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.
(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.-
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
