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-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 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 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 Wendy Perrin Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference

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

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

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

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 Philip Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright - Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010

It would be very hard to say which presentation at Canada-e-Connect 2010 will be the most important to attend. One would think that it depends on the nature of your business or your role within the Canadian tourism industry. I also believe, based on past experience, that delegates to the conference will want to attend every session because the program is full of interesting, stimulating, and most of all, informative content. But, having said that I believe that one of the most important presentations to not miss at CeC 2010 will be Philip Wolf's. Philip Wolf is the president and CEO of PhoCusWright, the leading eTravel and eTourism research organization in the world that also happens to produce the most important travel and technology conference on the planet, the PhoCusWright Conference. Philip has been at the leading edge of innovation since the beginning of the online travel revolution.

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I have met Philip on two occasions in the past when I have participated in the PhocusWright Bloggers Summit as a member of the T-List - once in Berlin for PhoCusWright at ITB and once in Hollywood for the PhoCusWright Conference. I have seen Philip in action as a speaker and I can assure you that his presentation will be nothing short of fantastic. During his keynote address at Canada-e-Connect, Philip will share his outlook for the future of our industry. Find out what trends, technologies and paradigm shifts will change the face of travel in 2010. Whether your tourism business or destination is small or large, you will learn something of interest to your organization during Philip's presentation. Don't miss CeC 2010. Register before it's sold out.

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Canada-e-Connect 2010 marks the first collaboration between The Tourism Industry Association of Canada and PhoCusWright, a partnership that demonstrates both organizations' commitment to helping the Canadian Tourism Industry become more competitive in the fiercely competitive eTourism space.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

TIAC

PhoCusWright

Canada-e-Connect

Spotlight on Maria Ziv and Emmanuelle Legault - Canada-e-Connect 2010

Maria Ziv and Emmanuelle Legault are two of the foremost experts in the new digital marketing space. Or as experts as one can be with such a dynamic and revolutionary medium. Perhaps we can call them Digital Media practitioners and strategists. Maria is the Marketing Communications Director at VisitSweden and one of the people responsible for the fantastic and award winning social networking site CommunityofSweden (or CoS as some of us members call it). Community of Sweden is one of the most successful destination related social media websites.

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Emmanuelle is the Director of Communications at Tourisme Montreal and one of the main architects of Tourisme Montreal's Digital Strategy. Under her leadership the digital marketing team at Tourisme Montreal embarked on a bold assignment by shifting their entire budget online, 100%. Emmanuelle announced this initiative at last year's Canada-e-Connect conference in Toronto generating a lot of buzz in the eTourism blogosphere. The results for this bold move have been very positive, increasing bookings for Montreal's Sweet Deal packages by 51% and generating countless mentions, blogposts, comments and other social media goodies. Read more about this here: Tourisme Montréal: the shift to 100% Web-based advertising yields positive results.

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Maria Ziv and Emmanuelle Legault will present and discuss their respective e-tourism strategies at Canada-e-Connect 2010 in Montreal on January 28. Maria and Emmanuelle will engage in an interactive discussion over what tools and techniques have and haven't worked for their destination. It should be a not-to-be-missed session.

Register before it's sold out at www.canadaeconnect.com

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Jaime Horwitz

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Presented by TIAC in collaboration with PhoCusWright

Spotlight on Bertrand Cesvet and Conversational Capital - Canada-e-Connect 2010

Bertrand Cesvet is brilliant. Yes, a brilliant communicator and AdMan, Cesvet is the chairman and chief strategist of award winning agency Sid Lee. The AdMan term in this day and age is not quite appropriate. The advertising business has been turned on its head by the advent of social media and the power of the consumer. Cesvet understands this better than many in the advertising and communications business. His book Conversational Capital, co-written with Tony Babinki and Eric Alper is a case in point. Cesvet understands that today conversations have more power than ever. We've always known that positive word-of-mouth is the most powerful advertising any product can have. The difference today is that this word-of-mouth can now spread virally to thousands of people (and in some cases hundreds of thousands) very quickly in social media. Enter Conversational Capital. At its simplest, I understand Conversational Capital as the value of the conversations generated by a product, service, artist, or in the case of tourism, a destination or an experience. The hard part is how to create this Conversational Capital. It's very hard. But not impossible. And, contrary to what some people may think in regards to social media, creating word of mouth does not only happen through happy accidents (Banff Squirrel, Knut the Polar Bear), but through careful planning, flexibility (you must be ready to act at a moment's notice) and lots of creativity (Dove). And it may not be inexpensive as some people think when it comes to social media.

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The challenge for tourism marketers is to translate the lessons of the book into action. Tourism is very different than most other products, especially those that are known by their brands. One of the reasons for this is that the relationship with tourism product is normally very fleeting, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. Not much repeat business -except perhaps for tourism products in certain categories, like skiing and beach getaways and business trips that take a traveler to the same city over and over again. While, I don't have hard data, I tend to believe that most vacationers want to go to many places around the world, but will not necessarily go back again and again, given the myriad destinations available. Thus the relationship with a destination is not the same as with other products like a car, a smart phone, an artist who has a new movie or a new album out every so often. Once, you've been to Paris you may want to go to Rome next time.

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So how can you work with the 10 engines of Conversational Capital - Rituals, Initiation, Exclusive Product Offering, Over-Delivery, Myths, Relevant Sensory Oddity, Icons, Tribalism, Endorsement and Continuity - to attract tourists to your destination or attraction? This is the key question, one, that I'm sure Bertrand will address during his keynote presentation at Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010 next January in Montreal. Try not to miss it. Register at www.canadaeconnect.com .

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Jaime Horwitz

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

A TIAC conference in cooperation with PhoCusWright

Canada-e-Connect to feature two Marketing magazine award-winners

This just in from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada:

Canada-e-Connect to feature two Marketing magazine award-winners: Sid Lee and Canadian Tourism Commission to provide prize-worthy insight at CEC

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Marketing, Canada’s leading advertising and media magazine, named two organizations with significant connections to Canadian tourism as recipients of its highly-coveted and prestigious National Marketing Awards.

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In its highly-anticipated and influential awards issue released earlier this week, the magazine selected Montréal-based agency Sid Lee as the Marketing Agency of the Year, while the Canadian Tourism Commission was named as the Marketer of the Year.

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And because TIAC aims to showcase the best of the tourism industry at the Canada-e-Connect conference, it stands to reason that both of these award-winners were already scheduled to appear at the 2010 edition of Canada’s premier e-tourism event this January in Montréal.

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“Sid Lee is known for pulling, pushing and simply playing with the industry's traditional definitions of creativity,” wrote Marketing’s Jeremy Lloyd. "Though many agencies are trying to work their way deeper into client operations to do more than straightforward advertising, Sid Lee has never been afraid to shun advertising in favour of retail design, product creation or, as it recommended to Tourisme Montreal, drop all traditional advertising to focus on online and social media outreach."

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Bertrand Cesvet joined Sid Lee in 1997 and led its transformation from a fledgling graphic design shop into one of Canada’s most dynamic creative services agencies. Cesvet will give Canada-e-Connect’s opening keynote presentation on January 27, 2010 at 10:00, and will share some of the ideas and concepts he developed for the book Conversational Capital which he co-authored with his Sid Lee colleagues Tony Babinski and Eric Alper.

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The Canadian Tourism Commission was also acknowledged for its efforts in online and social media. "In the past few years, a lot of marketers have experimented with social media and user-generated content in their marketing. But in our opinion, few have done it so well as the CTC," said Rebecca Harris, co-managing editor of Marketing.

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In particular, the magazine profiled the CTC’s successful Locals Know campaign, which showcased little-known yet enticing destinations across Canada and encouraged travellers to report back to share their memorable experiences. “What impressed us the most was CTC's groundbreaking social media strategy, which included videos showcasing travellers' real experiences,” Harris wrote.

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The CTC’s Lesly Braby will detail her organization’s social media experience in a plenary session, Thursday January 28 at 16:15 during Canada-e-Connect 2010. Lesly will describe how the CTC creates and distributes content on social media channels, what challenges they have encountered, and what they have learned along the way.

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For more information on Marketing's 2009 awards, please click here.

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Join us at Canada-e-Connect 2010 Register at www.canadaeconnect.com

www.tiac.travel

¿Online Revealed Canada or Canada-e-Connect?

I spent the last day and a half in Niagara Falls attending Online Revealed Canada (Thank you Alicia and Patricia for the invite). It's my first time at Online Revealed and I thought it was important for me to come in order to see and experience the conference vis a vis Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference. The reason being that there may be some confusion in the marketplace as to the difference between the two conferences. While the terminology of some of the sessions is similar ORC focuses more on an educational approach, a workshop format, whereas Canada e Connect focuses more on strategic presentations trying to cover all topics related to new media and eTourism. While Online Revealed Canada focuses on eMarketing, Canada-e-Connect focuses on all areas of strategy that are or can be touched, influenced, affected by digital technology (the new standard gauge to use Dr. Ian Fenwick's analogy), i.e. Marketing, Distribution, Human Resources, Systems, Structure, etc. One of CeC's objectives is also to present to the attendees the latest trends in eTourism technology and strategy from anywhere in the world in order to provide a framework for the industry to ascertain where we are compared to the rest of the world, to our competitors.

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It is my hope that both ORC and CeC can collaborate with each other in some way in the future because it can only benefit the Canadian Tourism Industry as a whole. The industry employs over 600,000 people. ORC and CeC together have only reached about 1200 people (perhaps). If we count those who have attended more than once, these events might have reached 1000 members of the Canadian tourism industry. Even if we considered the audience for any of these events to be only canadian tourism professionals in managerial or marketing positions it is clear that we have a long way to go to reach everyone in our potential audiences.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

http://www.canadaeconnect.com/

A social networking site for the Canadian Tourism Community

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

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

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

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

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

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Regards,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect Montreal 2010

Online travel trends from a Travolution blog post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards

Jaime Horwitz

Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010 in Montréal

There will be official announcements soon, but if you read this blog you will be one of the first to know that the Tourism Industry Association of Canada has selected the cosmopolitan, international, romantic and exciting city of Montréal to host Canada-e-Connect 2010. I am very honoured that the Advisory Committee has re-elected me to continue as Chair of the conference, but we have all determined that it will make the event even better if we also have a Co-Chair from the host city.

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So it gives me great pleasure to inform you that Carmen Ciotola, Carmen Ciotola, Vice-President, Communications-Marketing, Tourisme Montréal will be my Co-Chair for CeC 2010. In her 15 years with Tourisme Montreal, Carmen Ciotola has led numerous multimedia campaigns for the Canadian, American, European and Asian markets. She also negotiates strategic business partnerships, defines orientations for technological development and oversees the return on capital investment. Carmen’s leadership is characterized by an uncompromising focus on satisfying customer needs and expectations. She was awarded the prestigious Marketing Personality of the Year award for 2005 from the Marketing Association of Montreal.

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Dates for Canada-e-Connect as well as details of the program will be announced later in the year. Stay tuned.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

President

Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

Tourisme Montreal making waves in the blogosphere with its 100% digital marketing budget.

Gasps and wow's were heard during last month's Canada-e-Connect conference when Emanuelle Legault, Directrice, Communications et Publicité, mentioned during her presentation that Tourism Montreal's marketing budget was going digital 100%. Since then, the blogosphere has been abuzz with comments (mostly very positive) about this bold move. I myself am in awe that a Canadian destination has become the (as far as we know) first destination in the world to put its money where most of the worlds' travellers are today, that is in the digital space (whether accessed via a computer or a mobile device). If you can read German see what the TourismusZukunft blog had to say about it. Otherwise read the excellent article by Vicky Brock in her Tracking Tourism: The Tourism Research Blog. The also German Cofree blog blogged about this today. Canada's Marketing Magazine has also featured news about this strategy.

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I am confident that Tourism Montreal's strategy will pay off, especially in this challenging yearmuch success, and I wish them . If at all possible, we hope to see an update presentation by Tourism Montreal at Canada-e-Connect 2010.
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
www.montrealenespanol.com

Sweden, Bjorn, the Winter Games and the Big Idea

At the recently concluded Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy 2009 conference, Terry O'Reilly, adman, enabler, radio personality and raconteur extraordinaire, talked about the Big Idea in communications whether it's in an ad, a blog post, a prosumer video or a multi-million advertising campaign. His presentation was entitled "Ideas Move Mountains." Here's an idea on video I found on the home page of the CommunityofSweden social networking site. I don't know what the genesis of the idea is, but I think Terry would agree with me, it's good. Perhaps risqué for Canadian sensitivities, but this YouTube video makes the point in a very...well...why don't you see it and decide for yourself. Oh and by the way, this particularly idea may or may not move mountains, but it certainly went to a few mountain peaks. It certainly sparked my interest in Sweden's Åre and Östersund ski destinations.

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(unfortunately, if he goes, I may not see Bjorn in Vancouver in 2010 because I did not get a single ticket from the games' lottery, which by the way upsets me to no end)

By the way, if you have any great ideas you may want to share or any big ideas you may have seen in tourism marketing let me know and if I agree with you, I'll blog about them.

Jaime Horwitz

www.canadamigos.com