Lessons from the Cruise Industry, specifically the Navigator of the Seas

Some lessons or reminders from Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas

1 - Service design - have you taken a good look at your tourism service (all tourism businesses are service businesses) from the guests' point of view?  That's what the cruise industry seems to be doing very well. My wife and I commented how Royal Caribbean had thought of everything on the cruise we took with the family during the Holidays (see below). To analyze and assess the quality of your service, take a walk in your potential guests' shoes, from the moment they arrive, to the moment they leave. How can you make their experience better? Where are the fail points, if there are any. From the friendliness of the concierge staff (if you manage a hotel) to the cleanliness of the facilities, to the quality and variety of the food, etc.

2 - Animation/Entertainment.  Not everyone thinks of their tourism business as an entertainment business, but almost any tourism business could be considered an entertainment business, even if the entertainment is provided by the guests themselves. If you provide the right environment, in say, a restaurant, the patrons will entertain themselves accordingly. The obvious example is a club. If the decor and facilities are right and the music and the sound system rock, the drinks are good and at the right price (according to the type of establishment), the guests should have a good time.  In the era of social media there has been a lot of talk and much has been written about being remarkable, about creating products and services that are outstanding, because those are the things that drive conversations in cyberspace. That's great. But the key reason to strive for the extraordinary is to succeed.

3 - Staff. As important as everything else, if not more. One of the amazing things we noticed and commented about the staff on the Navigator of the Seas is that everyone seemed to have the same critical competency for tourism: a genuine love for people and a relentless customer satisfaction orientation. Almost anyone can learn how to wait tables or serve drinks or register a guest or clean up a room, but to, at the very least, give the impression of genuine caring for a guest, that's not so easy to find.

4 - FUN At many a tourism conference in Canada over the last 10 years, I heard different people mentioning the word fun. We have to put fun back in our tourism offerings. This is obvious for some destinations or businesses (e.g. Niagara Falls, The CN Tower), but fun is not only delivered by an attraction (e.g. Niagara's Fury attraction), it can be delivered by the ticket takers, the waiters, and others. During the cruise we had a bit of fun with the assistant waiter, Tayfan, a young man from Turkey, who was quite adept at magic tricks. Think of where in the path of your guests you can inject some fun (it can be little things, but they can make a big difference).

Royal Caribbean - 1.2.3.4  From the design of the ship to the selection of the staff, the Navigator of the Seas is a great example of all of the above.  The ship is huge. There were 3,670 guests on the ship (full capacity) and, I believe, about 1,200 staff. But you never felt crowded. Much thought (and experience) has been put into making the cruise a great experience for the guests. My guess is that this is a constant focus from the company (is it yours?). From the theatre, to the pool, to the food establishments to the animation staff to all other areas and activities Royal Caribbean has thought of all the different types of guests they can attract. Remember Bertrand Cesvet's engines of conversational capital? Royal Caribbean is very good at many of them - Exclusive Product Offering, Over-Delivery, Relevant Sensory Oddity and Tribalism.

Finally, the cruise also reminded me of something I have mentioned in a past blog post: that tourism is driven by PPE, Price, Proximity and Ease of Entry. The price for the 6 night cruise on the Navigator of The Seas can be as low as approximately $600 CDN per person (it's very difficult for any destination to compete with that considering everything that's included in the price). Over 60% of people on this trip were American. There about 180 Canadians on board followed by 80 Mexican guests and 80 UK guests. The rest were guests from various countries. The majority of Americans on board were Florida residents (my daughter met a young man travelling with his family. They live 15 minutes from the port in Fort Lauderdale. So remember, your most likely customers are those who live close or relatively close by (within province, nearby province or nearby country).

Think of your tourism business as theatre. The "show" is what will make your guests have a good (or not so good time). The "show" is what the guests come in contact, what they see, who they see and interact with. They should never be aware of what goes on behind the scenes (training, logistics, etc.), but it is the behind the scenes planning and support that can make the difference between something remarkable and something mediocre.

Happy travels,

Jaime

Fall into Fall's Canadian Tourism events and conferences

Fall is a beautiful season in Canada with all the autumn colours and crisp cool air around us. It is also a time when the industry re-evaluates where it is and where it is going. There are several important Canadian Tourism conferences in the Fall. In the past week I have been reminded of two interesting conferences taking place in November (in addition to the national Tourism Summit): HR Forum 2010 (Nov 15 to 17), The BC Tourism Industry Conference (which starts tomorrow) and almost brand new TOTA (Thompson Okanagan) 2010 Tourism Summit (second annual Nov 3 to 5). In this post I will comment on the HR Forum.

The HR Forum is an important conference because it focuses exclusively on human resources issues in the industry. For years we have been hearing about the impending hr crisis in tourism because of the aging of our population and the need for qualified workers (not to mention the critical need for excellence in guest services). This issue has taken a back seat in the last couple of years on account of the global economic downturn. But make no mistake, if Canada is to remain competitive in tourism, the industry has to continually work on solving our human resources challenges. These are some of the sessions the HR Forum will have this year which I think any tourism business in Canada may find very helpful:

Excelling In the Tourism Sector and Learning from the 2010 Olympics - Nancy Greene Raine- Canada’s Female Athlete of the 20th Century, Entrepreneur and Senator

Using Technology for Recruitment & Retention

Foreign Workers – Clarifying the Processes

Diversity and Creating a Cohesive Workplace: Attracting and Retaining Internationally Trained Workers

Performance That Rocks - Jim Knight- Senior Director of Training, Hard Rock International

The Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC)’s 9^th Annual HR Forum will be taking place from November 15 – 17 at the Edmonton Marriott at River Cree Resort in Edmonton. With the theme, “FRESH Ideas: New Opportunities - Developing a Dynamic Workforce."

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Jaime

Canadian Tourism Blog

www.cactusrock.com

Canadian Tourism Summit - "refreshed, renewed, reenergized" Nov 1 to 3

The Tourism Industry Association of Canada will host its annual Tourism Summit conference from November 1 to 3 in Ottawa Gatineau. This will be new President and CEO, David F. Goldstein's first TIAC conference. One small, but notable, change about the conference is that the name has been changed from "Tourism Leadership Summit" to "Tourism Summit." This reflects an effort on TIAC's part to become more inclusive perhaps as the former name implied somewhat of an elitist approach to the event. I do not speak for the association, of course, but it seems to me that the idea is to bring in more tourism stakeholders to the lobbying table. TIAC is a lobbying organization, the official voice of the industry vis a vis government. Interestingly enough, this year's conference includes a session called "The View from Parliament Hill" with the participation of 3 members of Parliament as panelists. Should be an interesting panel, e.g. "what does the Federal Government think of the tourism industry?" "Should there be a Tourism Ministry?" "Should the CTC be closed down?" "Should the CTC be expanded with more support?" "Should Canada impose a fee on overseas visitors like the US and Mexico do?"

In addition to the "View from Parliament Hill" this year's conference includes several, in my view, important sessions, such as "Green Tourism: A National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism," "Cultural Events and Festivals," and "Future of the US Market." These three sessions encapsulate in my view three key success factors for Canadian tourism going forward. First, there will be no tourism industry in the future, if our practices do not include a sustainable tourism strategy. Second, Cultural Events and Festivals are perhaps the biggest engines of urban tourism in Canada - just think Festival International du Jazz de Montreal, Juste Pour Rire, Caribana, The Toronto International Film Festival, the Calgary Stampede and so many other events that attract millions of visitors to their respective destinations. Third. The US Market. Regardless of how low the US inbound market has dropped since 1999, it is still by far the most important foreign market for Canadian Tourism (although not the most important overall - that place belongs to our domestic market). There are many opinions as to how to address the issue of American visitors' decline. I have my own as well. This session will continue the debate and the ongoing efforts to find ways to attract more American tourists to Canada.

If you have never attended Canada's national tourism conference, I do recommend it. Not only will you get valuable information, but you will have a chance to network with the industry's leaders. It's your industry, get involved.

Regards,

Jaime

www.canadamigos.com

Toronto 2015 reveals its visual brand. Viva Panam, United we Play

Toronto 2015 will be twice the size of Vancouver 2010

The budget for Toronto 2015 is $1.5 billion

10,000 athletes. 48 sports. 50 venues.

Toronto 2015 will be huge. It's anticipated that the Games will attract 250,000 visitors to the Golden Horseshoe. However, Ian Troop said at a Hispanic professionals event that as he sees the work and the planning progress, he thinks that the number of visitors could reach 1 million. I agree.

United We Play, Viva PanAm

Jaime

The CTC pulling back on account of cutbacks and stimulus funding drying out.

If you are a member of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, you must have received an email from its president, David Goldstein, on July 19 regarding the restructuring of the Canadian Tourism Commission. The email basically describes what the CTC announced on July 16 (although I could not find a release or an article about it on the CTC's website). The main points about the CTC's restructuring in David's email are the following:

• Ceasing to invest in direct-to-consumer advertising in the United States, and ceding the way to other Canadian destinations which are already invested in this area.
• Centralization of resources to ensure the affordability of CTC’s international operations. This includes using the London office as the regional hub for the traditional markets of U.K., France, Germany and Australia, and supplementing in-market efforts with the assistance of General Sales Agents.
• Making use of resources at the CTC Vancouver Headquarters as the regional office for new and emerging tourism markets (Korea, China, India and Brazil), as well as for markets in transition (Japan and Mexico).

Basically the CTC will not partner in consumer advertising in the US with the provinces, territories and cities and it will need to do more (or try to stay the course) with less regarding our international markets - it is not clear to me whether the CTC will be closing its offices in Japan and Mexico.

David's message goes on to remind us that "According to the UNWTO, Canada dropped from 7th to 15th in terms of international tourist arrivals between 2002 and 2009. TIAC believes that Canada is losing competitive ground in the global tourism marketplace. If Canada is to compete in the global tourism market, and make the most of the opportunities in one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, we will need a strong marketing voice."

Given these changes, What do you think the result will be in the next couple of years? We will probably see a continuing decline from US visitors (considering that America's economy is still weak). But this decline might not be across the board. I expect to see more inter-provincial and inter and intra city partnerships targeting the US, e.g. Ontario/Quebec, Toronto/Montreal, BC/Alberta, all Atlantic provinces together, Vancouver and Whistler, Calgary and the Rockies, etc. I think that the right partnerships with the right creative campaigns will be able to see very positive results. Nevertheless, the loss of the CTC's support will have an impact and it will be missed.

As for international markets, it remains to be seen how the CTC will manage its core territories with less resources. The private sector will have to step up to the plate and find ways to market Canada despite the lack of tax payers support. The US did it for years, although it is ironic that last year it passed its Travel Promotion Act S. 1023, that when implemented (not sure if this has been done or will be in the near future), it will generate over one hundred million dollars for tourism promotion. I have advocated for a similar measure in Canada since I heard of the American TPA. Canada, as many other countries already do, should implement a $10 to $15 tourism promotion fee on international tourists and use all the proceeds to fund the Canadian Tourism Commission in a consistent and predictable manner.

Jaime

Canada should bid for the World Cup of Soccer - Top Ten Reasons

The World Cup of Soccer is the largest single sport event in the world. It is truly the only World Competition in which most nations of the world participate. The globally televised event billions of us enjoy every four years is only the finals, the top 32 of the 280 nations whose Federations are members of FIFA. Canada can and should bid to host a World Cup as soon as possible.

Top ten reasons Why Canada should bid for a World Cup:

1. A very high ROE (Return on Exposure)
2. Canada successfully hosted the U20 World Cup where many of the stars who played in South Africa 2010 got their World Cup start
3. Canada has successfully staged 3 Olympic Games
4. Canada is one of the most successful multi-cultural countries in the world
5. A large number of Canada's ethnic communities are soccer crazy
6. Canada's access to a multi-cultural, multi-lingual work force makes it an ideal country to host the Cup
7. With all the love and respect to our national obsession with Hockey, there are more Canadian kids registered in soccer programs than in hockey programs
8. While there's no way to tell where Canada's economy will be in 2018, 2022 and 2026, currently we have one of the most stable economies in the world (bids for 2018 and 2022 may be closed already, but we could go for 2022 and/or 2026 and/or 2030)
9. Because it's the "Beautiful Game" for a "Beautiful Country"
10. It's the only way in the foreseeable future that Canada's National team can participate in a World Cup (host nation gets automatic pass in the top 32)

Cheers, And Viva España!

Jaime

75% of Canadians say that they won’t be taking a summer vacation at all. So Eat Chips and Travel.

Earlier today, I received the press release shown in it's entirety below. What really caught my eye is the assertion that "75% (of Canadians) say that they won’t be taking a summer vacation at all, will be staying near home, or will be vacationing within their own province in 2010." Can this be right? Are things this bad? We know that Canadians are over their heads in debt, but no country in the developed world is in better shape than Canada. Maybe it's the housing market. People have decided to invest in their homes above all else (in many instances to avoid the dreaded HST coming in July). International markets are not doing much better for us, Vancouver Games notwithstanding. February saw spikes in visitations from many European countries, but nothing dramatic - and the US was still down compared to February 2009. Overall trips to Canada by Non-Residents were down. The hope is to see a gradual increase in visits from international tourists as the summer rolls along. A hope that's threatened now by Europe's debt crisis. Macro-economically speaking Mexico's doing better than many countries in the UK, mostly because, like Canada, Mexico did not have any exposure to speak of to the sub-prime mortgage problem that started in the US. The issue with Mexico is still a cumbersome visitor visa process that we hope will improve in the coming months. And this brings us to Canada:

The domestic market will be most important to the industry this year. The CTC's LocalsKnow campaign is in full swing and this new non-traditional partnership with Lays/Pepsi should help. My family and I will be in Muskoka in July enjoying one of our favourite spots in the world.

Canadians looking to spend their summer vacations
Close To Home this year

More than half of Canadians believe they can’t afford a summer vacation

TORONTO, ON – May 6, 2010 – Although there are positive indicators that the economy is improving, Canadians are still very mindful of how they spend their money, particularly as it relates to non-essential items, such as vacations. According to a new study[1], commissioned by Frito Lay Canada, over half of Canadians believe they can’t afford a summer vacation this year, and an overwhelming 75% say that they won’t be taking a summer vacation at all, will be staying near home, or will be vacationing within their own province in 2010. The Lay’s® brand wants to enable happiness for consumers this summer by helping them to discover and enjoy the affordable diversions Canada has to offer by launching Lay’s® Chip Trips, a new program that allows Canadians to save on thousands of local trips, simply by purchasing their favourite potato chips!

From national hotels and car rentals, to local golf courses, zoos and amusement parks, Lay’s® Chip Trips has partnered with more than 400 Canadian attractions and businesses to offer more than 5,000 individual Chip Trips to Canadians.

“The Lay’s brand is part of every summer barbeque, and in every community across the country,” said Tony Matta, vice president of marketing for Frito Lay Canada. “We want to give back to our consumers by launching Lay’s Chip Trips, which will help our consumers rediscover Canada this summer. We’re thrilled to offer what we believe to be unprecedented value to Canadians through this national program.”

Specially-marked bags of Lay’s® potato chips are available now through early August nationwide. By simply signing up for a Lay’s® Chip Trips account at lays.ca, Canadians can bank points by entering the unique PIN on the back of the bag. These points can then be redeemed for thousands of different discounts at local attractions offered at www.lays.ca:

o Points from one 235 g bag can be redeemed for up to $20 in savings at various local attractions†

o Points from five 235 g bags can be redeemed for a Buy 1, Get 50% off second night at Marriott Hotels of Canada

o Points from two 235g bags can be redeemed for a year of savings at over a hundred of Canada’s most beautiful golf courses!

† Actual savings depend on offer redeemed. For details on offers and Terms and Conditions, visit www.lays.ca.

Lay’s® Chip Trips gives Canadians big discounts on thousands of local attractions including restaurants, festivals, amusement parks, museums, zoos and other top Canadian tourist spots through an easy and engaging loyalty program.

Lay’s has also joined forces with the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), to help show Canadians how simple and fun a local staycation can be.

"In 2009, our LOCALS KNOW campaign changed over 1.3 million Canadians' travel plans in favour of staying in Canada and exploring their own country,” says Gisele Danis, executive director strategic marketing, Canada Program at the Canadian Tourism Commission. “With our partnership with Lay's Chip Trips, we are optimistic that even more Canadians will be inspired to seek out exotic and unexpected travel experiences in Canada this summer."

“We expect Lay’s Chip Trips to be the biggest Canadian consumer engagement campaign of 2010, truly something that has never been done before,” said Matta. “With hundreds of local partners, we’ll be able to reach people in every community across Canada.”

The Lay’s® Chip Trips program packaging will be on-shelf from April 2010 until early August 2010. Vouchers can be redeemed at most partners up to December 31, 2010. Consumers can log on to www.lays.ca to create a personal account and search for the discounts that appeal to them.

Canadian Tourism. March inbound numbers are in. Who's pulling the rug?

Statistics Canada has published canadian tourism figures for the month of March 2009. It would appear that someone (the tourist) or something (the economy) is pulling the rug right from under our collective feet. With very few exceptions (like China), all markets were down, some way down compared to March 2009. This is a reflection of the full impact of the recession and a call to redouble our collective marketing efforts. Hopefully, the government's stimulus package for Canadian Tourism will be spent wisely and will minimize the bleeding. There have been a few signs in North America that the economoy may start to stabilize in anticipation of renewed growth, but the recovery might not be felt until 2010. Millions of people are still travelling, but fewer are coming to Canada. This is how it looked in March compared to March 08 (first number compares to March last year, second number compares to Jan-March period of last year):

USA -5.9% -5.6% (US visits continue to fall dramatically, down a further 30% since 2006)
UK -34.1% -24.1%
Australia -5.7% -5.9%
France +0.7% -1.6%
Germany -6.9% +3.5%
Spain -25% -9%
Mexico -37.7% -20.7%
Brazil -16.8% +6.3%
China +17.5% +15.8%
Hong Kong -13.1% -11.5%
Japan -23.3% -24.1%
India +3.2% +11.6%

source: International Travel: Advance Information Bulletin March 2009

While the current environment will force most tourism businesses to make tough decisions in order to contain costs, this is not a time to eliminate marketing efforts. On the contrary, we must rededicate ourselves to better and smarter marketing. Competitors around the world are making extra efforts this year to attract the tourists that are still travelling this year (and there are millions of them). Stay the course.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Spring has Sprung and Summer is around the corner. Travel Canada.

Victoria Day Weekend marks the "unofficial" start of the summer season in Canada. Queen Victoria's day comes around right in the middle of Spring when flowers are in full bloom, birds are looking for a partner, and Canadians have a renewed spring in their step. While this is a very challenging year for many Canadians (and my heart goes out to all those who have lost jobs), let's remember that we have seen difficult times before and always have come out stronger. Canadian tourism is being hit hard by the global economic downturn, but we are still one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world and people will continue to come visit us. Let's make this year visitors ambassador's of our tourism brands; from bellboys (and girls) to hotel managers, to airline personnel to tour guides; let's once again prove to our visitors why Canadians have a reputation as being one of or perhaps the friendliest people in the world. :D

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Jaime

Spring is coming. deMexicoaCanada.ca is out of the gate promoting 20 trips from Mexico to Canada

deMéxicoaCanada.ca, the travel product site of the Canadá en Español Network is promoting 20 group and fit trips from Mexico to Canada for the Spring and Summer Season. Abiega Operadora de Viajes is Canadá en Español's client/partner/tour operator in Mexico responsible for fullfilment. Packages this year run the gamut of experiences, from a Fly and Drive in Vancouver Island to Exploring the Rockies to the staple Ontario and Quebec circuits. Trips are concentrated in the four big provinces with a presence in the Mexican market, i.e. British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, which begs the question, where are the rest of the Canadian provinces when it comes to the Mexican market? While the 2009 season may be softer than last year's due to the global economic downturn, Canadá en Español expects decent results based on traffic and inquiry levels to deMexicoaCanada.ca. The Easter Holiday should give more of an indication of what the summer may bring. The Mexican peso has appreciated in the last few weeks which should also help.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Publicitas (APR) now exclusive media Rep in Canada for the Canadá en Español Network

I am very excited and pleased that the Canadá en Español Network will now be represented in Canada by Publicitas APR Canada. Publicitas APR leads in sales by representing some of the most recognized media in North America. Their sales team of 13 professionnals has extensive advertising experience. Their customer approach is both strategic and consultative. As such, their expertise lies in building programs tailored to their advertisers budgets and requirements. Canadá en Español is a leading niche network of digital properties that focuses on promoting Canada to Spanish speaking people around the world since 1999. The network includes 19 consumer websites, 1 blog and 1 social networking site. In addition to digital advertising Canadá en Español offers Web 2.0 services such as blogging, guerrilla video production, YouTube or YouTube like video distribution, Social Media marketing in Spanish and consulting services.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Canadian tourism INBOUND numbers for 2008 are in. Mexico and Spain showed healthy growth.

Statistics Canada published its International Travel: Advance Information bulletin for December 2008 and the Jan-Dec 2008 period. Overall international visits to Canada were down 9.9% compared to a year earlier. No surprise here, US visits were down 12%. Europe was up 2.5% though stalwart United Kingdom was down 6% for the year (a sign of the economic downturn). French inbound tourism was substantially higher (at 12.2%) mostly due perhaps to Quebec's 400th Anniversary year. Asian inbound was down 3.2% mostly because of Japan's continuing decline. The House of the Rising Sun sent 16.4% less tourists in 2008 than in 2007 and is now close to losing its place to Mexico. Mexico, while showing signs of weakness in December (it was down 10.5%) grew 8.1% in 2008. Mexico was only 16,371 visitors away from trumping Japan as the 4th most important overseas market for Canada after the UK, France and Germany. Spain, by the way, held up very well considering the economic issues. Spanish inbound grew by 12.9% in 2008, breaking the 75,000 visitors to Canada mark for the first time. India, by the way a market the CTC has announced it will enter, was up 9.3% for the year.
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
www.canadaenespanol.ca

Fabulous, scrumptious lunch in Montreal with Tourisme Montreal

Yesterday, after a very productive meeting, I had the pleasure of having lunch with my friends from Tourisme Montreal. Carmen Ciotola and Emmanuelle Legault took me to Alexandre et Fils on Rue Peel. Strange that in all my years of visiting Montreal I had never heard of Alexandre's. I was very pleased with the service, which reminded of restaurants of old (with professional Maitre’D and servers). The ambiance and concept are French all throughout. I had a small salade verte to start with, which was fine. But then I had a salmon tartare appetizer and things got more interesting and enjoyable. The tartare was fabulous. For my main course I chose the chef's special of the day, Canard (duck). I don't usually eat duck (hard to find chefs who truly know how to prepare duck, but also I feel a bit like I shouldn't eat duck, like eating a loon, national symbol and too cute, like bunnies). But duck I ate, and it was absolutely scrumptious (my apologies to my beloved Muskoka loons). Perfectly cooked, melted in the mouth.

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All of this brings me to a canadian (or fill in the nationality of your choice) tourism business point. Many people want to know how to get the attention of bloggers. One way is to hire one (or many) to blog about your business; another is to pay for a blog post on a particular blog - not things quite encouraged by some blogging purists - in the age of transparency - but more readily accepted if the blogger discloses the realtionship). More importantly, in my opinion one of three things must be present for bloggers (b - as in blogger - to c) to be interested: Either a very bad experience, an excellent experience or a very creative event. Run of the mill average mediocrity is not really conducive to writing about. As I replied to Carmen and Emmanuelle when they asked me how the duck was, I said "excellent, definitely bloggable." Of course, you might say that Alexandre et Fils got lucky (in the case of my blogs) because someone took me there for lunch. And you would be right. Most bloggers don't make a living blogging. They blog because they are passionate about the medium and want to express themselves. For some lucky ones, blogging may lead to a consulting gigs, a higher profile in their industry, decent advertising revenue or a big buyout; but this is rare. If you want a blogger to blog about your business try and contact him or her and ask what would it take for them to do it. It may be as simple as inviting them for lunch.

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Salut,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

www.blogdecanada.com

www.canadamigos.com

Tom Griffin, CEO of TravelScream a leading eDistribution travel company will be a panellist at Canada-e-Connect 2009

TravelScream is an innovative digital distribution company in the eTravel space. Travelscream has developed partnerships with leading online publishers to present their clients' travel deals and special offers to engaged, targeted and trusting audiences. Some of TravelScream's partners include Fodor's, New York Magazine, National Geographic, Orlando Sentinel.com and Spa Magazine.

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Recently I had a brief conversation with Tom Griffin, CEO of TravelScream and asked him a couple of questions that may be of interest to the readers of this blog:

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JH: Regarding your social media toolkit, is there any particular feature that is most popular with clients, e.g. video, blogs, maps? TG: I would say that our RSS application is the #1 application utilized from our toolkit, blogs 2nd, guest book 3rd, maps 4th. We haven’t really been promoting the video application the way we should. We are starting to be more aggressive on our mapping product next year with the implementation of our walking and driving directions, which should be complete within a couple of weeks.

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JH:Can you tell us anything about your business model? Is it a PPA, PPC, CPM, a combination model or is it tailored to different clients? TG: Premium pricing for home page widgets, annual pricing for list views and going to a CPM model in 09. We have a several destination guides that we are launching in 09, which should provide us with a Low Impression rate but a higher conversion. In addition our new Geo-targeting product will be introduced in the new year.

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Tom Griffin will be one of the distinguished experts participating in the eDistribution Panel at Canada-e-Connect 2009. There are a few weeks left to register, so if you are interested in attending and networking with experts like Tom, register now at Canada-e-Connect registration.

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cheers,

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

BazaarVoice, another interesting company I met at PhoCusWright

BazaarVoice is a software as service company that offers ready to use tools to add Web 2.0 to companies in just about any sector. BazaarVoice offers three core product/services: Ratings and Reviews, Ask & Answer and Stories. For the travel industry I believe the most useful service is Ratings and Reviews followed by Stories. These two services can be managed by BazaarVoice thereby freeing up human resources (and therefore cash). Ask & Answer is not as easy to outsource because responders must be experts in the destination. I have not used the service and this is NOT a paid plug for BazaarVoice, but from my interview with Greg Brown and Jonathan Wolf at PhoCusWright 2008 (photo) I got a good impression for the company and I think it deserves a look. In addition, BazaarVoice already has prominent Canadian corporate clients in the retail space. I invited them to consider going to Toronto next January to attend Canada-e-Connect where they can network with Canadian tourism industry players. It seems to me that if they offer these services at a cost effective price there should be Canadian travel organizations, be it DMO's or tourism businesses interested in this kind of outsourced Web 2.0 capabilities. Check them out at BazaarVoice.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

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

TIAC Tourism Leadership Conference Gatineau Quebec

TIAC's 2008 Tourism Leadership Summit. Sustainability. Marketing. Tourism Greatest Asset or Liability? Labour. DMO Accountability. Facing the Tourism Challenge. This and more in Gatineau. We are facing short term challenges but in the long run we must create a National Tourism Strategy in a sustainable and eco responsible context.

Cheers,

Jaime

It's that time of the month. StatCan's Advance Travel Information numbers for August 2008 are out. USA? Still down. But Overseas doing very well.

Statistics Canada released inbound tourism numbers for August 2008. Not surprisingly, inbound from the US continues to decline. Since August 2001, visits from the US have dropped approximately 50%, a staggering number, that's about sixteen million less visitors.

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While not making up completely for lost US visits, Overseas inbound markets continue to do rather well, except for Asia, where Japan also continues to drop (down about 30% since 2001). All regions showed growth except Asia which saw a drop of 3.2% in August compared to August 2007.

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The Stars

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What single country showed the highest growth rate in August 2008 compared to the same month last year? Mexico? Good guess, but no. Mexico slowed down a bit this past August growing only 4.4% (11.2% Jan to Aug). The UK? Not at all. The UK is showing signs of stress. It was down 7.3% compared to Aug 2007. Germany? Nope. While it did well growing 6.1% this past August, Germany is not the big star. France you say, it must be France. Good guess, given all the promotion and publicity there generated by Quebec's 400th Birthday. France grew an amazing 30.7% in August. But no, it was not France. The country that showed the biggest percentage increase in inbound tourism to Canada last August was SPAIN. Spaniards are taking a liking to Canada. It must be word of mouth and online properties like CanadaenEspanol and CanadAmigos, since very little marketing is being done there by Canadian tourism organizations. SPAIN grew a staggering 31% in August 2008 compared to August 2007. While the absolute numbers are not huge. This is just a signal of what future numbers could be. SPAIN can become another Mexico for Canadian Tourism if enough Canadian Tourism organizatons get together to market our destinations properly. Canadá en Español (Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.) is forming an alliance with a Destination PR and Marketing firm in Madrid in order to offer cost accessible PR, Marketing and sales representation services in Spain.

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Olé
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Jaime Horwitz
www.cactusrock.com
www.canadamigos.com

Jaime Horwitz with his daughter Madison in Ronda, Andalucía, Spain. Summer 2005

deMexicoaCanada.ca out of the online gate promoting Winter travel from Mexico to Canada

deMexicoaCanada.ca (http://www.demexicoacanada.ca/), a Canada en Espanol website, was created to promote Mexican tour operators' products from Mexico to Canada. It currently features Abiega Operadora de Viajes' various packages from Mexico to Canada. 23 packages were promoted for the Summer and Fall seasons and it over 15 packages for the December Holiday and Winter seasons have been released. deMexicoaCanada.ca can also be reached via de .com, .com.mx and .travel domain extensions. The site log about 20,000 online vists monthly. This season deMexicoaCanada has also debuted on Facebook to take advantage of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans using the famous social network site.

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deMexico a Canada packages cover a wide breadth of packages for various segments of the Mexican traveling public. There are escorted and FIT packages available to British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. Missing from the mix is the Yukon because unfortunately last year's Northern Lights package has been switched to northern Alberta.

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Cheers,

Jaime

Mexican Inbound to Canada up 11.3% in July up 12.6% YTD. Spain up 14.9% in July 9.4% YTD. The USA inbound continues to plummet!

StatCan just published the numbers for inbound tourism to Canada in its International Travel Advance Information Bulletin. Inbound Tourism en Español continues to grow amidst global economic uncertainty, proof that Hispanics around the world are very interested in visiting Canada. Mexico, the star in this space (mostly due to the fact that it's the only Hispanic market where Canada is spending substantial marketing dollars), was up 11.3% this past July compared to July '07. For the period Jan to July 2008 Mexico is up a decent 12.6%. Spain, a relatively new market where very little marketing is being done (although Canada en Español has been generating Spanish Web traffic for years), and where the economy is not doing great, was up by 14.9% in July and 9.4% from Jan to July. Spanish speaking South America was up 5.4% for the first 7 months of the year compared to 2007.

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Belgium, Denmark, France and Sweden are also performing quite well for Canadian Tourism all showing double digit growth in July 2008 compared to July 2007.

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However, all these gains as great and welcome as they are do not make up at all for the continuitng decline in American visits. The numbers are critical and something must be done. The US market is still the biggest market for Canadian Tourism other than Canada itself. It represents billions of dollars for the Canadian economy, billions that have been dissappearing like sub-prime mortgages. US inbound was down a further 11.2% in July and 13.1% lower for the period Jan to July compared to 2007. TIAC has pointed out that our industry is on the verge of crisis. The fact is that many tourism businesses are in crisis or shutting down because of the downturn in US visitations, a problem that has been growing since 1999. Where are we going to find new American tourists? My answer: the US Hispanic market, a market of 40 million plus people.

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saludos,

Jaime Horwitz MBA
www.canadaenespanol.ca

www.canadamigos.com