of Sir John A. Maconald, the first Prime Minister of Canada.

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Since 2006, Voyageur has travelled all over Canada and has been played by hundreds (if not thousands) of Canadians including stars and amateurs, most recently at the Canadian Voices Festival at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Jowi Taylor lent the guitar to the SongStudio songwriting workshop student showcase and allowed the students and faculty to play it. Here's a video of my daughter playing Voyageur and singing one of her songs:

Coincidentally, there is a Six String Nation Festival in Italy called "Un Paese de Sei Corde." Organizers of that festival learned about the Canadian Six String Nation and Voyageur. They have invited Jowi Taylor and his crew to take Voyageur to Italy and participate in the Festival. However, the Six String Nation organization has limited funds and they need to raise money for travel expenses. I think this is an excellent opportunity for Canadian tourism destinations or businesses to get some good visibility in Italy and to support a very worthy Canadian cultural initiative. Last year Canada received 106,000 visitors from Italy. I'm sure we can attract a lot more.

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The Federal Government recently cut a program to support travelling Canadian artists so organizations like Six String Nation need our support. In my opinion, it is these kinds of Canadian artistic projects that create conversational capital for Canada as a tourism destination. People may know about our mountains, lakes and wildlife. Many others may now be aware about our fantastic cities. But how many people know that Canadians not only love music, but that we are indeed a Six String Nation? Please visit the Six String Nation website and support Jowi and his crew with whatever you can. If you are interested in sponsoring the trip to Italy let me know and I can put you directly in touch with Jowi.
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Visit the Six String Nation website to learn more about Voyageur and how it helps bring Canadians together to celebrate the country through music.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

the Canada en Español Network

Via back on track. Toronto civil workers reach an agreement

Via Rail's management and union understanding the impact of a strike in the middle of the summer agreed to go to binding arbitration and resumed serviced yesterday.

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On other good news, The Toronto Star reports that Toronto's civil and outside workers, reached a deal with the city this morning ending the 35 day old strike that turned Toronto the Good into Toronto the stinky.

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Jaime

Via Rail goes on strike, because of course, Canadian Tourism does not need more challenges.

I am somewhat beside myself when it comes to what I do for a living day in and day out, which is to promote Canada to foreign visitors from more than twenty Spanish speaking countries. Is it time to throw in the towel and put all my faith in the Lottery Corporation? How much can the canadian tourism industry take? Worst recession in decades in the United States, a Global economic slowdown, a high dollar and all it implies, the H1N1 fear and its impact on travel, Toronto civil workers on strike for over a month making many parts of Toronto veritable cesspools, weatherwise - one of the worst Julys on record in many parts of Canada, and earlier today Via Rail engineers went on strike (Via cancelled all services as of July 24)...I'm sorry, but I think at this time is appropriate to say !&#\*/!#:$~}{!#♪

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Jaime Horwitz

Was it the H1N1 (Swine) Flu? One of the worst Mays ever for Canadian Tourism.

One can only hope that the summer will bring good news to the Canadian Tourism industry, although so far hope is not enough. In the midst of the busiest month for canadian tourism, the Government of Canada imposed visa restrictions on Mexico putting a damper on what looked like a good month. Statistics Canada just published its International Travel: Advance Information Bulletin for the month of May, 2009. Before, I go to the numbers, let's remember that May was the worst month for the H1N1 Flu issue, which may very well have affected travel world wide. It certainly hit inbound numbers from Mexico as Mexicans who might have wanted to visit Canada that month decided to stay home, lest they found themselves quarantined in a foreign country.

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May 2009 will go down as one of the worst months for the canadian tourism industry in recent memory. All markets were down compared to May 2008, with very few exceptions. On a positive note United States inbound was down only 1.5% (although it is important to mention that air travel from the US to Canada was down a whopping 15%, while overnight automobile was up 2.6% and trains, boats and other modes was up 9.2% - what this may mean is higher yield American tourists are staying away). For the period between Jan and May 2009 US inbound was only down by 2.8%.

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Travel from Europe to Canada was down 15.9% in May and down 10.6% for the period Jan-May.

Travel from Asia to Canada was down 24% in May and down 11.8% for the period Jan-May.

Travel from North, Central America and Caribbean - down 21.9% in May and -8.9% Jan-May.

Travel from South America to Canada was down 13.9% in May and negative 4.5% Jan-May.

Travel from Oceania and other islands to Canada - down 20.2% in May; down 11.9% Jan-May.

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Overall overseas inbound tourism to Canada for the period Jan to May 2009 was down 10.5%

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Let's hope that domestic tourism helps the industry this summer. Let's hope that the LocalsKnow campaign is generating great results.

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Jaime Horwitz

Tourism problem notwithstanding imposing visas to Mexicans was the right thing to do

I hope not and I will do everything I can to avoid it, but Canada's imposing visa restrictions on Mexico could possibly sink my business. However, the measure did not take completely by surprise. I knew it was coming when I learned months ago that Mexicans took over the #1 spot as refugee claimants. And this was when claims were in the 5,000 range. Now there are over 9,000 in the pipeline. I even wrote a note in my recent email newsletter warning my Mexican readers that this visa requirement was likely to happen in the next several months. What I did not expect was for it to happen in the summer. The government should have done this back in January, one of the slowest months for Mexican tourism to Canada. That way we would all have had time to adjust and travellers could have had the time to apply for visas.
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Having said this, I do think the goverment did the right thing. While sadly many Mexicans are in dire straits and some may very well qualify for refugee status, the truth is the majoriy of the claims are bogus and just bogs down the system and it costs us taxpayers a lot of money.
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So let's be positive and rededicate ourselves to good marketing. Let's not forget that more than six million Mexicans have multiple year, multiple entry visas to enter the United States so applying for visas is not new to them. The immediate challenge however will be for the Canadian Embassy in Mexico to deal with thousands and thousands of visitors visas in the next week or so. The way this is handled may help or hinder Canada's image and could turn people off to Canada. However, overtime we'll recover. And while the numbers will drop dramatically in the short term, there's no reason why we can't get back to the 1/4. Million visitors from Mexico in one to three years provided we do the right creative marketing. And there's another plus. Mexican tourists in the future should higher yield, higher spend visitors. I just hope my business can get over this immediate crisis.
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Happy travels,
Jaime Horwitz
www.canadaenespanol.ca

Canada imposes Visas on Mexico. Another blow to Canadian Tourism.

While I cannot blame the Government of Canada for imposing visa restrictions on Mexico due to the excessive number of refugee claims, I am very upset and disappointed for the timing of the measure. We are in the midst of a bad recession and tourism businesses need all the tourists we can get. We normally see about sixty thousand Mexican visitors in July and August and this measure, if it's effective immediately may strike a fatal blow to tourism businesses that depend in large measure on Mexican tourists (eg receptive tour operators). I know my business, which was already struggling will get hit very hard.
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Jaime Horwitz


-- Post From My iPhone

Female Ski Jumpers' "Exclusion from 2010 is Discriminatory."

Two days ago I was reading the updates on my Facebook homepage when I noticed the following quote: "we lost :-(". I knew right away what the quote referred to: the British Columbia Supreme Court had ruled against the Female Ski Jumpers (capital letters on purpose) lawsuit to participate in the 2010 games (lower case on purpose). The quote was from my Facebook "friend" Katie Willis, one of the Ski Jumpers who valiantly and bravely fought for the right to compete in the Olympics. I won't presume to say that we're friends friends. We all know that being a Facebook "friend" is not like being a real friend. Not to mention that in real life we might think it odd (or worse) that an 18 year old woman and an 49 year old man can be friends. We connected on Facebook when I joined a Facebook group to support the Female Ski Jumpers bid to compete at the Vancouver Whistler Olympics. When I first read about the issue, I obviously sided with the young women and my opinion of the IOC reached its all time low. Mind you, I am not referring here to the Olympic movement nor to the Olympic ideals, which I believe include fairness and justice. What I am talking about is the IOC. Now that the BC Supreme Court has made its decision, it corroborates my own opinion and that of the thousands of people who have supported and will continue to support these brave young women, some almost as young as my own daughter who is 15 and with her own Olympic size dreams (albeit in music rather than sport). And my opinion was and is that no matter what spin the IOC gives it, their decision not to include the Female Ski Jumpers in the 2010 games is discriminatory. According to the Globe and Mail (Sat July 11) "Madam Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon ruled that the women ski jumpers were indeed discriminated against by the International Olympic Committee's decision to keep them off the 2010 Olympic calendar, but added that the Switzerland based IOC was beyond the reach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
While I am very happy with Judge Fenlon's ruling in terms of the finding of discrimination, I don't agree about the IOC being beyond the reach of the Charter. If say, my daughter offered our home for a big party and some rich kids form Switzerland were invited, the fact that they were prestigious guests would not give them permission to break the rules of our house or break the laws of the land. More likely what happens is that the Olympic games mean so much money and effort that some principles are bent or ignored. I am a tourism marketer and I support the industry's efforts to profit from the games coming to Canada. I'm not a righteous holier than though person, not perfect by any stretch. I understand that in life it's necessary to make compromises. But in this case I believe I had to speak out. I owe it to my own daughter to try and walk the talk so that she can believe as another one of the jumpers, Meaghan Reid, told the Globe and Mail: "This is Canada. I've grown up here all my life, and nothing has ever stopped me because I was a girl."
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To Meaghan, Katie and all the other jumpers: I know it must feel awful. I know you must feel like your country let you down. We don' live in a perfect world and life isn't fair, but believe me when I say that you have made history and that because of your passion and your bravery you have advanced the cause of gender equality further. I thank you and I salute you. I am happy to have met you albeit via Facebook, but I can tell you that I'd be very proud if any of you were my daughter.
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Jaime Horwitz

-- Post From My iPhone

Forbes 10 best Travel Campaigns

Forbes.com has published a list of what they consider the 10 best Travel campaigns (not necessarily new). Canada's current Locals Know campaign came in at number 8. Congratulations to the CTC and Canadians who are uploading their favourite spots to the LocalsKnow.ca website. Here's the list:

1 - Las Vegas "What Happens here, stays here" (since 2003)
2 - Incredible India (2009)
3 - New Zeland - 100% Pure (since 1999)
4 - Australia - Paul Hogan's ads (1984-1990)
5 - Jamaica - "Once you go, you know" (since 2004)
6 - Pure Michigan - since 2006
7 - Alaska - "B4UDIE" 2005
8 - Canada - Locals Know 2009
9 - Oregon "150 Challenge" 2009
10 - Virginia - "Virgina is for Lovers" since 1969

Read the story Travel Campaigns Aim To Get People To Hit The Road in Forbes.com

Happy travelling.

Jaime

Happy Canada Day - Joyeuse Fête du Canada

Today is Canada Day. It's the second Canada Day I miss since I moved to Canada twenty years ago. But you can take me out of Canada, but you cannot take Canada out of me. I'm in Boston where my daughter is taking a performance workshop. Happy Canada Day everyone! Joyeuse Fête du Canada! Joyeux 142 anniversaire :D

Jaime Horwitz (and Maddy Rodriguez)

Canada Day Events and Festivals

For a list of Canada Day celebrations with links to events, and festivals, provinces and major cities. See Canada Travel News. Links to Canadian events, summer time activities, beaches and more. Book Canada Hotels on-line.

From TIAC and Transport Canada - changes will allow more flights from Mexico

"Canada's Government Designates More Canadian Carriers to Serve Mexico Canada's Transport Minister, John Baird, announced June 25 changes to air designation allocations for scheduled Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet and Sunwing air services between Canada and Mexico, which will benefit travellers and our country's tourism industry.

"This is excellent news for our tourism industry. Mexico is a growing market for Canada," said Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism. "There will now be more routes to take visitors to the spectacular destinations and attractions our country has to offer."
"Increased air access to Canada for the growing Mexico market is an important development that is a good step in meeting the tourism industries needs," said Randy Williams, President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada."

For the full release visit Tiac.Travel's TIAC Talk June 26

Municipal workers on Strike in Toronto

The Labour Movement that arose from the Industrial Revolution and grew slowly and strongly during the first half of the 20th Century was a just cause, a noble endeavour. The Labour Movement in many countries helped most workers, not just unions. It fostered labour laws that protect all and influenced how all workers might be treated. But, as an observer, who is neither a member of the management elites, nor a member of the union elites, I think modern unions have lost touch with reality and with the times, especially these tough economic days. Unions, over the years, have become spoiled and seem to have a sense of entitlement out of place in today's world. In recent times we've seen how greed almost made the world's economy collapse. Those responsible may never really be accountable, and that's a lesson for the future.

Unions fight for their members and that's fine. But they should be mindful who suffers as a consequence of their actions. We are in the midst of one of the worse recessions in recent times. Those of us who have work, seem to be working more and harder for less income and without any significant benefits. Our taxes, in the end pay for the salaries of those who demand more and more benefits than the average among us can only dream of having. The timing of this strike may backfire on the unions. Many hardworking taxpayers look forward to enjoying as much of the summer as possible, utilizing the services that they fund with their taxes, and breathing air free of the stench of garbage. Of all years, it's a shame that unions and management could not reach an understanding to avoid this strike in this particular one. Not too mention how this strike could affect tourism in Toronto. Just as Americans are now looking at managing the risks of having companies that are too big, we should look at how to deal with unions that are too big as well.

I hope it's over in a couple of days. Anything longer and a "pox on both their houses."


-- Post From My iPhone

Gananoque, Ontario

beautiful, isn't it (read post below).

Jaime

Visiting Gananoque, the Gateway to the Thousand Islands

I am in Gananoque for a brief two day visit. I was invited by Kathy from Gananoque Boatline to spend some time here, attend a special event she organizes every year to show appreciation to partners and collaborators. It's been a very interesting visit where I've learned about some of the challenges the area faces as well as some of the opportunities Gananoque has to further develop their destination. I was surprised to learn that that no one in the area seems to have participated in the localsknow CTC campaign. One of the challenges, it seems, has been the timing which is understandable given the fact that the campaign has been put together in virtually no time so it may be that many inthe industry will not benefit directly from it. Today I played some golf with another visitor, a former Gananoque Boatline Captain, now town councillor, and the mayor. It was a lot of fun, but also very productive in terms of learning more about this beautiful part of the country. I hope to be able to work with tourism stakeholders to promote Gananoque as an overnight spot for Hispanic independent travellers in the future. Many Hispanic visitors stop here (or in Kingston) to take tours of the Thousand Islands, but they don't spend more time in the town. I think there is an opportunity to engage Hispanic travellers to Ontario and Quebec to stay longer by educating them in what they can do here in a 24 hour period.

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I am staying at the Gananoque Inn where Lori and her staff have been wonderful. I knew about the Gananoque Inn, but I have only been in Gananoque once before and only to take the cruise of the Thousand Islands. Lori and I had some good conversations and I am glad that she's interested in Hispanic tourists. The Gananoque Inn is ideal for a segment of the Hispanic travelling public that travels independently and wants to see and experience authentic Canadian experiences (small families, couples, honeymooners). What we must do is communicate effectively to educate the market (not just Hispanic markets) as to what there is to do here. One way is to show them not just tell them, and by show I mean video, not just pictures. The Gananoque Inn is also an excellent option for small meetings (sales retreats, incentive meetings, board meetings). Hope to come back soon.

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Tonight I'll go on a Gananoque Boatline Drinks and Entertainment Cruise. Hope the weather cooperates as it did this morning when I played golf.

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Jaime Horwitz

CTC launches LocalsKnow.ca and SecretDici.ca to help Canadians promote our country

The Canadian Tourism Commission has launched LocalsKnow.ca and SecretDici.ca asking Canadians to upload pictures of their favourite spots (because locals know where the best spots are, of course), that perhaps are not as well known as iconic Canadian attractions . The sites look very good with Canada Brand colours and layout and the pictures are quite good, for the most part (the CTC approves the photos before they're posted). Being very new, there aren't many spots up yet. As of this writing the English site had a bit less than 80 spots and the French version only 15 (all CTC uploads), but I think once the public gets a hold of it, it should be a hit. But it's not all roses. There are some issues with the site that a little tweaking can fix. You have to register to be able to upload photos, but once you register, there's no "sign in" link on the site. When you go to upload a new spot, then you sign in (or register, if you're new to the site). For every spot you upload, you get an entry to a contest to win one million Aeroplan miles - that's a lot of flying. But again, every time you upload a photo you have to re-enter your name and Aeroplan number. Not a big deal, but it'd be better if you only had to do it once. And finally, you can't seem to go back to your spots if you want to edit something. I was uploading one and before I could finish the description, I don't know what key I must have pressed in haste, but I think the photo was submitted (again, because I don't have an account like setup I can't go over the photos I uploaded - maybe this will be a future iteration of the site - to turn it into a full social media website a la Concierge.com)

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If you live in Canada, go to the site of your choice, LocalsKnow.ca or SecretDici.ca and show us your favourite spot.

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Jaime

A worthy cause and a fun afternoon F.A.M.E's Simply Divas in Toronto

On Sunday, May 31, the fourth annual 'simplydivas' concert will roll out the red carpet at the Berkeley Church to support the Family Association for Mental Health Everywhere (F.A.M.E.) and raise funds to help families across the GTA cope with mental illness. The afternoon charity concert will showcase some of the most talented up-and-coming songstresses from the best high-school of the arts in the GTA. They will transform into musical divas from past and present, including Madonna, P!nk, Dusty Springfield, Loretta Lynn, k.d. lang, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey and Janet Jackson. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Juno Award nominated guitarist, Paul O'Donnell and pianist, Donovan LaNabat, who has most recently been tinkling the ivories in the hit show, Jersey Boys.

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To my fellow tourism industry colleagues: As some of you know, my daughter, Maddy, is a budding performer, singer songwriter (you might have heard her rendition of O Canada at the Canada-e-Connect conference last January). She will be performing at Simply Divas playing the biggest of them all: "Madonna." Come see her if you can. In the picture above, Maddy and Juul Haalmayer , costumer extraordinaire (decades dressing stars in Film and TV, worked for years dressing the actors on SCTV).

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A silent auction will feature everything from cashmere robes to Coach handbags, exquisite diva bling to a shirt signed by 2008 Project Runway Canada winner, Evan Biddell. A week stay in a condo at Hilton Head, South Carolina, also up for auction, is guaranteed to tickle every diva's fancy. No matter what your budget - big or small - this event will have something for everyone! Swag bags are an additional treat for Mom and will be packed with goodies. Diva Chef, Jenna Wilson of Jennaliscious Catering will be pulling out all the stops; with hors d'oeuvres and canapés named 'Diva's Got Smokin' Soul' and 'My Pleasure, My Choice,' it is sure to be a culinary extravaganza.

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Not to be outdone, Anna Mae Crespo, the Diva Queen of Sweets, will be whipping up some 'Forbidden Fruit' mousse and 'Little Black Corset' cake. The ever-popular signature cocktails, Divatinis, will make their return appearance and this year Mixologist, Crys Martin (aka Diva Von Teese)will introduce a brand new blueberry-inspired martini, 'Lady Sings the Blues'. Didn't have plans for this Sunday? You live in the GTA? You will be pleasantly surprised and will have a lot of fun at this event, all while feeling good about helping families in your community tackle the challenges of mental illness.

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For further information and/or to get tickets: about 'simply divas.' please contact Jessica Sine,(647) 400-9661, jessicassine@gmail.com If it's sold out, bookmark the Simply Divas website and plan to attend next year's event.
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For more information about F.A.M.E. please contact Michelle Bake, Director of Marketing and Community Development,(416) 207-5032 ext. 25, michelleb@fameforfamilies.com

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regards,
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
President, Chief Executive Amigo

Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

The Canadá en Español Network

Back to basics. Meet (or exceed) your customers/guests expectations.

A cool website can be a great marketing tool, but it can also create expectations. And marketers must make sure that those expectations are met (or exceeded). A recent travel experience reminded me of how important it is for businesses (tourism or otherwise) to manage customers' expectations. Last weekend I spent three days in beautiful Huron County in Western Ontario. My wife found the place where we stayed on the Web, but I had seen advertisements of Benmiller Inn before. The Benmiller Inn website indicates that the inn has been awarded a Four Diamond Award and that it belongs to Ontario's Finest Inns. The site and its content creates expectations in the mind of the consumer, and so it did in our minds. But when we got to our room the expectatons were not met. And our $200 dinner at the Inn's restaurant was a disappointment (except for the Carpaccio). My point here is not to criticize the Benmiller Inn, but rather to bring up the issue of creating and managing expectations. I must say here, that the Benmiller Inn was responsive to our comments. Kathy, at the front desk was very understanding in listening to our observations and conveyed them to the Innkeeper. The next day she came and found us and told us that they wanted to upgrade us to a larger room, which we accepted. The room was much better and looked more like the rooms pictured on the website.

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In the past, when customers' expectations were not met by a business (or product or brand), people had very few, if any, avenues to express their disappointment or complaints. But today, as most of us know now, people can Twitter, blog, write on their Facebook wall or their friend's walls. They can write reviews on Tripadvisor and many other sites. Today a complaint can go viral and it can definitely affect the bottom line. So don't forget the basics. Your website should NOT be better than your core offering (in this case the Inn itself). Don't over promise because you will generate expectations you won't meet.

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The Benmiller Inn is a very good Inn in the very small town of Benmiller, Ontario. Some people may not like that it's right next to the road, but once you are in the Inn proper this should not be an issue. The few staff we encountered were very friendly and attentive (except our dinner waitress who seemed somewhat aloof). The first room we stayed at was fine but the air conditioning was not working and it was a bit run down - it did not look the rooms pictured in the website. The second room/suite they upgraded us to was excellent, though we did not spend much time in it. The elegant restaurant has a cozy atmosphere. When we had dinner on a Thursday evening there weren't many customers there (maybe two other tables), but we were looking forward to the meal. Our expectations were high based on the Inn's website. We were not expecting La Pinsonnière, but we were expecting a very good high-end meal. We did not have it. The first steak I ordered was overcooked, my wife's scallops were dry and our daughter's cornish hen was just OK (according to her, I did not try it). We only had two glasses of wine total and the bill came to $200 plus gratuity. Not a very expensive meal (La Pinsonnière can easily be double that), but not inexpensive either. The issue was not the money, but the expectations. The next day we had lunch at the Corner Cafe in Blyth, a local diner in that charming Ontario town. Being a diner kind of place The sandwiches were great and the fries excellent our expectations were very low (sandwiches cost about $4). But we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch. Our expectations were exceeded. (I had a Denver, my wife had a Club and our daughter had chicken). So given, these two experiences, we have decided that next time we're in the area, we'll eat at the Corner Cafe and not at the Inn.

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In conclusion, with all the talk about digital marketing and edistribution, Twitter, blogging, Social Media, Mobile marketing, etc., etc., we may forget that the first order of business is to remember what our core offering is and to deliver accordingly. What is the core competency of the business? What is the business', brand's promise? Get back to basics and be mindful of what kind of expectations you are creating in the mind of your prospective guests/customers.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA