Comptoirs du eTourisme Marseille Travel Massive - DMOs, Bloggers and Digital Marketers working together.

Last week I participated in Marseille's #Travelmassive organized by my friend @claudebenard of Hotelitur. It was a fun and interactive chat among Keith Jenkins, blogger extraordinaire of VelvetEscape fame, the sweet and brilliant Fabienne Wintle of Untanglemyweb and myself. We connected to the event via Group Skype, and even thought we had a couple of technical glitches, we did have a great time. Our task was to address the question of how can digital marketers, travel bloggers, hoteliers and destination management organizations (DMOs) best work together? Not an easy topic to summarize because there are many variations on the theme. For example we talked about the different types of travel bloggers and their different objectives. A professional blogger working for a large organization (like Conde Nast, for example) would not have the same objectives that a blogger who does note depend on his or her blog to generate revenue. We commented as well on the different projects a digital marketer might encounter. Fabienne, for example specializes in assisting, training, educating and helping small tourism businesses in Australia on the various topics related to digital and social media marketing. Her challenges are very different than those a digital marketer/consultant working for a large DMO or a multi-national hotel chain might face.  Keith addressed the issue of fees for blogging - something that might have been taboo 2 years ago, but something that's very important. Some bloggers are quite happy with getting travel invitations from destinations and blogging about them without getting paid for this content hoping that they will generate revenue through advertising. Other bloggers are offering sponsored blog posts thereby getting fees per post.  Still other bloggers are now getting speaking fees at various conferences and events.

My conclusion after our very interesting chat is that there are great opportunities for bloggers, digital marketers, hoteliers and DMOs to work more effectively and strategically to achieve the ultimate goal - more satisfied visitors and guests.  One of the points we touched on was international collaborations wherein we could share our audiences with each other, offer a syndicate of bloggers (guest blog posts as well) to destinations, access our different networks to offer clients more bang for their marketing dollars - bring in our Facebook and Twitter followers.  For example, I offer my clients campaigns that include display advertising, blogging, tweeting, facebooking which reach Hispanic travellers everywhere. What if when I am pitching to them I can offer increased reach by offering them coverage from Keith who reaches another audience altogether. Destinations do this all the time with bloggers. A group of bloggers (Kim Mance, Wendy Perrin, and Shannon Hurst Lane), were invited to Toronto for Canada-e-Connect 2010 in Montreal. Since they  were going to be in Montreal, Ottawa invited them to visit there before or after the conference. So destinations and bloggers can reach out to each other to maximize social media and digital marketing opportunities. 

As for Travel Massive Marseille, I hope a group of us bloggers get together in Marseille in the near future under a strategic digital marketing plan from the DMO there. We can certainly get some traction in the blogosphere. En Français, in English y en Español.

Bon voyage,

Jaime

62 days 'till Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2011

While there are only 23 days 'till Christmas (Happy Hanukkah, btw, Dec 1 to 9), there are only 62 days until Canada's national etourism strategy conference, Canada-e-Connect, presented by TIAC and PhoCusWright. Register by tomorrow, Friday December 3, to get a shot at a brand new iPad 16G.

This year the CeC has put together another great program. Speakers include Scott Stratten @unmarekting on "Unmarketing" fame, Tara Hunt @missrogue, and Amber MacArthur @ambermac, one of the leading social media experts in Canada and author of Power Friending (my review is coming on this blog soon).

The first Canada-e-Connect conference held in Vancouver was all about "joining the conversation," the second Canada-e-Connect in Toronto in 2009 was about the "Digital Revolution," and how digital technology is the new gauge (see Dr. Ian Fenwick's DigiMarketing), content is personal and content travels and engaging instead of targeting. The third installment of Canada-e-Connect in Montreal was not only about joining the conversation using digital media, but how to go beyond and create conversational capital (see Betrand Cesvet's "Conversational Capital"), conversations that enhance brand equity. What will Canada-e-Connect IV be all about?

We all know how fast technology moves today. At the second Canada-e-Connect in January 2009, while I was interviewing Ted Souder, at the time Head of Travel Central Region at Google Inc., during a luncheon session, I asked if anyone in the audience had a twitter account. Besides me and Ted, only 2 or 3 people tweeted! That was less than 2 years ago! Today we are seeing an explosion in geo-location services and group buying might be the next big thing (Google might be buying Groupon as I write this).

How are you adapting your strategy to take advantage of the ongoing digital revolution? Come to Canada-e-Connect 2011 in Toronto and get ahead of the curve. There will be sessions on geo-location, video as a branding, marketing, communications and sales tool, what's going on in the mobile space, of course social media, branded content and very importantly - measuring it all. And if a session does not cover a particular interest of yours, I am sure you will meet people who can either help you or point you in the right direction. Network with experts in their field.

Canada-e-Connect 2011, February 2 to 4, 2011. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Register early.

Hope to see you at CeC 2011

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Past Chair Canada-e-Connect

member advisory committee

@jaimehorwitz

Is your brand a One Night Stand or a Serious Relationship? Part II

Staying with the topic of relationships and tourism destinations or businesses (see previous blogpost), tourism marketers would benefit from strategies that segment their visitors between those who are just looking for a "one night stand" and those who want or could develop a "serious relationship" with their destination, attraction or tourism business. This is easier said than done, but not impossible. At the micro-level, small tourism businesses like lake resorts, B&B's, restaurants and some attractions already have "going steady" relationships with many of their customers. For example, my family has an ongoing relationship with the Gravenhurst, Ontario area. We try to go to the same vacation rental property every year. Every year we go to the same ice-cream parlour at the Muskoka Wharf and the same café in Port Carling. We always shop at the stores in that town - I particularly like Muskoka Bear Wear.

I also have a "serious relationship" with the IHG Hotel Group. I am a Priority Club Ambassador member. Informally, I have made a commitment to stay at IHG hotels wherever I go if at all possible. Priority Club is their loyalty program and Ambassador is a higher level of membership, and implies a bigger commitment from IHG to make these loyal guests happy and treat them in a special way. As long as I perceive a real benefit from this membership, I will remain loyal to the brand. The main reason for this loyalty is that I always know what I'm going to get when I travel and stay at the different IHG brand hotels.

In today's "world of the customer," in the new "era of pull", where the "customers are the message", and brand is the sum of customers' Public tweets, comments, complaints, videos, etc., knowing what kind of relationship your business or destination can aspire to and with whom is critical for long term viability. The number of substitutes for all leisure and entertainment products is growing exponentially. The current global economic reality will force consumers to make tough decisions. "Should we go for a weekend to Montreal or New York or should we buy the new Apple MacBook Air?" We are not just competing with other destinations or attractions. We are competing for consumers' share of wallet with a myriad of products and services. Today more than ever we must strive to make our guests and visitors feel special. We should focus on developing "long term relationships."

When applying Social Media strategy to these two kinds of customers what might be the right approach:

• For your "going steady" customers you should strive to develop an ongoing dialog. These customers should be more open to receiving your newsletters and follow you on Twitter. It is very important that you listen and respond to these customers more than any others. They will be the champions of your brand. Applying what I call PERL to these guests would yield the best results. P for promotion, E for engagement, R for responding and L for listening, not in that particular order, of course, but easy to remember. Furthermore, you should consider a loyalty program of some sort. With the explosion of geolocation services that are easy to use, you should think about a FourSquare, Gowalla, Living Social, WagJag and/or other geolocation and group buying strategy.
• For your potential "one night stands" you would apply more traditional marketing tactics, including digital and traditional advertising, supported by social media elements (and attractive price points). Harness the positive content created by past guests and your brand champions and do everything possible to distribute that content for all to see. Tourism British Columbia is an example of a destination that has striven to do this with their blogs. TBC was one of the first destinations in Canada that offered travelers the opportunity to create blog posts on their official website. When TBC started its blog social media had not taken off yet so readers could not share blogposts via Twitter and FB, but today they can and TBC rightly added "share this" buttons to every post.

In conclusion, I suggest you begin to look at the marketplace with fresh eyes. Take time to figure out how marketing fits with this idea of your "steady" guestfriends vs. your "short term affair" guests and how you can use digital marketing to engage them both. Remember that divorce is a very real threat and that there are many other destinations that could take your "steady" guestfriends away if you don't treat them right. I leave you with another TIAC Tourism Summit tweet from Pierre Bellrose - I believe - about Doug Fyfe's presentation on the US Market:

Pierrebellerose

"Peut importe ce que le Canada essaie sur le marché touristique américain depuis 10 ans, cela ne donne pas de résultats #Tiacsummit" "No matter what Canada has tried to do with the American tourism market, after 10 years we haven't seen results"

Cheers,

Jaime

What do Social Media managers do? Who plays the role in your Tourism Business? No one?!?!

The roles of Social Media Manager and Director of Social Media (or similar titles) are very new. Even as recent as a year ago you would have been hard pressed to find any organization with a manager or director of Social Media. Some companies had people doing some of the things that social media managers are doing now. Many organizations delegated the functions to an outside Ad or PR agency. Some other organizations delegated some of the activities (or all) that social media managers should do to someone in their IT department or a Webmaster. Recalling Dr. Ian Fenwick's remarks at Canada-e-Connect 2009, having an IT professional doing digital (or social media) marketing is insane! Even today, I come across job postings looking for Social Media expertise that are more focused on technical aspects, like programming or CMS expertise, instead of communications and marketing backgrounds.

Canada is just beginning to catch up to other parts of the world (mostly the US and the UK to be more precise) when it comes to creating specific roles for digital and social media marketing practitioners (one job posting that I thought was funny was one in which the organization was looking for someone with about 8 years experience in Social Media - laughable, right? there was NO social media to speak of 8 years ago when Google was barely 3 years old!).

So what do the responsibilities of a Manager of Social Media would look like on paper?

Strategy - work closely with the appropriate colleagues to devise and implement the organization's social media strategy

Content (is still king) - create and agglomerate content from colleagues or outside sources, get approval for posts if needed) and publish content across social media platforms (make the content travel). Maintain the organization's social media presence up to date.

Engagement - harness the power of super fans of the brand, product, destination, by designing ways to reward these consumers for their contributions

Training - train and educate colleagues in the organization on the relevant aspects of social media depending on the organization's objectives

Research - stay informed on latest developments and trends in social media and communicate these to colleagues in the organization - monitor competitors' digital presence.

Measurement - use relevant metrics to measure effectiveness and prepare reports

Analysis - make recommendations on marketing initiatives based on sound analysis

Jaime

www.cactusrock.com

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

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 Wendy Perrin Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference

I can't remember how I found Wendy Perrin on the Web, but I often check her blog the Perrin Post and I also follow her on Twitter. You can learn a lot about what's hot in travel around the world by following and reading Wendy. Wendy is also Condé Nast Traveler’s consumer news editor and writes the magazine’s practical advice column, The Perrin Report. She is one of the most respected travel bloggers I know about and, even though, she does work for a mainstream publication, she has a reputation for honest reporting and opinion. I am very excited to meet her next week in Montreal and share the stage with her and Kim Mance of GoGalavanting and Shannon Hurst Lane of the TravelingMamas.com blog. The travel bloggers session promises to be one of the most interesting parts of the Canada-e-Connect 2010 program.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

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

A social networking site for the Canadian Tourism Community

There's been a lot of talk on and offline about social media and social media marketing in the tourism space for the past two or three years. Most of this talk has focused on social media marketing: how to do it, how to take advantage of it, how to measure its effectiveness, how to participate in the conversation, whether to participate in the conversation or not, how to promote your brand or destination, how to protect your reputation, etc. Most of the talk has been about social media marketing to the consumer/traveler, but not much has been said about business to business social media, at least not within the Canadian tourism industry. While many Canadian tourism professionals have signed up on LinkedIn and many have joined groups on that site or on Facebook, until now there has not been a social networking site solely for the Canadian Tourism Community. Enters www.canadiantourismcommunity.com.

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Cactus Rock New Media Ltd. has launched the CanadianTourismCommunity social networking site as a service to the industry and as an extension of this blog. I must admit that the success of the Spanish tourism industry's site, Turismo 2.0, to which I also belong, made me think as to why we haven't had a similar social networking site in Canada. Being one of the most connected countries in the world with some excellent work being done in the digital tourism space, I have found it ironic that we don't take advantage of the capabilites available to us to network, to share knowledge, to stay in touch with our partners, clients and potential partners and clients, to learn from each other. And so I decided to put the industry to the test and see if we can (take advantage).

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The Canadian Tourism Community site, built on the Ning platform, is a private social networking site. Membership is free but by invitation only. At the moment there are two reasons why private and why by invitation only. First, it is easier to manage and monitor that way. While I'm happy to manage the site, which I hope will help my own networking efforts in the industry, it takes more time to monitor an open site because there are many spammers out there trying to take advantage of open sites. Second, being a private site it may be more comfortable for members of the industry who are concerned about, well, privacy.

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Having a social networking site exclusively for the Canadian tourism industry and its partners is better than forming groups on Facebook or LinkedIn because the primary purpose of the site is to serve the needs of the members of the industry who choose to use it, i.e. the layout and content are not cluttered by non-tourism related stuff (or ads). Each member has a big page with clear font and can write a blog, upload photos, videos or documents. Members can write on each other's comments boxes or sent private messages. Also, the site has chat capabilities for those who wish to communicate in real time, a feature that may come in handy to have conversations with partners overseas.

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The success of the site will depend on the involvement of the industry as a whole. The site is not for techies or eBusiness people. The site is for everyone involved in the Canadian Tourism Industry, from restarauranteurs, to hoteliers, to human resources specialists, PR people, suppliers, tour operators, receptive tour operators, etc. As of this writing there are 45 members in the www.canadiantourismcommunity.com. Our Spanish counterpart, Turismo 2.0 (online for a few years now) has almost 5,000! Now more than ever, we need to find better, more efficient ways to communicate among ourselves and this is one tool that can facilitate this (who knows, it might even save you money or get you a new partner/client. The best way to understand social media is to participate. If you are in the Canadian tourism industry or work for or with anyone in the Canadian tourism industry, whether in Canada or outside Canada feel free to join. To get an invite write to jaime (at) cactusrock.com

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Regards,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010

Online travel trends from a Travolution blog post

One of my favourite blogs to follow is the Travolution Blog. If you work in the travel industry, this blog is a must read. A couple of months ago it published an interesting piece by Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, research editor for Travolution and chair of the Enter09 conference in Amsterdam. The post's title was "24 things to think about if you are involved in online travel." I won't reproduce the 24 things here (clic on the post's title to read the whole thing). I just want to comment on some of them:

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1) Context is king - due to the relevance to consumer needs - this includes location, party, purpose of visti, timing, etc. Absolutely agree. Context and content go hand in hand, but relevance is everything when marketing your destination, hotel, attraction, etc. Twitter's success notwithstanding, search is still the biggest digital tool and what searchers want the most is truly relevant results to their queries. Right now, for example, might be a good time to ramp up Golf marketing campaigns since golfers are beginning to plan as the weather gets better.

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2) Content needs to be reorganized and presented to serve context. It almost goes without saying, but much harder to implement.

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3) Gadgets that can be plugged into iGoogle, Facebook, Vista and other platforms which can extend the reach of a website. Content travels and as Dr Fenwick pointed out at Canada-e-Connect 2009, content has been liberated from devices. Destination should spend some time and effort developing engaging gadgets, widgets and iPhone/Blackberry apps.

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9) Two conflicting trends - from "Personalisation/CRM/need everything about the customer - to "leave me alone/give me what I want/you don't onw me. Permission is everything and it is a challenge. How do you get potential customer's permission to market to them? One way is to make it fun first perhaps via an iPhone app or perhaps by building a follower base on Twitter or a fan page on Facebook. Or making use of interactive outdoor campaigns using QR codes to engage people. Whatever the media, it will become increasingly important to get people's permission to address them directly given the proliferation of digital addressable media.

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12) Twitter is becoming the next big thing and many predict that it will have a similar success to SMS due to its simplicity, interactivity, speed and relevance. Agree. Twitter seems to be already the next big thing, even though it only has about 7 to 8 million users currently. But don't go all crazy about Twitter just yet. Twitter's strength at the moment (and it attractiveness to companies like Facebook and Google rumoured to be courting Twitter) is in the aggregate. At the individual, DMO or small business level I see Twitter as a complement to all other marketing tools in the mix. I will write an assessment of Twitter in a future post soon.

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13) Impossible to concentrate with so many channles of interactivity interrupting everything - relevance is vital, once again. True. Goes almost without saying. The explosion of channels, tools, apps, etc., requires an effort from consumers to filter out annoying things. This is one of the reasons I am a bit turned-off from Facebook. Many of the apps on Facebook are very intrusive and "force" users to annoy their friends and connections by sending all kinds of invitation to all kinds of quizes, contests, etc., that for some of us are a bit of a waste of time.

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17) Most Destination Management Organization (DMO's) are totally inadequate to meet the challenges of the future. I don't agree with Prof Buhalis on this one. First, I think he does not understand DMO's very well (BTW I believe the initial M is for marketing not management). I will agree that many DMO's are indeed inadequate to meet the challenges of the future. But there are many destination that are doing great things in the digital space and also offline. At Canada-e-Connect we learned about Tourisme Montreal's digital strategy for 2009 and everyone at the conference was very impressed with it. Sweden's Community of Sweden social networking site is a success. VisitLasVegas is another DMO that has been doing very innovative Web 2.0 marketing.

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18) Only agile desinations as presented by bahamas.com Minister of Tourism and Aviation for the Bahamas, Vincent VanderPool-Wallace, will use innovation and eTourism for destination strategic advantage. Agree with the "only agile assertion," but Bahamas is not the only DMO doing good work in this space.

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20) VisitBritain takes 202 bookings per month!!! What is the return on investment on that? VisitScotland nationalised their booking service company whilst Tiscover was fully privatised and purchased by HRS.com. The jury's still out as to whether tourism board websites can successfully offer bookings direct to consumer. Some Canadian DMO's have indicated that their booking numbers are very good (although I've never seen specifics).

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23) Increasingly virtual worlds and immersive technology (developed in gaming and military applications) will be critical in marketing and cultural heritage representation. Not very much is said or written about regarding digital games and immersive technologies vis a vis eTourism, but it is an area with incredible potential. However, in order to be successful in this area, tourism businesses and destinations must be very creative (going beyond placing ads in a virtual world a la Second Life or within a Wii game), perhpas develop original games that promote the destination while providing fun to the users (and perhaps even an additional revenue stream for the DMO).

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24) We need to think differently and strategically as well as use the digital tools to raise our game to the global challenges. Couldn't agree more. But change is hard and it takes time. The purpose of the Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conferences is precisely to foster new thinking, strategic thinking in our industry vis a vis Tourism and eTourism. However, I have noticed that many in the industry resist change and while there is progress in the digital marketing space (e.g. Tourism Montreal, Tourisme Quebec and the CTC are working on very interesting projects in the space) inertia is very strong and we are not moving as fast as other competitors.

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To read the Travolution post clic here: "24 things to think about if you are involved in online travel."

Regards

Jaime Horwitz

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.

Canada-e-Connect in Review - Connexions-e-Canada

As Chair of the Advisory Committee, I had well over one thousand emails related to Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy 2009 by the time the conference started last Wednesday evening with a networking cocktail reception sponsored by TripAdvisor. I did not keep count of phone calls and conference calls but there were many. But all the time and effort put into this edition of the conference was worth it, if comments I've received already about the conference are any indication (e.g. many "it was a great conference !!" comments).

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While the conference is still fresh in my mind, I thought of writing a brief overview of my impressions of it.

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Given the economic atmosphere we are living in these days, it was rather gratifying to see a decent turn out for the conference (over 200 attendees).

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Not only did we have a good turn out but the quality of attendees was also very good, meaning, we had emarketers and decision makers from all areas of Canada attend plus representatives from many very innovative digital marketing companies.

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I think the big theme or motif, to borrow a term from the music world, was the area of social media and content independent of delivery channel (see Dr Ian Fenwick's video at the end of this post).

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For me there were many highlights during the conference. Most of our speakers were excellent particularly the keynote and luncheon speakers who provided some anchoring, some focus on the strategic nature of the conference:

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1. Dr. Ian Fenwick, an experienced consultant and academic in business provided an objective overview of the state of Marketing and Digital Marketing as well as where it may be going in the future with a clear, articulate and sometimes humorous presentation which included examples from around the world (see video). I strongly recommend his book DigiMarketing.

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2. Diane Clarkson, a brilliant analyst from Forrester research, brought home the issue of custiomer service, of making sure that we make our customers, guests, feel valued in this era of Travel and Tourism 2.0 when complaints or compliments can and are posted to the web in seconds. Her clear and engaging presentation was definitely on the money.

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3. Joe Buhler of Buhlerworks and analyst for PhoCusWright reminded DMO's about staying current, about looking ahead and try to lead as oppose to follow when it comes to innovation in the digital space. He made the point that many a time DMO's are reactive to what's going on in the space and therefore are always at risk of playing catch-up. For example, as DMO's are now incorporating (or some of them are at any rate) social media capabilities to their strategies, the eTravel private sector is already somewhere else providing new innovations in trip planning as the market of consumers/and travelers moves from "finding the best deal" to "finding the perfect travel experience" (e.g. Kayak vs NileGuide; Expedia vs. TravelMuse.)

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4. Rob Hughes from Brewster talked about VacationsCanadaTV, a great example of innovative canadian tourism digital marketing grounded in solid strategic insight.

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5. Greg Klassen VP Marketing for the Canadian Tourism Commission gave an impressive presentation of what the CTC is doing in the space, where it is going and how it will leverage the Olympics for the benefit of the entire country. He showed us examples of CTC initiatives like the Influencer Program for the Mexican Market, which I really liked. By the way, Walid Salem, Executive Director of eMarketing for the CTC, who was one of our panellists and moderators made very good points in the sessions he participated. It bears mentioning that Walid and his team are working on great inititatives that will help canadian DMO's and businesses take advantage of the immense work the CTC is doing behind the scenes. He encouraged everyone (as I do now here) to visit the CTC's Corporate site and take a look at the Canada Brand kit.
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5. Ted Souder of Google (head of Industry Travel Mid West). Ted is a vey engaging man (named "25 most extraordinary minds in sales and marketing" by HSMAI in 2006). I was fortunate to meet him the night before his presentation when a group of us were having a drink at the InterContinental Toronto Centre's bar. His presentation was not only fun but very informative. He talked about the 6 megatrends that influence Google, from Moore's law to the long tail to the wisdom of the crowds. Definitely a highlight of the conference and something to think about going forward.

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5. Terry O'Reilly. Terry is a legend in Canadian marketing who will be officially inducted into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends this coming week. He is the founder of Pirate Radio and TV and creator of the CBC program the Age of Persuasion. Terry's presentation, I think, was a great way to end the conference. His topic, "Ideas Move Mountains," reminded everyone that it does not matter what vehicle or technology is used to market a product, a service or a destination if your idea is weak. Terry provided us with numerous examples of BIG (not necessarily expensive) IDEAS in marketing and digital marketing.

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As for concurrent sessions and panel presentations, the conference covered the major aspects of eTourism strategy from eMarketing (don't target, engage), to Mobile Strategies and Social Media. There was a palpable strong interest in blogging, forums, twitter and social media, but many speakers, including Ted Souder, kept bringing up the fact that mobile marketing and communications will continue to grow and that mobile will not only be ubitquitous in the future but it may become the number one way for consumers to use the Web. As for Social Media (panel in which I presented http://www.canadamigos.com/ as an example of niche social media marketing), it was clear that most panellists agreed that tourism businesses must have a social media strategy (IHG is doing a great job at this) if they want to remain relevant and competitive. This does not mean that you must go out and launch a social networking site, but you must join and participate in the conversation via the most appropriate social media platforms for your organization.

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I do want to make a special mention of Tourisme Montreal. Emmanuelle Legault and Carmen Ciotola gave impressive presentations about Tourisme Montreal's strategy in digital marketing and distribution. Prior to seeing these presentations, my favourite Canadian DMO vis a vis digital marketing was HelloBC (under William Bakker's direction), but now, it is Montreal. I look forward to following Tourisme Montreal's progress this year and beyond and encourage all in our industry to do the same.

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Overall, and given the current economic climate, I am very pleased with the success of Canada-e-Connect 2009. I did not go over each and every panellist/speakers' participation on this post for brevity's sake, but I will blog about all of them as time goes by (thank you all). I look forward to future Canada-e-Connect conferences. Stay in touch and connect by joining the Canada-e-Connect 2009 Facebook page and the Canada-e-Connect 2009 LinkedIn Group. Visit the Canada-e-Connect 2009 website if you want more info on the speakers bios.

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Visit the Tourism Industry Association of Canada website to keep up to date on industry initiatives and the most important canadian tourism industry events throughout the year.

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Dr. Ian Fenwick, speaking about Digital as today's standard gauge in marketing.

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

President Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

The Canada en Espanol Network

Canadamigos Social Network

Joe Buhler, DMO and eTravel specialist to speak at Canada-e-Connect

I have known Joe Buhler for a few years and I can verify that he's a highly respected professional in the eTourism space. Joe is a Senior Analyst with PhoCusWright, perhaps the leading tourism research and eTourism conference producer in the world. He is also principal of his own consulting firm Buhlerworks, which provides consulting services for Vision, Strategy & Innovation in travel & tourism web marketing, with a focus on destination marketing organizations (DMO) at the national, regional and local level. Joe Buhler has Global experience in destination marketing, tour operations, retail travel and the airline industry and since the early days in the largest e-commerce vertical - online travel. He has held senior executive positions in Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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Joe is a member of the international group of Travel industry bloggers, the T-List and is a sought after speaker at tourism events. Joe will make a fascinating and engaging presentation at Canada-e-Connect on Jan 22 at 3:45 pm. He will speak about The Road Ahead On The Smart Web: The focus is shifting fast in online travel, from the completion of a simple transaction to an integrated planning, researching and buying process. Search, user generated content and social media are all important elements but not enough to deliver a superior, integrated experience for today's savvy and demanding online travelers. There is a need to act now to change the business model to meet the demand for personalization, intelligence and vertical integration of local services on DMO's sites. Joe Buhler will examine where DMOs are in relation to these innovations in e-travel and look at what new relationships are necessary to compete and take full advantage of this trend.
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There is still time to register for Canada-e-Connect

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

Rob Torres, Managing Director of Travel at Google will be at Canada-e-Connect 2009

I'm happy to inform readers of this Canadian Tourism Blog that Rob Torres, Managing Director of Travel at Google will be our luncheon speaker at the second Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference. Mr. Torres' session will take place on Friday, January 23, 2009 (and I can't wait) and it will be an interview format. Here's a brief bio of Rob Torres who was also one of the key presenters at PhoCusWright 2008 this past November in Hollywood. -

As managing director of travel, Rob Torres oversees the day to day strategy for Google’s North American travel advertising business. Rob is responsible for the profitable growth of travel advertiser and agency business. In that capacity, he oversees the strategic planning, sales, operations and business development efforts as Google provides internet, as well as radio and print, marketing solutions to its customers. Rob is based in Google’s Seattle office. Prior to joining Google, Rob was vice president of strategic hotel partnerships at Expedia.com. During his career at Expedia, Rob managed a team that had Global responsibility for 30 strategic accounts, generating gross bookings in excess of $2B. Rob is on the board of HSMAI and ATME and serves on TIA’s eMarketing committee. In 2004, Rob was named to HSMAI’s Top 25 list of Most Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality and Travel Sales and Marketing. He is actively involved in Royal Family Kids Camp, an organization that provides summer camp opportunities for children in foster care. Rob is a frequent speaker at industry events. Rob received a bachelor of science degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and holds an MBA from Georgetown University Business.

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I very much look forward to meeting Rob next January.

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Here's Rob Torres in an interview at PhoCusWright Hollywood 2008:

Email me your questions for Rob. We will select the most interesting and challenging ones for the interview.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

To Register for the conference visit www.canadaeconnect.travel

How versed are you in eDistribution? Canada-e-Connect's panel on eDistribution

Canada-e-Connect's edistribution panel will include, Tom Griffin, CEO of TravelScream, Sean Shannon, Managing Director, Expedia Canada Corp, part of Expedia Inc., the largest OTA (online travel agency) in the world which happens to own TripAdvisor, the largest travellers' reviews website; and Andrew Van Luchene, President & CEO, JackRabbit Systems, a relative newcomer in the eDistribution space. Andrew was a lead inventor at Walker Digital, the think tank that created Priceline.com, where he filed over 150 patent applications. Andrew also helped to launch RetailDNA, Priceline Perfect Yardsale, and Priceline for Gasoline. Moderated by Patricia Brusha, one of the principals at A Couple of Chicks e-Marketing, this panel session promises to bring an update of what has been happening in the eDistribution space. Companies like Expedia are starting to look like media companies selling ad space to complement their travel transactions revenue. New innovators like JackRabbit (I previously mentioned TravelScream) are taking travel deals from their clients and partners and making them travel via widgets, RSS and other technologies. Expedia has also entered this portable aspect of eDistribution - notice the travel offers on this blog (from an RSS of Expedia deals).

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Where is your hotel, tourism attraction or destination in the eDistribution world? Are your deals travelling in the blogosphere? Is your hotel promotion bookable via a widget and available for distribution on a multitude of web properties and possible mobile platforms?

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Don't miss Canada-e-Connect's eDistribution panel. Thursday Jan 22, 2009 11:30 AM. Register at www.canadaeconnect.travel

Terry O'Reilly, one of Canada's top Marketing thought leaders, to close Canada-e-Connect Conference 2009

"There is a huge seismic shift in ad dollars going to online and digital marketing." Terry O'Reilly.

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Canada-e-Connect and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada are extremely pleased to announce that Terry O'Reilly will be the closing speaker at Canada-e-Connect 2009.

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AdMan Terry O'Reilly is one of the most interesting, engaging, fun people you can meet in the advertising, communications field anywhere in the world. A recognized authority in advertising (see Marketing Magazine's 100th Anniversary double Issue November '08 - 100 thought leaders look to the future, pg 39), Terry O'Reilly will be inducted into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends at a Gala event a few days after Canada-e-Connect. As you can surmise, Terry O'Reilly is a sought after speaker and we are thrilled that he will be the closing keynote speaker.

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Terry is a partner in Pirate Radio (Toronto, New York) which keeps him busy enough. But his restless, enthusiasm makes him go beyond his day job to the air and digital waves through his CBC Radio One's program The Age of Persuasion in which he talks about all things related to advertising, communications, persuasion. Age of Persuasion is also available as a podcast through the CBC website (link above).

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Terry's extensive experience in the advertising world, his talent for ideas, and his endless curiosity and enthusiasm (not too mention the myriad of advertising awards he has won) makes him an ideal closer for next January's Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference in Toronto. Terry will bring his fun, informative, engaging and persuasive presentaton style to the closing session. Don't miss it!

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Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference

InterContinental Hotel Toronto Centre

January 21-23, 2009

Register now at www.canadaeconnect.travel

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regards,

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

www.canadaeconnect.com

www.tiac.travel

Dr. Ian Fenwick, co-author of DigiMarketing to speak at Canada-e-Connect 2009 in Toronto.

Canada-e-Connect's Opening Keynote address will be delivered by Prof. Dr. Ian Fenwick, one of the most respected business academics in the world. Ian is a former director of the MBA program at the Schulich School of Business. York University in Toronto. He continues to be Professor of Marketing Emeritus and Senior Scholar at that School. He currently lives and works in Thailand, where he is Advisor and Senior Head of Administrative Programs at Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration. Ian has led executive seminars and taught at universities and businesses pretty much around the world. He has served as a consultant for a wide range of companies including Siam Cement Group, Merck (Thailand), A.C. Nielsen (Thailand), German Standard, JETRO, General Motors Canada, Dupont Canada, Exxon and many others.

Dr. Fenwick, co-author of DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing, will address Canada-e-Connect delegates on the dramatic shift from traditional to digital media. DigiMarketing has been labeled “an introduction, encyclopedia, and action plan all at the same time, a hefty but easy-to-read book that helps makes sense of the emerging digital world” in the Globe and Mail. Norman Pearlstine (former Editor-in-Chief of Time, Inc. and Managing Editor, the Wall Street Journal) has hailed it as “the definitive guide to marketing in the digital age”.

Dr. Fenwick and/or his co-author Kent Wertime, President of Ogilvy One Asia Pacific have presented DigiMarketing at various events (and counting) throughout Asia (e.g. Business Week Middle East Asia Leadership Forum Dubai) and more recenty at Microsoft's World Partner Conference, Houston.

Born in England and also holding Canadian citizenship, Ian has a BA (Hons) First Class (in Economics and Sociology) from Durham University and a Ph.D. from the University of London.

Canada-e-Connect will take place at the InterContinental Hotel on Front St. in downtown Toronto, January 21 to 23, 2009.

Given the current economic environment that is surely to affect travel worldwide, it is imperative to keep up to date with the latest trends in Digital Marketing because digital marketing is the most cost-effective way to promote and sell your tourism offerings whether you are a small Bed & Breakfast, multi-unit hotel chain, airline or a major tourist attraction.

Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to hear from Dr. Fenwick and other interantional e-marketing, e-distribution and social media experts. Register now for Canada-e-Connect 2009!

Visit Canada-e-Connect's website regularly and keep up-to-date with the fantastic speakers as they are confirmed.

See you there.

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

The Ontario Tourism Marketing Summit begins this evening. Now more than ever good effective marketing is critical to our tourism industry's health.

aI'm going to the Ontario Tourism Marketing Summit this week. The event starts tonight with a reception at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre followed by a visit to the 500 m tall CN Tower. The weather promises a clear night so the view from the tower should be spectacular. The view of the tourism industry going forward however is not that clear. Financial markets around the world are reeling from problems caused by irresponsible lending pratices in the United States in the last several years. Banks are failing in Europe and businesses are beginning to really feel the pressure of a frozen credit market. It does not take a degree in Economics or an MBA to realize that the situation will hit the travel industry hard. Marriott international came out a few days ago with a warning going forward that earnings will decline.

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Given the situation, should we give up on tourism marketing efforts? Caution is called for, yes, but not a stop to our marketing. It is in difficult times when marketing becomes that much more important. In high tides all boats are lifted, but in low tides, only those water crafts with the right configuration can navigate a shrinking ocean. There will be many people who will postpone their trips in the next little while (how long it's hard to tell, but at least for the next 12 months). But many more people will continue to travel. Their plans may change to go to less expensive destinations perhaps closer to home, but they will still travel. The challenge for every tourism business will be how to stay afloat by attracting sufficient guests in the coming months. In my opinion, the best way to do this, will be with good, focused, cost-effective Digital Marketing. The key is to find the right niche, the right segment, and better yet to make it easy for that niche of travelers to find you online.

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Affluent consumers, whether in the US, Europe or Mexico, will still travel. The question for us, really, is whether they will come to our Canadian Destination or will choose somewhere else. This is why this Ontario Tourism Summit and the coming TIAC Tourism Leadership Summit in Gatineau and the PhoCusWright Travel Innovaton Conference in Los Angeles are so important this year. And why Canada-e-Connect 2009 (Jan 21-23) in Toronto is a must-attend to begin 2009 with the right tools to navigate the low tide that's coming.

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saludos,
Jaime
www.cactusrock.com

Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy 2009 is coming

I am very excited about Canada-e-Connect 2009. I am grateful to TIAC for allowing me to serve as Chairperson for the Canada-e-Connect organizaing committee. It's a lot of work, but it's right up my alley. Strategy and Digital marketing are business topics that fascinate me. The preliminary program is looking very good and I look forward to a great conference come January 2009. Detailed information is coming soon so stay tuned.
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Cheers,

Jaime
www.twitter.com/jaimehorwitz