Mid-Year Tourism Report

Aug. 10, 2015

Board

Tourism Leadership Committee Sasha Angus

CEO

Lesley Anderson

E.D. Destination Management

Kara Walsh

Destination Development Officer

Chelsea Barr

Destination Marketing Officer

Megan Beauregard

Stakeholder & Communications Specialist

Amanda Daly Visitor Services

Specialist

Helga Lange

VIC & Clerk

Part-time staff & volunteers

Visitor Counsellors

Amrit Manhas

Economic Development Officer

Peter McGee

Economic Development Coordinator

Robynn Baijus (temp)

Operations Coordinator

NEDC Organizational Chart Updated Aug 2015

• CHAIR: Sandra Petryk – Nanaimo Airport

• VICE-CHAIR: Margot Holmes – Vancouver Island Symphony

• PREVIOUS CHAIR: Dan Brady – Howard Johnson / NHA

• David Mailloux – Nanaimo Port Authority

• Leif Bogwald – Owner, Vancouver Island Expeditions

• Leo Boon – Independent Contractor

• Jonelle Knowles – Vancouver Island University

• David Twynam – Vancouver Island University

• Douglass Legg – Douglass Legg & Associates

• Denise Tacon – Vancouver Island Conference Centre

• Diana Johnstone

• Geoff Wallace – Best Western Northgate (NHA appointee)

• James Young – Long Lake Inn (NHA appointee)

• Odai Sirri – Grand Hotel & Waterfront Suites (NHA appointee)

Tourism Leadership Committee

Then vs Now

• $924,110 – 2009 total approx. value of City spending on tourism (in 2014 dollars) to support Destination & Tourism Nanaimo

• $734, 139 – 2014 value of NEDC spending on tourism activities – Includes $125,000 earmarked for product development through the TDF

• Tourism Nanaimo undertakes more activities at lower budget. Additional activities since 2012:

– Cruise, product and travel trade development

– Meetings & conventions support

– Grants program administration

– Sport marketing

– 2nd visitor centre & roving visitor servicing

– Stakeholder programs – NBT, CYPT

– Social media, content development and website management

– Formal governance activities

Source: Destination NEXT, sample size 367 DMOs worldwide

DMO Roles Worldwide

Tourism Strategic Plan Goals

#1: Product Development

#2: Industry Partnerships

#3: Marketing & Public Relations

#4: Community Pride

#5: Accountability

TLC Direction for 2015

• Market what we have more effectively

• Maximize the value of local community

• Capitalize on existing visitors & local markets

• Develop meetings, events & festivals

• Lean on DMO partners to reach beyond local

markets

MARKETING

#ExploreNanaimo Campaign

explorenanaimobc.com

Local market pride of place

campaign running May –

Sept

Objectives:

1) Entice locals & visiting

friends/relatives to

experience things to do

in Nanaimo & Region

2) Grow our social media

audiences

3) Grow use of the

#ExploreNanaimo tag

Mid-campaign results

• 800 tourism passport downloads

• 1000+ passports distributed at VICs

• 6,000 website visits

• Significant growth in social audience:

– Facebook up 9.2% (to 6066)

– Instagram up 34.9% (to 1861)

– Twitter up 5% (to 8384)

• 360% growth in #ExploreNanaimo use

• Delivering qualified traffic to

tourismnanaimo.com – 2.5x more

pageviews & 3x longer stay on site

Share Vancouver Island Campaign

sharevancouverisland.com

The 3rd year of our award-

winning campaign (formerly

You Won’t Be Sorry)

Market: Pacific Northwest

Timing: June - Aug

Objective: Grow awareness &

visitation to VI beyond Victoria

Leveraged: 3:1 ($55,000

campaign for $13,500 from

Tourism Nanaimo)

Go Vancouver Island Campaign

govancouverisland.ca

Markets: Alberta/Seattle

Timing: Apr – June

Objective: Continue growing

awareness & visitation to VI

Leverage: 25:1 ($8,900

contribution for a $217,000

campaign)

Campaign visits up 24% over

previous year

Shifting Focus – From Print to Online

• 2014 guide = 20% of total

marketing budget

• 2015 publications = 11% of

marketing budget

• Increased investment in

website and online

presence

• All publications available

online

• Invested in enhanced

visibility in TAVI’s guide for

greater presence earlier in

travel decision cycle

Website

Year-over-year (Jan 1 – Aug 4)

• 61% increase in visits

• 55% increase in users

• 54% increase in pageviews

• Averaging 14,800 visits/mo

Explore Nanaimo Blog

• Posting 2-3x weekly

• Delivers qualified traffic to

tourismnanaimo.com – 2x more

pageviews and 4x longer site visit

than average

• 9552 views since Jan. 1 – almost

100% growth YOY

Social Media - Facebook

• 6106 followers to date

• 14.7% growth in followers since Jan. 1

• 225% increase in average reach over

same period 2014 (organic)

• 254% increase in average likes/post

• 470% increase in comments/post

• 275% increase in shares/post

• 4th top referring site

Twitter

• 8442 followers

• 13.8% growth in followers since Jan. 1

BC Day Instameet – Aug. 3

• Province-wide event in

partnership with

Destination BC

• 19 participants

• 149 uses of

#ExploreNanaimo

hashtag in 1 day

• 475 new Instagram

followers resulting from

this event

Media Relations

• Continuing to proactively grow our presence &

engagement with media

– Attending GoMedia & TMAC media marketplaces

– Regularly hosting writers

• Leveraging partner programs

• Proactive pitching

• Digital Asset Management & Branded Content

Media coverage examples

- Air Canada En Route

Magazine

- KING 5 Evening Magazine

from Seattle

- TSN Live Broadcast

- usatoday.com

- Huffingtonpost.com

- CalgaryHerald.com

- Western Living

- Northwest Travel

Magazine

- Komo News in Seattle

- Yahoo Travel

- BC Magazine

DESTINATION

DEVELOPMENT

Destination Development - Product

• Mt. Benson gondola – product fam

• Deep Discovery Centre – event Feb. 19

– feasibility study completion

– steering committee

• Supported Newcastle development

– Hosted product development fam trip for SFN to 2 First

Nations cultural centres

– TDF grant to support business plan development

– Participated in consultation process

Destination Development - Grants

• 2 TDF intakes awarding $38,000 to 9 organizations

• TDF Program Review in progress

• MRDT grants program implementation

• Implemented new sport grants program

• 2 sport grant intakes awarding $17,300 to 24 sport

organizations (3rd intake in Oct)

• Estimated economic impact of funded events in 2015

approx. $4.5 million

Destination Development – Sport, Travel

Trade & Cruise

Sport:

• Built new website section with targeted sport content

• Completed sport tourism plan – working with sport steering committee

Travel Trade:

• Seattle travel agent show

• TAVI travel trade showcase

• Asian receptive fam with top buyers from Chinese & Japanese tour

operators

Cruise:

• Supporting 3 cruise visits with on-site visitor services

• Hosted RCL executive on site visit with NPA

• Supporting cruise product development efforts

Stakeholder Programs

• Nanaimo Bar Trail

• NBT 34 listings (at max. capacity)

• Cedar Yellowpoint Trail

– CYPAT 24 listings (up from 23)

• Working to develop digitally

mapped versions of these trails

• Website listings, brochure racking,

educational workshops, Tourism

Matters events

Hotel Tax Grants Program • Live at www.tourismnanaimo.com/grants

• Ongoing application intakes with quarterly application review & evaluation

• Approx. annual grants available $450,000 – 45% for festivals & events (incl. sporting events)

– 35% for sport tourism initiatives (incl. minor capital upgrades for sport infrastructure)

– 20% for marketing associated with the events

• Newcastle Island funding pending business plan completion and MRDT agreement addendum submission to Provincial Gov’t

VISITOR

SERVICING

Visitor Centre Operations

• Northfield, Bastion (May 15 – Sep 8), roving “street team”, events & conferences

– Dragonboat

– Silly Boat

– Marine Festival

– Blues Fest

– VIU student orientation

• Visitor Experience Survey

• Staff fam trips to train other VICs on Nanaimo

Visitor Centre Statistics

2015 Q1 & Q2

% Change YOY

2014 Q1 & Q2

2014 full year

2013 full year

# Visitors 9,218 7% 8,643 21,078 20,422

• Visitor servicing trends are shifting with technology

• More focus on reaching out and being where the visitors

are through mobile visitor servicing

• Street team contributed significantly to our 7% increase

YOY

2015 Results to Date

• June 2015 average occupancy was 70%

• YTD occupancy is up 3% & Revenue per available room up 10% over 2014

• Visitor Experience survey overall destination satisfaction 97%

• Visitation from US travelers is up 4 percentage points YOY

• The average length of stay showing strong growth –more visitors staying 2-3 and 7-14 days

Thank you