FIFA U-20 World Cup of Soccer Canada 2007 a Huge Success!

Canada may not be a world power in soccer at the moment, but it demonstrated that when it comes to staging world class global events it can compete with any other country in the world. Canada's U-20 Cup broke the attendance record that Mexico held for 24 years. The last figure quoted by official releases from the organizers put attendance at 1,195,239 spectators, making it the largest single-sport event in Canada's history. While figures have not been released, a FIFA press communiqué's headline reads "Global TV audience for FIFA's flagship youth event breaks all records." The tournament was broadcast in 200 countries and territories and according to a report in the Ottawa Citizen it reached an estimated 600 million viewers worldwide.

As for the impact of the tournament on tourism, I have not yet come across any figures from the various cities that hosted the event, but I can tell you that from my observations during games where Mexico, Argentina and Chile played there were many Hispanic visitors from the United States. Abiega Operadora de Viajes, a tour operator from Mexico, sold out all its packages to the Mexico games in Toronto. Furthermore, traffic to Canada en Espanol.com and Toronto en Espanol.com saw a 300% spike in traffic between Jun 30th and July 16th due to interest in this tournament. "With record attendance spread over six cities, the FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007 will easily surpass $166 million in economic impact in this country, not including future effects on tourism of the popular global tournament." Ottawa Citizen, July 23, 2007

The future. While Women's Soccer is not as huge internationally as men's and U-20, there is a strong following in the United States, the #1 team in the world in Women's soccer. Canada is bidding for the 2011 Women's World Cup and, based on the success of the U-20 Men's tourney, it has a good chance at hosting the ladies in 4 years time. Canada's women's team is ranked 9th in the world (it will face Mexico for the bronze medal at the Pan American Games in Brazil this coming thursday).

One final note: Thanks must go to Kevan Pipe, former COO of Soccer Canada, the man who was instrumental in bringing the Men's U-20 World Cup to Canada. Kevan worked tirelessly for over 4 years to make this happen. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, Soccer Canada let him go a few months before the first match was played (Vancouver 2010 could use someone like Kevan). Kevan was also very gracious and helpful with this writer when Canadá en Español was looking for information about the tourney in order to promote it to Hispanics online users around the world. Here's to you Kevan, wherever you are.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

Jaime

O Canada

It literally brought tears to my eyes. It also brought a dificult-to-describe joy. But most of all, it brought in me an enormous sense of gratitude to the gods of destiny, the vicissitudes of life, karma or whatever you wish to call it, for being Canadian, albeit one who, like millions, was not born in this country. I am referring to the National Capital Commission's Light and Sound show on Parliament Hill, The Spirit of Canada. It also reminded me why I am so passionate about marketing Canada. The truth is I am in love with this country "from sea to sea to sea." And, Latin, as I am, what I love I want to tell people about. In the past six days I have been in Montreal and Ottawa, where I am writing this post before I return to Toronto tomorrow. Besides the excitement of great soccer matches, I have had the opportunity to revisit these two great cities of central Canada and meet new friends in the industry I hadn't met in person. Montréal. Wow! Mon Dieu, une belle ville! Every time I go to Montréal I find myself short of time. I never stay long enough, always leave wanting more. The Main, St. Denis, Mont Royal, la Esplanade, the river. And Ottawa? The History, The Rideau Canal on a sunny day, Byward Market on a summer afternoon. The Light & Sound show! The Changing of the Guard (particularly meaningful these days). In short, besides enjoying the visits personally I have a lot of new material for Montréal en Español.com and Ottawa en Español.com (I have seen lots of Hispanic tourists, by the way, e.g. a group from Chicago visiting to see Mexico in the Fifa U-20 Cup and a family from New York, in Ottawa to see Argentina play). In August I will be visiting British Columbia spending several days in Vancouver and several more in Vancouver Island. It will be a working Holiday visiting family and friends and working on material for a new website I will launch in the Fall, ColombiaBritanica.com Wishing You a Great Summer. Saludos,

Jaime

Montréal, Ottawa and the FIFA U 20 World Cup.

By all accounts the U 20 Fifa World Cup of Soccer has been a resounding success so far and there are still 4 matches left to enjoy. I have been following the tourney and commenting on the experience on my Blog de Canada (in Spanish). Interest from Latin America and Spain was high due to the high percentage of Hispanic teams in the competition. 50% of the teams left are Hispanic: Argentina and Chile. Mexico, unfortunately was knocked out of competition by Argentina in a thriller of a match at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa. Packages from Mexico to Canada offered through http://www.demexicoacanada.ca/ were sold out. I myself attended every Mexican game except for the match in Edmonton on July 8th. The Canada 2007 U-20 may end up being the most successful U-20 Cup ever. It looks like ticket sales will surpass the record Mexico has held since the early 80's when that country hosted the tournament. To date, reports indicate sales surpassed 1,150,000 tickets. This bodes very well for Canada to host the 2011 Women's World Cup. Although not as big as the U-20 Cup, which is the third largest sports event in the world after the World Cup proper and the Olympics, the Women's World Cup is also a wonderful opportunity for tourism in Canada. Let's hope we get that one too!

Jaime

Nothing like sax to put your destination on the Map (really?) - Winnipeg's Po rno Pizza

One of my daily routines is to check the Mexican (and other Hispanic papers) online every morning to see if there is any coverage of Canada. Lately there's been quite a bit of coverage (not necessarily about Canada per se) because of the U-20 World Cup (see post below this one). But this morning there was a note on Mexican newspaper Reforma online about Winnipeg's Po rno Pizza (deliberately misspelled to avoid spam filters), a pizza shop that includes racy (perhaps ponographic, I don't know) pictures on the bottoms of their pizza boxes. Nothing like a little sax (also deliberately misspelled) to attract attention. As Jens Thraenhart has indicated in his Tourism Internet Marketing blog: Sax Sells - "Sax Sells...Destinations" (referring to recent marketing campaigns like "Date a Hot Scot."). I am not, by any means, suggesting that we all go out and find ways to add sax to our tourism marketing, but perhaps adding a bit of sexyness wouldn't hurt. After all Canadians are some of the sexiest people I have seen in my travels (in fact, I married one - for those of you who don't know I am Canadian Mexican). Po rno Pizza has generated quite a bit of media coverage. In addition to Mexico's Reforma, it has been coverd by the CBC, Canoe, The Winnipeg Sun , 26 Noticias (Argentina), Terra España Metro in the UK and The Australian, This novel idea of selling pizza with a side of pon may not say Winnipeg is a great destination, but hey, you could say, if you want good pizza, come to Winnipeg. I'll have the Missionary Position Pizza please (double pepperoni, double mushroom), gracias.

Jaime

The Beautiful Game has arrived and Canada's name will be heard by Millions around the world from Scotland, to Chile, to Japan, to the US, to Spain...

FIFA's U-20 World Cup of Soccer has begun. This event is being called the largest sporting event in Canada's history. As of July 3d, more than one million tickets have been sold. No other host country has ever sold more tickets, except for Mexico in 1983 and there is a possibility for Canada to break that record. The games are being televised by many broadcasters around the world, including Galavision, Fox Sports en Español and ESPNU in the United States, La Sexta in Spain and Televisa in Mexico. A FIFA press release last year indicated that organizers expect as many as 750 million viewers for this edition of the U-20 Cup. Looking at media in Mexico and Spain, for example, I can tell you that Mexico and Spain's first matches were front page news (in addition to TV exposure). This is very good for awareness of Canada, especially given the fact that the matches are being broadcast live so people can do away with their perception that Canada is cold and the people reserved. The matches are a lot of fun and the fans are rowdy. How's that for countering the image in some circles that Canada is boring. Far from it. While the tourney is being played in six cities, it is not so much the names of the cities that get the most exposure, but rather the name Canada, so the exposure is good for all from coast to coast. I am following the championship closely and commenting on my Blog de Canadá, a blog about Canada for the Hispanic world. Canada en Español websites have had information about the tournament since early this year and traffic is increasing quite a bit this month because people are finding the sites when they search for information about the U-20. There are seven Hispanic teams playing: Spain, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Mexico. The chances that a Hispanic team will reach the top four is therefore high. The USA is also doing quite well so far (tied against Korea and defeated Poland 6 - 1. If the US and Mexico reach the top four the television audience will be record breaking (I am crossing my fingers).

GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

Jaime

Toronto Tourism spreading the Palabra about Toronto and the U-20 World Cup

I had the pleasure to have dinner with specialty media from Mexico who were in Toronto to write about the city in the context of the upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup. I joined the group as a guest of Toronto Tourism, the DMO hosting the visit, and we had a very good time chatting about the great city of Toronto and the party atmosphere people experience when a World Cup takes place anywhere in the world, let alone if it takes place here, albeit a junior World Cup. We talked about the new stadium, Toronto's festivals, our Hispanic communities, cultural life in the city (concerts, night life). What became clear is that there is a lot of curiosity about Toronto and Canada in Mexico. It also became clear that there's a need for more specific information in our destination marketing communications. People (trade and the public) want to know more specifically what there is to do, to see, where to eat, where to dance, etcetera. I was pleased to hear from Jaime Orizaga, President of InverTour - a travel trade publication, that Canada could very well receive one million Mexican tourists annually given the number that visit the United States. My own calculation gives me a figure of 750,000 Mexican visitors (doable by 2012), but we're both in agreement that our current levels around 210,000 are still low given the great potential. The other visitors were Brenda Liz Nuñez of trade publication Turistampa and Omar Abrego, a fantastic photographer/reporter of national Mexican newspaper El Universal. They were accompanied by Magdalena Bermea, Manager Public Relations, CTC Mexico and Michele Simpson of Tourism Toronto. Dinner at the CN Tower's 360 restaurant was delicious and the view, well, the view on a clear evening, nothing short of spectacular.

Jaime

Speaking of lists and Wonders

Saturday June 9, 2007. The Toronto Star newspaper published its own 7 Wonders of Canada list: "Seven Great Structures that Made a Nation: The Confederation Bridge, The Transcontinental Railway, The Quebec Citadelle, Expo 67 in Montreal, The Rideau Canal, The CN Tower and the Sr. Lawrence Seaway." The CBC's and now this Toronto Star list remind me of one of tourism marketing's key success factors: icons. Sometimes, the destinaton itself is an icon, like Paris or New York, but more often than not it is a specific place or attraction that is the icon, the must see place that travellers feel they must go to, e.g. The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, The Alhambra, The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Chichen-Itza. Except for Niagara Falls, Canada does not really have these strong brands. However, we do have many places that over time can become iconic must visit places. In the skiing world, Whistler may already be iconic the way Vail or Aspen were in the 70's and 80's. I have a list of Canada's top attractions in one of Canadá en Español's websites, TuristiCanada.com. There are 22, but I think I can find at least another 20. Among these top attractions, we have: the CN Tower, Alberta's Rockies, The Bay of Fundy, Parliament Hill, Stanley Park, Old Quebec City, and the Northern Lights in the Yukon. The purpose of this list is to begin to iconize attractions for the Hispanic travelling public. Over time we must develop many "must see" locations in order to better compete on the world's tourism stage.

Jaime