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And with global attention for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games growing daily, the timing is perfect to align British Columbia’s winter destinations with interest in the Games. Targeting internet savvy consumers interested in ski, the campaign drives potential visitors to the ski section at HelloBC.com/ski, which offers comprehensive information about British Columbia’s alpine resorts. Key to this is facilitating click-throughs directly to the resorts, something that occurred over 36,000 times in 2006/07. Running from November, 2007 to the end of March 2008, the key message of the campaign is Snow! For the past two years, BC has enjoyed ideal snow conditions across the province. In a highly competitive industry, consumers have demonstrated that favourable snow is an attention-getter. To capitalize on this, a vitally important element of the ski program is to deliver real-time snow information to tantalize consumers dreaming of a winter getaway. "Simply put, the consumer goes where the snow is, so we need to go where the consumer is – as they are making their destination decision," added Rod Harris, president & CEO of Tourism BC. "We think we’ve covered all of the bases, whether through HelloBC.com, television, RSS feeds or even user-generated content emerging on Facebook and YouTube." Targeting long-haul destination skiers with mid to high household incomes, the campaign is geared to capturing attention from active individuals, couples, and families. While the primary markets are California and Ontario, attracting the Alberta, Washington State and BC resident will be critical to the success of the campaign. The 2006/07 campaign saw strong results with 257,000 visitors to HelloBC.com/ski resort pages, resulting in 20,600 ski/winter inquiries, a 253% over the year before. Over 6,000 people chose to subscribe to the snow condition RSS feed for up-to-date information, which far exceeded expectations. That number is expected to grow this year. "Last year’s campaign delivered new skiers directly to our resort website, and more importantly directly to our mountains," added Michael J. Ballingall, Senior Vice President, Big White and Silver Star Resorts. "We are looking forward to further increases this year, especially with Tourism BC’s new strategic tactics such as Facebook, which perfectly suits our ski and boarding demographic." Information about skiing in British Columbia can be accessed at www.HelloBC.com/ski. |
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Among the main ingredients for increasing the number of skier visits in British Columbia are a strategic combination of consumer marketing, media relations, travel trade activities, and most importantly - snow. For the 2007/08 ski season, Tourism British Columbia is expanding on successful programs to put this information in front of potential visitors worldwide. |