RIP Canada-e-Connect

I had the privilege of serving our Canadian Tourism Industry as a volunteer Chair of the national Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference in 2009 and 2010. I also served in the advisory committee of CeC 2011, superbly chaired by Emmanuelle Legault and Joel Peters.  After every conference we used to have a post-conference meeting to go over what worked and what needed more work and to begin thinking about the following year's conference. Canada-e-Connect was started by the brilliant Jens Thraenhart, former Director of eMarketing for the Canadian Toursim Commission. Jens had a dream to start a world class eTourism event in Canada. And he achieved that dream in November 2007. After Jens moved on to pursue other interests (doing great work in China for many destinations around the world, including Canada, via Dragon Trail), the Tourism Industry Association of Canada took over the conference. While I haven't seen any official announcement (and maybe I missed it),  it is very unfortunate that TIAC has quietly killed the conference without, as much as I know, any industry consultations. On the one hand, I can understand why. TIAC is a lobbying organization, the voice of the industry in Ottawa. TIAC also manages the National Tourism Conference and Rendez-vous Canada, so adding another conference was a stretch and I know it was a lot of work for TIAC's fantastic staff.  So I can understand why TIAC is not doing CeC anymore. But, I wish there had been consultations and perhaps a call for other organizations to take over the conference.  But who knows, perhaps it will come back with another name and a more ambitious agenda (maybe I should look into it - perhaps my friends at Tnooz and Comptoirs du eTourisme will be interested in collaborating in an international eTourism Strategy event within a Canadian context). Many people have confused eTourism Marketing with eTourism Strategy. Any marketing, digital or not, must be grounded in sound strategy. CeC's purpose was to focus on this strategy, to help the industry think strategically. I was not about social media or Facebook or mobile, it was about how to strategize in the new digital era - how to use (or not use) the new tools, channels, technologies, etc., of the digital era to pursue your strategy in order to achieve your organizational's objectives. RIP Canada-e-Connect.

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #4 Cajun_Mama's video: the Travel Bloggers Forum

Shannon Hurst Lane set up her laptop to Ustream our Canada-e-Connect 2010

Travel Bloggers and Twitterers panel with her, Wendy Perrin and Kim Mance, and myself moderating

Thanks Shannon.

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #3 Twenty interesting things

Some key phrases and thoughts from Canada-e-Connect 2010

1. Conversational Capital - Rituals, initiation, icons, relevant sensory oddity, exclusive product (service, experience) offering, over delivery, tribalism, endorsement, continuity. "the medium is the message" McLuhan "the consumer is the message" Cesvet
2. From Claude Benard of Hotelitour to Hoteliers. (paraphrasing) "Use the OTA's for search. Maximize all your channels of distribution, but most importantly maximize your own direct channel (your chain's or hotel's booking engine and website)
3. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Strategically correct yes, politically correct, no"
4. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Brand matters"
5. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Premature ROI analysis stifles opportunity before it has a chance to develop"
6. From Kim Mance, founder GoGalavanting and the Travel Bloggers Exchange community: "You need to be louder" (after my question about why aren't Americans coming to Canada, what are we doing wrong or not doing?)
7. From Cajun Mama, Shannon Hurst Lane, founder TravelingMamas.com, ShannonLane.com: (paraphrasing) many people market to the coasts (of the US) "they think that's where everybody is and they forget that there is this huge country between those two coasts. (after my question about why aren't Americans coming to Canada, what are we doing wrong or not doing?)
8. From Patrick Payne of Quickmobile: Mobile's 7 P's Presentation, Presence, Proximity, Personalization, Privacy, Payments, Push (also contender for the most tweeted tweet)
9. From Philippe Fabri of Atout France: 100 mini-sites. being specific in promoting destinations
10. From Maria Ziv of VisitSweden: Digital Embassies as opposed to one huge website. Focus on images (everyone has ADD these days)
11. From Jens Thraenhart, DragonTrail.com: (paraphrasing) "China is a huge opportunity...there are more bloggers in China than in the United States"
12. From Philippe Fabri of Atout France: eTourism as cloud
13. From Vicky Brock of Highland Business Research, Scotland: "Strategy without metrics is merely wishes. Metrics without a strategy are meaningless." (perhaps the phrase most tweeted at the conference)
14. From Carroll Rheem of PhoCusWright: The Long Tail of OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) is getting fatter.
15. From Walid Salem, Exec Dir eBusiness, Canadian Tourism Commission: "Take advantage of the millions of dollars in free advertising and PR that the Olympics will provide"
16. From Ken Lambert, VP Sales & Marketing, Delta Hotels and Resorts: "For us, Twitter is more important than Facebook."
17. From Jaime Horwitz, Cactus Rock, Digital Marketer and Strategist, Co-Chair CeC: "It's Tasty" after tasting Poutine with Fois Gras for the first time (at the Restaurant au Pied de Cochon in Montreal)
18. From Jaime Horwitz, Cactus Rock, Digital Marketer and Strategist, Co-Chair CeC: "To increase destination fans be specific: fans of poutine, fans of Grand Prix du Canada, fans of Tamy Emma Pepin (not just fans of Quebec)"
19. From Joe Buhler, BuhlerWorks, PhoCusWright, Marketing in the Smart Web: "data roaming charge is the elephant in the room" (at the Mobile issues and opportunities session)
20. From Wendy Perrin, The Perrin Post, Traveler Magazine: "I love talking to travelers, I love helping them with their travel..."

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Digital Marketer and Strategist

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #2 Twitter

Last year at Canada-e-Connect 2009 in Toronto, I had a conversation with Ted Souder of Google (head of Industry Travel Mid West - named "25 most extraordinary minds in sales and marketing" by HSMAI in 2006). This conversation took place on stage during the luncheon as a keynote presentation. At that time, I asked the audience whether anyone was using Twitter. This was January 2009. Only one or two people in the audience of more than 200 raised their hands. Many hadn't even heard of Twitter (Ted, of course, not only had heard, but was using it already), so I proceeded to do one tweet live from the stage about interviewing Ted Souder of Google at CeC2009.

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12 months is an eternity in digital time. At Canada-e-Connect 2010, pretty much everyone knew about Twitter and the majority of attendees (I think) have Twitter accounts. But not all. In fact, about a dozen people started tweeting for the first time at Canada-e-Connect. The fact that #CEC2010 became a trending topic in Canada during the conference bodes well for Canadian Tourism. It should very much be an example of the kind of exposure and "word-of-mouth-on-steroids," to use PhoCusWright's Philip Wolf's phrase, that social media can provide for an event or a destination. I know that Montreal, CEC2010's host city, is very happy about all the mentions that it too received from hosting the event.

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While Twitter, just as any other element of Social Media or of the marketing mix, is not the end all and be all, I think it is clear that it has become an extremely important tool (if used well) for tourism. What better example to confirm this than Ken Lambert's statement. Ken is VP of Sales and Marketing for Delta Hotels and Resorts, and a great panelist at CEC2010's Hoteliers 2.0 session. Ken said (I'm paraphrasing here) that "Twitter is very important for us and it's growing tremendously. For us Twitter is more important than Facebook."

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Digital Marketer and Strategist

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #1 The Stars

Quickly: Top of Mind. Who were the stars of the Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010 in Montreal? In no particular order:

1. Twitter
2. Maria Ziv VisitSweden.com
3. Kim Mance - GoGalavanting.com
4. Wendy Perrin The Perrin Post Conde Nast Traveller Magazine
5. Shannon Hurst (Cajun Mama) TravelingMamas.com Shannonlane.com
6. Philp Wolfe President CEO PhoCusWright
7. Bertrand Cesvet SidLee.com
8. Vicky Brock Highland Business Research, Scotland
9. Philip Fabry Atout France
10. Emmanuelle Legault Tourisme Montreal

The above are my top of mind, quick-tell-me, stars of #CEC2010. If you attended the conference you might have a different top-of-mind list. Share it in the comments here. Just now, as I write this, I remembered Jens Thraenhart (DragonTrail.com), for example, and his impressive presentation on the eTourism/Online landscape in China.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. A series of musings on #CEC2010

Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010, aka #CEC2010 by its Twitter hash tag, was a resounding success, in my opinion. Of course, you might say I am somewhat biased because I was Co-Chair of the Conference, but I would submit to you that, on the contrary, I would not be biased because I, together with my colleagues on the Advisory Committee, TIAC (Tourism Industry Association of Canada), and my Co-Chair Carmen Ciotola from Tourism Montreal, were the ones sweating every moment hoping everything would go as planned and hoping to exceed the delegates expectations.

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But judging from feedback I personally received during and after the conference, and the approximately 1,000 tweets from Wednesday Jan 27 at 6 pm to Friday Jan 29 at 4 pm (yes I have counted them), which made #CEC2010 one of the top ten Twitter topics in Canada at various times, I am confident that delegates found the conference helpful and stimulating, and that they left Montreal with knowledge that is actionable and that they can apply to their organizations' strategies. Just the act of starting to use Twitter to communicate and network was well received by the several attendees who started to tweet for the first time at CeC2010. CeC's tweets, by the way, reached thousands of Twitter users not only in Canada, but internationally (more on that in an upcoming post)

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Now that the conference is fresh in my mind, and before I get back to the daily challenges of work and family next week, I decided to take some time on this cold (but sunny) Saturday afternoon to write a few posts about the conference and some thoughts about the future. Feel free to share the posts on Facebook or Twitter using the AddThis buttons at the end of each post.

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Jaime Horwitz mBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

Spotlight of eTourism strategic issues - Canada-e-Connect 2010

Strategy is not just about marketing. Since its inception, the Canada-e-Connect conference has focused not only on strategic marketing, but also on other elements of strategy in the eTourism space. The new digital revolution has implications for many areas of your strategic planning.

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Technological and social advances have fundamentally changed the way in which organizations operate, with spinoff operational implications affecting everything from government relations and law, to human resources and labour relations, as well as marketing and public relations. CeC is pleased to present The new relationship between Travellers and the Tourism Industry This panel session with experts from different backgrounds will consider the most pressing issues and address your concerns.

• Meredith A. Hanrahan, Chief Marketing Officer, Cheapflights Ltd.
• Rob Hyndman, Technology Business Lawyer and Founder,Hyndman | Law;
• Mike Kujawski, Marketing & Social Media Strategist, Center of Excellence for Public Sector Marketing
• Stuart Macdonald, Founder CEO, TripHarbour.ca;
• Joseph Thornley, CEO, Thornley Fallis and 76design and Chair, Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms

This session will take place Thurs, Jan 30th at 1:30 pm.

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Spotlight on Kim Mance - Canada-e-Connect 2010 Travel Bloggers

I met Kim virtually when I joined the Travel Bloggers Exchange community, a worldwide community of travel bloggers, journalists, writers and travel professionals who meet annually and which she founded. Kim is a travel writer, editor, and new media broadcast personality based in Chicago, IL. Kim hosts the lively web travel series Galavanting, is editor-in-chief of the online women's travel magazine, GoGalavanting.com, and writes about travel for outlets like MarieClaire's Travel Diaries, Indie Travel Podcast magazine, and The Huffington Post. She is currently writing the first Insiders' Guide to Chicago for Globe Pequot Press.

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I am delighted that Kim will be one of the panelists at this year's Canada-e-Connect 2010 Travel Bloggers (and Twitterers) session which will take place this coming Friday, bright and early (8am) at the Delta Centre Ville.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Spotlight on China Spotlight on Jens Thraenhart - Canada-e-Connect eTourism Conference 2010

Today is Jens Thraenhart's birthday. Happy Birthday Jens.

Jens Thraenhart is a global eTourism visionary and global strategy expert who, in a previous life, was the Canadian Tourism Commission's Executive Director, E-Marketing/ Directeur exécutif, Marketing électronique. Jens also has extensive experience in the hotel space. Since leaving the CTC, where, by the way, he conceived the idea of a Canadian eTourism Strategy Conference which became Canada-e-Connect, Jens went East. Far East. He now lives in Beijing most of the time, where he works as chief strategist for DragonTrail, and in Vancouver (less of the time), where he founded Chameleon Strategies. When he's not in China or Canada, Jens travels all over the world. He's a sought after speaker at various eTourism and Hospitality conferences.

Jens will be a featured keynote speaker at Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010 focusing on the potential of the outbound Chinese tourism market. Having recently been granted Approved Destination Status by the Chinese government (or at the very least opened the door wide open for it after Prime Minister Harper's recent visit to China), the Canadian tourism industry now has a unique opportunity to increase brand awareness and connect with the most lucrative consumer and travel market in the world. With his first-hand knowledge of the online landscape in China, Jens Thraenhart will provide insight into the complexity of this fast-growing tourism marketplace, and show how businesses can approach its 340 million Internet users by leveraging their social media, technology, and marketing strategies.

See you in Montreal,

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference Montreal 2010 27 - 29 January

Spotlight on Claude Benard owner of HoteliTour - panelist Hoteliers 2.0 at Canada-e-Connect 2010

Claude Benard is an eTourism and eTravel expert in France who happens to blog in English. Claude started his career in tourism as a technical sales manager for a tour operator in Marseille (France) and worked with the network of travel agencies in the south of France. He spent 6 years as sales executive at the Envergure / Louvre Hotels group, especially for the 3 stars brand “Bleu Marine." After his work with the Louvre Hotels Group, Claude became the sales and marketing manager for a regional hotel booking engine managed by the Marseille Chamber of Commerce.

Since then he has spent many years as an independant consultant for the hotel and tourism industry with a dedicated focus on french DMO’s, independant hotels, emarketing, Travel 2.0 and travel social media. Claude managed the popular blog Les Explorers for 3 years and started his new blog (in English) www.hotelitour.com in march 2008. Claude is a member of the Tourism T-List, the international community of eTourism bloggers, and very active in the major eTourism and technology conferences like PhoCusWright at ITB (where we met a couple of years ago) and all the eTourism conferences in France. Recently, Claude joined Kevin May's TNOOZ, a digital portal and publication that covers tourism and technology issues and news (based in the UK).

I look forward to Claude's contributions and discussion at the Canada-e-Connect Hoteliers 2.0 panel on Friday, January 29 at 2 pm. This panel will deal with the issues, challenges and opportunities that hoteliers face in the new world of Social Media where digital channels are king and the traveler is in control. His fellow panelists will be Ken Lambert, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Delta Hotels and Dimitri Antonopoulos, Vice-Président, Marketing et Développement Hôtels & Restaurants for Old Montreal Hotels, a small group of high-end boutique hotels. The session will be moderated by Bill Brown, Executive Vice-President, Hotel Association of Greater Montreal.

Canada-e-Connect 2010 is almost full. You have a few days left to register if you want to attend this year's edition of the premier eTourism Strategy Conference in Canada. Go to www.canadaeconnect.com and register.

A bientôt,

Jaime Horwitz Rodriguez MBA

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Spotlight on Joe Buhler, panelist Mobile and Mobile Challenges, Canada-e-Connect 2010

Joe Buhler, Senior Destination and Social Media Marketing Analyst, PhoCusWright, has seen it all (well not all, but almost all) in the travel business. With wide-ranging global experience in destination marketing, the airline industry, retail travel and wholesale tour operations, Joe Buhler advises organizations on how the latest web developments impact customer interaction and travel marketing. Prior to joining PhoCusWright, Joe was Executive Vice-President, Business Development and Strategic Alliances of EuroVacations.com, and also worked for Switzerland Tourism, where he managed the development and realization of the award-winning myswitzerland.com. Joe is also an avid industry blogger and member of the T-List with his blog Marketing on the Smart Web.

Joe will bring his significant experience and vast knowledge of eTourism to the Canada-e-Connect 2010 panel on Mobile and Mobile Challenges. In the past couple of years we have all witness the revolution on mobile communications that is taking place around the world. As recently, as yesterday, January 12, an article in the Globe and Mail indicated that "Consumers are shifting away from land-line phones to wireless, with 28 per cent wanting smart phones and 19 percent a Qwerty keyboard...new research suggests the next six months will see 55 per cent of Canadians buying a new handset, likely a smart phone."

Moreover, the explosion of smart phone apps (ie iPhone), including thousands of travel related ones, has big implications for travel marketing and travel product distribution, from hotel rooms to activities to events.

While you don't necessarily have to develop a mobile app yourself, you should make sure that consumers can find information about your destination through your mobile device. The behemoth Google has entered the fray with its Nexus One device anticipating that the mobile device will be the computer of the future. Apple's tablet is generating enormous buzz in technology circles with some pundits saying it'll make the iPhone look like a toy.

Whatever the future holds in mobile technology, one thing is certain: tourism organizations and businesses must at the very least understand how mobile technology works, how consumers and travelers are currently using it and how they may want to use it in the future.

The Mobile and Mobile challenges session at Canada-e-Connect will take place Friday, January 29 at 2 pm. Time is ticking and the conference is filling up. If you plan to attend, register now before it's sold out. www.canadaeconnect.com

See you in Montreal,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Spotlight on Philip Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright - Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010

It would be very hard to say which presentation at Canada-e-Connect 2010 will be the most important to attend. One would think that it depends on the nature of your business or your role within the Canadian tourism industry. I also believe, based on past experience, that delegates to the conference will want to attend every session because the program is full of interesting, stimulating, and most of all, informative content. But, having said that I believe that one of the most important presentations to not miss at CeC 2010 will be Philip Wolf's. Philip Wolf is the president and CEO of PhoCusWright, the leading eTravel and eTourism research organization in the world that also happens to produce the most important travel and technology conference on the planet, the PhoCusWright Conference. Philip has been at the leading edge of innovation since the beginning of the online travel revolution.

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I have met Philip on two occasions in the past when I have participated in the PhocusWright Bloggers Summit as a member of the T-List - once in Berlin for PhoCusWright at ITB and once in Hollywood for the PhoCusWright Conference. I have seen Philip in action as a speaker and I can assure you that his presentation will be nothing short of fantastic. During his keynote address at Canada-e-Connect, Philip will share his outlook for the future of our industry. Find out what trends, technologies and paradigm shifts will change the face of travel in 2010. Whether your tourism business or destination is small or large, you will learn something of interest to your organization during Philip's presentation. Don't miss CeC 2010. Register before it's sold out.

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Canada-e-Connect 2010 marks the first collaboration between The Tourism Industry Association of Canada and PhoCusWright, a partnership that demonstrates both organizations' commitment to helping the Canadian Tourism Industry become more competitive in the fiercely competitive eTourism space.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

TIAC

PhoCusWright

Canada-e-Connect

Spotlight on Maria Ziv and Emmanuelle Legault - Canada-e-Connect 2010

Maria Ziv and Emmanuelle Legault are two of the foremost experts in the new digital marketing space. Or as experts as one can be with such a dynamic and revolutionary medium. Perhaps we can call them Digital Media practitioners and strategists. Maria is the Marketing Communications Director at VisitSweden and one of the people responsible for the fantastic and award winning social networking site CommunityofSweden (or CoS as some of us members call it). Community of Sweden is one of the most successful destination related social media websites.

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Emmanuelle is the Director of Communications at Tourisme Montreal and one of the main architects of Tourisme Montreal's Digital Strategy. Under her leadership the digital marketing team at Tourisme Montreal embarked on a bold assignment by shifting their entire budget online, 100%. Emmanuelle announced this initiative at last year's Canada-e-Connect conference in Toronto generating a lot of buzz in the eTourism blogosphere. The results for this bold move have been very positive, increasing bookings for Montreal's Sweet Deal packages by 51% and generating countless mentions, blogposts, comments and other social media goodies. Read more about this here: Tourisme Montréal: the shift to 100% Web-based advertising yields positive results.

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Maria Ziv and Emmanuelle Legault will present and discuss their respective e-tourism strategies at Canada-e-Connect 2010 in Montreal on January 28. Maria and Emmanuelle will engage in an interactive discussion over what tools and techniques have and haven't worked for their destination. It should be a not-to-be-missed session.

Register before it's sold out at www.canadaeconnect.com

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Jaime Horwitz

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Presented by TIAC in collaboration with PhoCusWright

Spotlight on Bertrand Cesvet and Conversational Capital - Canada-e-Connect 2010

Bertrand Cesvet is brilliant. Yes, a brilliant communicator and AdMan, Cesvet is the chairman and chief strategist of award winning agency Sid Lee. The AdMan term in this day and age is not quite appropriate. The advertising business has been turned on its head by the advent of social media and the power of the consumer. Cesvet understands this better than many in the advertising and communications business. His book Conversational Capital, co-written with Tony Babinki and Eric Alper is a case in point. Cesvet understands that today conversations have more power than ever. We've always known that positive word-of-mouth is the most powerful advertising any product can have. The difference today is that this word-of-mouth can now spread virally to thousands of people (and in some cases hundreds of thousands) very quickly in social media. Enter Conversational Capital. At its simplest, I understand Conversational Capital as the value of the conversations generated by a product, service, artist, or in the case of tourism, a destination or an experience. The hard part is how to create this Conversational Capital. It's very hard. But not impossible. And, contrary to what some people may think in regards to social media, creating word of mouth does not only happen through happy accidents (Banff Squirrel, Knut the Polar Bear), but through careful planning, flexibility (you must be ready to act at a moment's notice) and lots of creativity (Dove). And it may not be inexpensive as some people think when it comes to social media.

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The challenge for tourism marketers is to translate the lessons of the book into action. Tourism is very different than most other products, especially those that are known by their brands. One of the reasons for this is that the relationship with tourism product is normally very fleeting, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. Not much repeat business -except perhaps for tourism products in certain categories, like skiing and beach getaways and business trips that take a traveler to the same city over and over again. While, I don't have hard data, I tend to believe that most vacationers want to go to many places around the world, but will not necessarily go back again and again, given the myriad destinations available. Thus the relationship with a destination is not the same as with other products like a car, a smart phone, an artist who has a new movie or a new album out every so often. Once, you've been to Paris you may want to go to Rome next time.

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So how can you work with the 10 engines of Conversational Capital - Rituals, Initiation, Exclusive Product Offering, Over-Delivery, Myths, Relevant Sensory Oddity, Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement and Continuity - to attract tourists to your destination or attraction? This is the key question, one, that I'm sure Bertrand will address during his keynote presentation at Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010 next January in Montreal. Try not to miss it. Register at www.canadaeconnect.com .

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Jaime Horwitz

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

A TIAC conference in cooperation with PhoCusWright

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

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

¿Online Revealed Canada or Canada-e-Connect?

I spent the last day and a half in Niagara Falls attending Online Revealed Canada (Thank you Alicia and Patricia for the invite). It's my first time at Online Revealed and I thought it was important for me to come in order to see and experience the conference vis a vis Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference. The reason being that there may be some confusion in the marketplace as to the difference between the two conferences. While the terminology of some of the sessions is similar ORC focuses more on an educational approach, a workshop format, whereas Canada e Connect focuses more on strategic presentations trying to cover all topics related to new media and eTourism. While Online Revealed Canada focuses on eMarketing, Canada-e-Connect focuses on all areas of strategy that are or can be touched, influenced, affected by digital technology (the new standard gauge to use Dr. Ian Fenwick's analogy), i.e. Marketing, Distribution, Human Resources, Systems, Structure, etc. One of CeC's objectives is also to present to the attendees the latest trends in eTourism technology and strategy from anywhere in the world in order to provide a framework for the industry to ascertain where we are compared to the rest of the world, to our competitors.

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It is my hope that both ORC and CeC can collaborate with each other in some way in the future because it can only benefit the Canadian Tourism Industry as a whole. The industry employs over 600,000 people. ORC and CeC together have only reached about 1200 people (perhaps). If we count those who have attended more than once, these events might have reached 1000 members of the Canadian tourism industry. Even if we considered the audience for any of these events to be only canadian tourism professionals in managerial or marketing positions it is clear that we have a long way to go to reach everyone in our potential audiences.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

http://www.canadaeconnect.com/

Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010 in Montréal

There will be official announcements soon, but if you read this blog you will be one of the first to know that the Tourism Industry Association of Canada has selected the cosmopolitan, international, romantic and exciting city of Montréal to host Canada-e-Connect 2010. I am very honoured that the Advisory Committee has re-elected me to continue as Chair of the conference, but we have all determined that it will make the event even better if we also have a Co-Chair from the host city.

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So it gives me great pleasure to inform you that Carmen Ciotola, Carmen Ciotola, Vice-President, Communications-Marketing, Tourisme Montréal will be my Co-Chair for CeC 2010. In her 15 years with Tourisme Montreal, Carmen Ciotola has led numerous multimedia campaigns for the Canadian, American, European and Asian markets. She also negotiates strategic business partnerships, defines orientations for technological development and oversees the return on capital investment. Carmen’s leadership is characterized by an uncompromising focus on satisfying customer needs and expectations. She was awarded the prestigious Marketing Personality of the Year award for 2005 from the Marketing Association of Montreal.

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Dates for Canada-e-Connect as well as details of the program will be announced later in the year. Stay tuned.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

President

Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.