High loonie + cuts to CTC + increase cross border allowances for Canadians = tough summer for Canadian Tourism

Finance Minister, the Hon. Jim Flaherty, tabled the Federal Government's budget 2012 and it's not very good for the 600,000+ Canadians that work in the tourism industry (investments in Quebec notwithstanding - more on that in my next post).

1 - according to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada - the CTC will see a small cut to it's budget this year, but a substantial cut of $14.2 million in 2013/2014. The CTC is underfunded as it is, so this does not bode well for Canada's tourism profile internationally. Without sustained and predictable funding, it is very difficult to plan long term for the benefit of the Canadian Tourism Industry.

2 - The Canadian dollar will continue to hover at parity with the US greenback for the foreseeable future and this is not good news for Canadian Tourism. With so many new destinations for travelers to choose from and weak US and European economies, a high dollar puts a lot of pressure on margins and many Canadian tourism businesses just can't compete on price.

3 - The Federal Budget raises duty free limits for cross-border travelers in effect giving the US tourism industry a big gift. Canadians returning from abroad can now spend $200 in a 24 hour period and $800 on a 48 hour trip without paying taxes on their purchases. Put that together with a high loonie and American cross-border marketing and you have a great incentive for Canadians to spend their money across the border, money they will not spend at Canadian tourism destinations.

What to do? Canadian tourism must continue to focus on differentiation and creative marketing. I anticipate a barrage of marketing messages targeting Canadians to encourage them to travel within Canada this year.

Comments? Advice? Rants?

RIP Canada-e-Connect

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

Canada’s Travel and Tourism Industry Welcomes Introduction of Ten-Year Visas

Ottawa, July 20, 2011 — The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) enthusiastically welcomed today’s announcement of a new, ten-year multiple-entry visa for international travelers wishing to visit Canada.

Internationally, tourism is the world’s fastest growing export sector, and much of the growth is being fuelled by a newly-mobile middle class in emerging markets such as Brazil, India, China, and Mexico. Enhancing Canada’s ability to welcome these potential visitors has the potential to mean millions of new customers and billions of dollars in foreign currency injected into the Canadian economy.

“A ten-year visa will help to put Canada back on an even footing with other destinations in the competitive international travel market,” said TIAC President and CEO David Goldstein. “This is a common sense solution that will make the visa process more efficient for our government, and more convenient for our valued international visitors.”

TIAC recognizes the work of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on identifying the need to facilitate legitimate travel from our key allies and trading partners where there is no threat. Increasing access to Canada is one of the tourism sector’s key priorities, and the need for modernization of our visa system has been articulated as a vital aspect of enhancing access and to help Canada’s tourism sector grow and thrive.

This simple solution will help to bring Canada in line with other destinations, and will provide both travelers and the department with the means to facilitate trade in the tourism sector. It is also a further demonstration of the Harper government’s commitment to promote growth in the tourism sector, and will help to support the interdepartmental initiatives in the forthcoming Federal Tourism Strategy.

Source: press release Tourism Industry Association of Canada

Canada-e-Connect 2001 (#CeC2011) Toronto Day 1

First day at Canada-e-Connect 2011 was very interesting. Not surprisingly Social Media is still a topic of debate. The issue of measurement comes up again and again at these types of conference. One of my favourite quotes of the day was from @unmarketing's Scott Stratten: "Anytime you ask about the ROI of Twitter, a unicorn dies." The other topic that continues to generate traction is that of branding, protecting your brand, protecting your messages. Personally, I am getting a bit tired of hearing these same questions.

Let's accept once and for all that today's brands (unless they have been firmly ingrained in the minds of consumers, e.g. Coca Cola, Ford - and even then...) are positioned in the minds of consumers by a myriad of voices and up to millions of messages. Your voice as a marketer, destination, ad agency, PR practitioner, etc., is only one of those voices. Branding today is a collaborative effort. Yes, you can try to shape and mold the messages hoping that a critical mass of consumers agree with you and thereby the brand may be more or less what you wish. But make no mistake - you cannot control the branding process 100%. If your product, service, destination sucks, sooner or later consumers will know. So first and foremost, be remarkable.

The best tweet that sums up Day 1 is from William Bakker, @wilhelmus:

"#CeC2011 social media, social media, social media, social media, mobile, social media, social media, video, social media, social media, snow"

Let's see what Day 2 brings at CeC2011

Jaime

The US Market and Canadian Tourism

Tweets from the Tourism Summit:

EventsWest

Great article in today's Vancouver Sun: Canada's tourism slump & what to do about it. http://ow.ly/33SzC#TIACsummit

Pierrebellerose

La Commission canadienne du tourisme se retirera du marché leisure américain pour laisser la place aux joueurs canadiens #Tiacsummit

AkBeattie

#tiacsummit Doug Fyfe sites ongoing concern affecting US tvl to CDA: Economy, Security, X-chng Rate, Competition, Product, Mktg, Consumers

The Canadian Tourism Commission, CTC, announced at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada's Tourism Summit, that it is leaving the US leisure market. Most leaders in the industry already knew this, so it didn't come as a shock to them. Veteran industry insider Doug Fyfe, speaking about the decline of the inbound US market, talked about the various issues that have contributed to that decline, issues that all of us in the industry have known for years, whether it was 9/11, SARS, the economy, security or the exchange rate. The one element Doug touched on that is very important to keep in mind is Competition. In my opinion, it is this issue, more than any others that has affected the US travel market for Canada.

Canada has lost significant market share to other destinations in the last decade. While the US economy has indeed affected travel in that country, the fact is that Americans continue to travel abroad, a fact that may surprise many. According to Forbes Traveler, based on data from the US Department of Commerce's Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, 63.6 million Americans traveled outside the US in 2008. Yes, you might say, but that was 2008, not the disastrous 2009. Well, according to an article in the New York Daily news (that quotes the Forbes Traveler research), up to May 2009 the decline of US outbound travel was only 7.7% below 2008 levels. While significant, it is not what many people would expect. Even a 10% drop in 2009 would indicate that over 55 million Americans traveled abroad last year. While Mexico is still the #1 foreign destination for Americans (negative image notwithstanding), Canada is still strong at #2 (proximity matters) receiving almost 40% of all those travelers in 2009. I personally think that the CTC's abandonment of this market jeopardizes that standing. Yes, the cities and provinces will continue to invest in the US market, but I think that the CTC's support is still important, if not critical. Consistency is also important. The US economy will come back. Will Canada be in Americans minds when it does? I don't think the lack of better results has been for a lack of effort and hard work. What I think is needed is more creative thinking and more risk taking to stand out from the crowd (yes, making it easier for travelers to cross the border and fly into Canada is very important, but only part of the solution).

What I would recommend is to look at the US with fresh eyes and to work on sending the right message not only to Americans, but, very importantly to Canadians, that Canada loves America. Whether we agree or not with their various political views, most of us do like the diverse American people. It was tweeted at the TIAC Summit that with Social Media we can reach passionate communities. True. The hard work lies in discovering and engaging those communities with the right messages about Canada. This does not mean that social media alone would do it, we still need to use traditional methods like paid advertising and most of all, be creative, be creative and be creative.

Jaime

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

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

GoMedia Canada in Toronto - where is the CTC going? Musings on Canadian Tourism

I did not attend all of Go Media Canada's sessions or meetings. After all, the event is focused on international (traditional) media. But that is changing. This year Go Media reached out to important bloggers and influencers like Kim Mance of Go Galavanting and founder of TBEX. And furthermore Go Media also had the open marketplace for local media (to which I was invited). I must clarify that while Canada en Español could be considered "local media," my digital media properties have always been designed to inform and entertain foreign audiences. 90% + of Canada en Español's online visitors live outside of Canada.

I only attended three things at Go Media, the Tourism Toronto reception at the magnificent Royal Conservatory of Music (great job Andrew and Company), the Go Media Open Marketplace for local media, and the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership's Taste of Ontario at the Distillery District (Boiler Room Restaurant) - good party (where I had a great conversation with Mexican media folks). As many other events that TIAC organizes or manager, I must say that my experience was very good. At the open marketplace I did have an opportunity to speak to a few media relations professionals from destinations I have never been too and that I would like to cover in the future. I spoke to Jillian of Travel Manitoba about Churchill and the Hudson's Bay; spoke to Jenny and Anastasia of the new Jasper Tourism organization; had a brief chat with Amber from Tourism Vancouver (not that I need to visit there, I know Van quite well, but it was nice to say hello); and Miles and Ellen of the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association. This last destination - Thompson Okanagan is an area that I am sure will be of much interest to my audiences. I think it will be one of the hottest destination in Canada in the very near future (and it's not doing badly at all at the moment).

I also had a very good chat with Elyse Mailhot, Travel Media Relations Manager at the CTC. It was interesting to hear about the change in direction the CTC is taking, moving away from advertising and focusing more on social media, not necessarily as a creator of content and initiator of conversations, but rather as an enabler and facilitator. This direction is partly the result of having to deal with insufficient funding going forward that precludes the organization from investments in advertising. Some people might think that advertising does not work any longer. That's not true. What doesn't work any longer is bad, lazy, complacent cookie-cutter advertising. Advertising today is merging with entertainment, infotainment, gaming and other tools. And most importantly, advertising today must be honest. The days of "there's a sucker born everyday" are gone.

I am a big supporter of a strong CTC, and I hope that the Tourism Association of Canada does a better job of lobbying the government to support a strong, well funded Canadian Tourism Commission - for one thing we should impose a Travel Promotion Fee on international visitors like many other countries do (including the US), with which we can fund the CTC. Having said that, I also propose stronger ties between the private tourism sector and the CTC. One of the issues I have with the CTC is that because of its bureaucratic nature it is sometimes too slow to act and because of its governmental ties it is risk averse when it comes to advertising and communications. As Kim Mance said at Canada-e-Connect 2010 in Montreal last January when I asked her "what should Canada do to raise its profile in the US (and in the world for that matter)?" "Make more noise."

Jaime Horwitz Rodriguez

Past Chair Canada-e-Connect eTourism Stratgy

Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

The Canadá en Español Network

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

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

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

Thanks Shannon.

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

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

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

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Digital Marketer and Strategist

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

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

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

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

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

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

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

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

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

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

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Jaime Horwitz mBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

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

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

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

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

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

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

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

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

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

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

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

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

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

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

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

A bientôt,

Jaime Horwitz Rodriguez MBA

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Spotlight on Philippe Fabry, eTourism Manager for Atout France, speaking at Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010

I follow Philippe Fabry on Twitter @filifab. I became a follower of his after I discovered him via my fellow Tourism T-List blogger, Claude Benard. Philippe Fabry has been working in the travel and tourism industry since 2003. He graduated from Limoges University in Knowledge Management and Online Community Management and now works as the e-tourism Manager at ATOUT FRANCE, France Tourism Development Agency. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Tourism, ATOUT France’s mission is to promote France as a destination for business and leisure and developing competitiveness in the tourism sector. It will very interesting to hear Philippe speak about the new digital era and the power of the consumer/traveler and how the new ways of communicating have impacted tourism in France, the number one destination in the world. What are the strategies that he sees growing out of the social media revolution. What is France doing in this space? Can Canada compete? Is Canada competing?

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Philippe blogs at www.tourisme-tic.com.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you in Montreal,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010