Victoria maps way to beef up tourism
Tourism Victoria, with the help of a bigger budget, is pushing to make a strong tourism industry even stronger.
The non-profit agency, outlining its plan for 2017, said it will boost and refine its marketing, seek more conferences to lock in visitors for future years, and focus on attracting more business in the fall shoulder season.
“Some of the partnerships and ideas [we have] simply weren’t achievable in the past because we didn’t have the financial scope or cohesion. Now, business is really flowing in,” Tourism Victoria CEO Paul Nursey said Friday, speaking to a crowd of about 200 at the Victoria Conference Centre. “We’ve got some tailwinds and we need to take advantage of them.”
The industry had a stellar 2016, with Greater Victoria hosting more visitors than the year before, and it is anticipating a robust 2017.
Tourism Victoria has more money to spend. Its 2017 budget is $7.8 million, up from less than $6 million in 2016 and about $4.5 million in 2015. It receives funding from the tourism industry and government grants.
The largest chunk of the budget increase will be added to the marketing and sales budget.
Tourism Victoria is targeting affluent baby boomers and trend-setting millennials in Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco. Recent campaigns have included a TV ad paired with PBS’s drama Victoria and a pro-LGBT social media campaign using the hashtag #LoveIsWelcomeHere.
Internationally, the United States and China remain the largest sources of visitors, but there will be a push to attract Mexicans after Harper-era visa requirements were lifted in December.
Tourism Victoria recently took over sales and marketing for the Victoria Conference Centre, eliminating inefficiencies, Nursey said. “For the previous 30 years, we had two teams. There was a sales team from the Victoria Conference Centre and a sales team from Tourism Victoria. And now we’re together as one big team.”
Booking conferences in years ahead is important because it will ensure visitors for those inevitable times when tourism isn’t as strong, Nursey said. One of the ways they will be doing it in 2017 is through a partnership with tourism agencies in St. John’s, N.L., and Saskatoon, Sask., to capitalize on the tendency of conference organizers to rotate among eastern, central and western host cities.
Tourism experienced a downturn in Canada between 2001 and 2012 for a variety of reasons, including 9/11, the SARS outbreak and the global financial crisis. “We’re a very exciting industry, but we’re also very vulnerable. That’s why we’re doubling down to put as much contracted business on the books, in terms of conferences, meetings and international tour operators,” Nursey said.
The agency will work more on attracting visitors in the fall. Fall 2017 will be the first in several years when none of the major hotels will have rooms under renovation and there won’t be an event like a royal visit to boost numbers.
The signs for 2017 are upbeat, he said. Among them: More cruise ships are scheduled to dock, 241 compared with 225 in 2016; Air Canada is assigning a bigger plane for service between Victoria and Toronto this summer; and two new passenger ferry services are gearing up to run between Victoria and Vancouver.