The Olympic Torch was here in Baddeck on Monday, November 16th for about 30 minutes but it made an incredible impact on the lives of residents in this small village on Cape Breton Island.  They were part of history and so were five torch bearers who ran through this community including former Canadian Olympic athlete Ms. Julia Riyard, who compete in the Canoe/Kayak competitions in the 2000 Olympic Games.

The Olympic Torch Relay visits over 1000 communities in its 106 day journey across Canada.   People were lined up on the streets as well at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck.  They were cheering their torch bearers on and waving their Coca Cola Pennants  and RBC tambourines and thundersticks… Everybody watched in awe when the torchbearer lit the next torchbearer torch and the relay continued.  In just 87 days, the 2010 Olympics Games will begin on February 12th in Vancouver BC.  Below are a few pics of this special moment in the Village of Baddeck :

Robert Deveau, Dawn & Margie Beaton performing at the Celtic Heart Launch

It was fitting that during the Celtic Colours Festival, the new marketing co-operative, Celtic Heart of North America was launched.  Geoff MacDonald opened with a Gaelic song and the Beaton sisters, Dawn & Margie on fiddles performed several jigs and reels accompanied by Robert Deveau on piano.

The purpose of the co-operative was to provide easier access & connections for visitors who wanted to experience the Celtic culture and music on Cape Breton Island. The partners of this new initiative are Celtic Music Interpretive Centre, Celtic Colours Festival, Highland Village Museum, Gaelic College of Celtic Arts & Crafts, Municipalities of Inverness County & Victoria County, Feis An Eilein and the Glenora Inn & Distillery. The Celtic Heart website and blog  are now up and running and were announced during the launch.

Check out the video below to see the Beaton’s sisters performing at Red Shoe Pub in Mabou, Cape Breton. They are amazing…

Two of Cape Breton’s favorite fall festivals are Hike the Highlands, Sept. 11-20 and Celtic Colours – October 9-17. What makes them unique is they are the forefront with Online marketing and social media. They are starting small and learning along the way..

Dan Coffin, Marketing Co-ordinator, for Celtic Colours, has seen a change in demographics and found social media, e-mail newletter and new media have helped increased visits (20% plus) this year to their website. Celtic Colours now has over 400 twitter followers, 1100 plus fans on facebook,  a promotional video on youtube ( see below), a great venue google map and an e-mail marketing newsletter with a goal of 1,500 subscribers. Coffin states online tickets sales are at 58%, up 4% from last year.

Last year, Hike the Highlands Festival had over 40% of hikers register online and expects this number will increase in 2009.  Facebook ads, Google adwords and e-mail newsletter along with online press releases & regular posts on our blog have keep us busy with new content on the web and attracting hikers to this annual September hiking festival.  “Our website visits in August are up 29% from last year,” says Tom Wilson, Chair, Hike the Highlands Festival. Wilson states we have hikers already registered from British Columbia,  Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador and  USA.

Both Wilson and Coffin agree that online marketing and social media has helped their festivals grow each year with more communication,  online marketing, and user generated content. Online booking and payment system has made it easier for people to purchase tickets and festival passes 24/7.

I have always been impressed with the work of my mates in Australia for the innovation in growing the tourism Industry. Three of my favorite examples are the Tourism e-Kit, Come Walkabout campaign and Australian Experiences Industry Toolkit.  I am adding Tourism Futures National Conference – “Re-Defining the Future”, August 17-19 to this list.

Tourism Futures National Conference, Gold Coast, Australia,  has focused its August conference – ” Re-Defining  the Future” into five subthemes - They are 1) Tourism Online Marketing and Distribution, 2) Destination Management – Policy and Development, 3) Business Events Tourism, 4) Consumer Research and Market Winning Insights and 5) Susitainability and Climate Change.  An impressive line-up of speakers  and conference program make this an incredible conference to attend.

Tourism Queensland just happens to be the place where Ben Works - The Best Job in the World and blogs regularly.

Travel & Leisure Magazine - August 2009

The readers of Travel & Leisure Magazine have voted in the 14th annual poll, and determine the winners in the World’s Best Awards for hotels, islands, cities, airlines, cruises and more. In the Island category, Cape Breton moved up from 10th in 2008 to 3rd place in 2009  for the best island in the world. Cape Breton also retained its top postion as Best Island in Continential US and Canada for the second consecutive year.

The 2008 & 2009 plaques from the Travel & Leisure Magazine can be seen at Destination Cape Breton Association office in Sydney. The tourism industry is encourage to promote this award and tell your visitors & guests of this honour.  Well done Cape Breton.

Forrester Research recently released it’s report -”US Interactive Advertising Forecast” and predicts that online marketing will increase by 17% over next 5 years.  No great surprise in the Travel Industry where online marketing has grown in leaps and pounds. Google’s research indicates travellers take 6-7 weeks to search, 78% of transactions involves search and 75% are searching before booking online. 

But the comment I like by Alicia Whalen, a Couple of Chicks E-Marketing is where online is the best place to focus your dollars. The growing importance of social media (87% of Canadians belong to one social network) as well the mobile phone/PTA opens your eyes especially when 2020 the mobile will be the most connected device on the internet.

So where do we move forward…by measuring and tracking your online marketing strategy. Find out where you customer is seeing your online presence and your referring sites.  Move slowly into social media and start looking at developing your website for mobile phones. Continue to use Adwords or PPC,  e-mail marketing and Display advertising.

 Below is an excellent video – “The World We Live In” developed by 180 marketing for the 4th Annual Online Revealed Canada Conference that provides an overiew of where online marketing is going in the future. 

One of the most important lessons I have learned about social media is to delegate. You need to spread things out so more hands and people are helping you. Involve your team and assign them tasks and responsibility.  Otherwise you will get burned out quickly and turned off by social media.  

User Generated Content (UGC) - Lets look at some great examples where content is user generated  – 1) Blogging - here are a few examples - a)  CTC – Locals know.ca - a blog where locals provide content on attractions and events, b) Share a Nova Scotia Favorite - people write about their experiences and c)  Tourism Cafe Blog - where three collegues share their thoughts on various topics, 2) Videos – Create a contest and have people submit content – a good example is iLove Nova Scotia contest,  3) Photos – create a group category in Flickr and have people submit photos on events & activities, ie. Camping UK ,  4) Create a group page in facebook  - ie . Hike the Highlands Festival and asked people to submit photos, videos and content. 

Some other important lessons I learned about social media – write less,  be discplined with your time management skills - stick to a schedule and don’t let it take you over.  In concluding, by delegating and involving  your team, offering opportunites for user generated content and good time management skills, social media can be made to be manageable.

Nova Scotia Tourism has launched a new contest for visitors to the province and residents - the i Love Nova Scotia. Contestants are asked to share and shoot a two minute video what you love about Nova Scotia…the winner will receive a custom built Nova Scotia vacation valued at $15,000. The contest runs from July 9 to August 31st. Voting continues until Sept. 30, 2009.  Contest rules and regulations..  and contest entry form. 

Below is a nice video to start the contest off :

There are a number of definitions out there on staycation, the popular one by wikipedia – is a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home during their vacation or takes day trips from their home to area attractions. Others have added long weekends (3-4 days) closeby instead of the 2-3 weeks vacation at one time. Our uncertain economy and job situations have made many families and individuals re-think their vacations in 2009

Tourism has had to make many changes in designing their marketing plans in 2009 on the new vacation trend – staycation. The provincial tourism dept’s in Atlantic Canada – NS Tourism,  Tourism PEI, NB Tourism & Parks and Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism,  responded well with more advertising locally, increase in social media, contests, experiences driven and festivals & events.  Victoria County Recreation & Tourism Dept. , a municipal tourism department has introduced a new calendar promoting festivals & events as well twitter updates on local festivals & events.

Below is a short video from Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism encouraging people to be a tourist at home.  

Atlantic Canada Tourism Partnership (ACTP) between, ACOA, four provincial governments tourism departments – NS Tourism, Culture & Heritage, NB Tourism & Parks, Tourism PEI, and NL  Tourism, Culture & Recreation, and the four tourism industry associations - TIANS, TIANB, TIAPEI, HNL, has been renewed recently for another three years.  It has been a great partnership since the 90’s and has helped attract many new international visitors to Atlantic Canada. The $19.95 million dollar investment will focus on marketing initiatives to attract foreign visitors in key American and European markets.

ACTP is a collective partnership of  tourism research and marketing buys, advertising, trade shows, internet marketing and social media. The 2009-2012 partnerships is cost shared by its partners, and funded 50% by ACOA, 33% by provincial tourism departments in Atlantic Canada and 17% by tourism industry associations of Atlantic Canada.

Atlantic Canada Tourism Partnership – Growing Tourism together. Click here to watch a video on how the partnership works.