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.

Ottawa Tourism reaching out to Indo Canadians and Indians abroad

Wilbur Sargunaraj is a YouTube celebrity, singer songwriter, producer from India who lives in Toronto when he's not in Tamil Nadu or touring performing his mix of hip-hop and Bollywood music with a strong touch of comedy. He has a following on YouTube (2.7 million upload views) and Facebook (14,000 fans). He visited Ottawa recently where, with support from Ottawa Tourism, he shot one of his auto-tuned videos, this one called "The Canada Song." He has a penchant for calling his tunes "The (filled in the blank) Song."

A propos our conversations about video and travel at Canada-e-Connect 2011, I think this is a great example of creativity in travel promotion using video. You may or may not like the video. What's important is that the audience for which the video is intended likes it. I am not Indian or Indo-Canadian so I cannot say with any certainty whether this video would make them want to visit Ottawa or not. But kudos to Ottawa Tourism for taking this risk, and most importantly for doing something to target a very specific segment of the travelling public (segmentation). I personally like the tongue-in-cheek nature of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it goes viral to a certain extent. Apparently it's already doing very well in views. I will be interested in learning what the results in visits from Indians and Indo-Canadians is over the next 12 months.

Watch.

The Quest for the Remarkable - "Great Balls of Fire," Seth Godin and the TIFF

Sometme ago my eTourism colleague and fellow soccer fan, William Bakker, a remarkable eTourism professional himself, wrote a blog post on his blog Wilhelmus about the "Great Balls of Fire." No, not the great hit song written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer and made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis. William was writing about cheese balls, yes cheese balls. But not just any kind of cheese balls. He was writing about Oregon's restaurant Salvador Molly's spicy habanero cheese balls. Apparently, these cheese balls are so good, so remarkable, that William and his friends drove 5 hours from Vancouver to eat this marvel of hot cuisine. The point of his post was to ask the question:

"What’s the remarkable thing your business or destination has that’s worth driving 5 hours for?"

A corollary to the post is that not all remarkable things (or people) are remarkable to everyone. You might love Eminem and think he's a remarkable artist, while I may disagree and say that Michael Bublé is truly remarkable (I happen to like both artists, but you get the point). The main thing is to achieve critical mass. In the fragmented world we live in where there are countless substitutes for every product and service out there, the key thing is to create something that is remarkable to enough people that it makes it viable at worst and enormously successful at best.

The famous marketing blogger Seth Godin wrote a now famous blog post about "How to be Remarkable." I won't quote the entire post here. You can read it by clicking on the title. And while I don't necessarily agree with all of Seth's statements he makes very good points, especially his mentioning that it is not what's remarkable to you, but what's remarkable to me (ie your customers, fans or guests) and that what's remarkable today may not necessarily be remarkable tomorrow (e.g. iPhone).

The Toronto International Film Festival is one attraction, if we can call it that, that keeps getting more remarkable every year (Caribana might be another example). Of course, that must have something to do with the remarkable films the festival manages to show every year. The star power that the festival attracts does not hurt either. This year, on its the 35th anniversary, the festival celebrated by opening its own building, the Bell Lightbox. The new headquarters of TIFF has brand new cinemas with state of the art technology. Bell Lightbox will not only be the festival's headquarters, but also run many of TIFF's programs all year long, including film related exhibits, starting with a Tim Burton Art show. The Toronto International Film Festival started 35 years ago as the Festival of Festivals. It was started by a few friends who loved film. It was their initial passion and the response of Torontonians that made the festival what it is today. Remarkable.

One of the problems with many tourism destinations and businesses is that they're not remarkable at all. For those that were once remarkable the problem is how to recapture their former glory. And the tourism boards cannot create the remarkable attractions or businesses. Tourism boards are marketing organizations. Their job is to promote the destinations, which very few do in remarkable ways. To grow tourism, industry stakeholders must reach out beyond their silos and foster a culture of excellence inside and outside the industry. Our roads must be remarkable, our public transportation systems must be remarkable, our taxi drivers must be remarkable (good luck with that one), our customs officers at point of entry should be remarkably friendly (one can only dream), etc. In a fiercely competitive global tourism industry, the winners will be those who manage to be remarkable.

Jaime

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 Shannon Hurst Lane of TravelingMamas.com - Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference

Shannon Hurst Lane has been a freelance travel writer for almost a decade and has always dabbled in the online world sharing her love of all things travel with her readers. She is the author of travel guides and the self-help book The Definitive Guide to Travel Writing. She is the creator and curator of the TravelingMamas.com blog. I read the Mamas every now and then to learn about various NorthAmerican destinations and little known travel spots, but it's clear to me that their content is geared to women for the most part. TravelingMamas write, among other things, about Romantic Getaways, Family Travel, Culinary Travel, Girlfriend Getaways and Adventure Travel.

One of Shannon's websites was named as a Nielsen Power Mom site, and she is proud to be able to provide valuable learning opportunities through travel to younger generations. Shannon has devoted herself to sharing social media strategies with the travel industry, through speaking engagements and one on one consults. Shannon is the CEO of Lane Media, LLC, a Louisiana-based media publishing company.

I am looking forward to moderating The International Travel Bloggers & Twitterers Forum – Presented by Ottawa Tourism and the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership at Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010 where Shannon, Kim Mance and Wendy Perrin will be the panelists.

A bientôt,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

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

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

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

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

See you in Montreal,

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

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

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

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

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

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

A bientôt,

Jaime Horwitz Rodriguez MBA

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010