2013 DCBA Strategic Plan - Destination Cape Breton Association

Recommendations

Info

In an effort to increase awareness of our tourism product / experiences among our VIC staff and islandoperators, DCBA initialized a Familiarization (FAM) tour in 2012 that engaged 22 core VIC staff andindustry participants visiting 27 island operators.As storytelling and the use of technology have become priorities within our VIC training, all core VIC staffparticipated in Story Telling and Technology Workshops. Technology training included online and socialmedia engagement, as well as itinerary and brochure creation on cbisland.com.Research is a driving force behind all DCBA initiatives; therefore, in an effort to better service ourvisitors, we have collected data on what collateral our visitors want to use. DCBA has discovered thatour visitors are requesting: provincial and regional travel guides, brochures based on key travelmotivators, trail information, outdoor activities, walking maps, artisan information, major attractions,and other destinations. Overall we observed a decrease in traditional rack cards.With 86,662 cruise ship passengers landing in Sydney in 2012, DCBA continued our partnership withDCBA’s Cruise Ship Information Kiosk and the Golden K.DCBA is continuing to have a Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with local tourism associations ormunicipalities in operating VICs on Cape Breton Island. DCBA administers funding through a provincialemployment fund, provides training, supervision, payroll services, and hosts the internet networkconnecting them to DCBA and each other. The Baddeck Area Business and Tourism Association (BABTA),the Margaree Tourism Association, the Municipality of Richmond County and Cape Breton RegionalMunicipality (through our current sustainability funding) are fully engaged financially with theirrespective VICs to cover cost over and above the PEP subsidy. DCBA continues to provide training,supervision and support to the VICs covered under these agreements, as well as to two community VICsin Cheticamp and Inverness.The Visitor Information Centre (VIC) Committee was established in early April 2011. The role of thecommittee is to identify essential components of visitor information services necessary to develop aVisitor Information Strategy (VIS) that will be a foundation piece of DCBA’s marketing program. In 2013,we will work with industry, municipal, and community partners to develop a strategy that meets theneeds of the visitor, while driving incremental tourism revenues in Cape Breton.The Visitor Information Services Committee is a sub-committee of the Industry Committee.Visitor Services Committee:Visitor Services ManagerIndustry RepresentativePort Hastings VIC (Provincial representative)Industry RepresentativeIndustry RepresentativeIndustry Representative43
3.1.1 Goals for 20121. Consultant to be hired and go-forward plan developedo Pending based on restructure of NSTA and Economic and Rural Development andTourism2. Increase the number of visitors to our VICs by 10%o 18% increase achieved - The chart below shows the geographic breakdown of visitorsserviced at our VICs.VIC Location Number of Visitors % Change from 2011Baddeck 22,050 +6.8%Cheticamp 14,407 -10%Inverness 5,817 +35%Louisbourg 6,575 -5%Margaree 7,256 +5.4%St. Peter’s 13,674 -1.5%Sydney 19,291 +26%Halifax 9,808 NATOTALS 98,878 +18%Figure 103 - Number of Visitors per VIC3. Conduct one Industry and Travel Counsellor Fam Touro VIC Familiarization Tour – 27 operators provided insight to our 22 participants onwhat visitors will see and do in Cape Breton 2012. For the first time, we used a busfor the FAM tour and were able to maximize drive time by having operators andproduct groups board the bus to do presentations4. Opportunities with CB Highlands National Park in Ingonish and Cheticamp being explored to for 20135. Core VIC staff participation in Storytelling Workshopstorytelling workshops were held in Louisbourg, Sydney River, St. Ann’s, Inverness andSt. Peters. 52 Participants in total including VIC and Operators6. Employ bilingual staff in our Sydney and Louisbourg VICs. Steps taken:Bilingual staff hired for 2012 season in Sydney and Louisbourg7. Core VIC staff given additional technology trainingTraining provided on creating operator brochures on cbisland.com itinerary builder toolSocial media training with staff has been completedVICs communicated with socialmedia@dcba.ca to pass on daily events of interest8. Collect data on what collateral our visitors want and useVisitors want the following data and collateral:44
Page 3 and 4: Destination Cape Breton Association
Page 7 and 8: BackgroundIn January 2010, Destinat
Page 9 and 10: o Total of 7 experiential tourism a
Page 11 and 12: ooKelsey Peters, DCBATera Lee - Fra
Page 13 and 14: Donelda’s Puffin Boat ToursFigure
Page 15 and 16: 1.3. Go Forward - Ensuring After-Ca
Page 17 and 18: 5 of 11 operators (45%) would benef
Page 19 and 20: At the end of the process, the STEP
Page 21 and 22: 2.0 2013 Marketing Agenda2013 marks
Page 23 and 24: See Places of 2013” by National G
Page 25 and 26: leveraging their Market Portfolio A
Page 27 and 28: The marketing investment in Halifax
Page 29 and 30: DCBA worked with Ambassatours / Gra
Page 31 and 32: Visual improvements to the quality
Page 33 and 34: island - in June from The Fortress
Page 35 and 36: FACEBOOK - WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/TOURISM
Page 37 and 38: • Community is 1,774 twitter user
Page 39 and 40: esults of Pinterest as a viable con
Page 41 and 42: 2013 Marketing PartnershipsIn early
Page 43: 3.0 Visitor ServicesCape Breton’s
Page 47 and 48: Increase the number of visitors to
Page 49 and 50: APPENDIX AProduct Development Commi
Page 51 and 52: 4. Rework your marketing budgets -
Page 53 and 54: 17. Fix the kiosks you put up four
Page 55 and 56: 10. Make it obvious when your busin
Page 57 and 58: APPENDIX DLouisbourg 300 Marketing
Page 59 and 60: I. OVERVIEWThe 300 th anniversary o
Page 61 and 62: III. TARGET AUDIENCEThe target audi
Page 63 and 64: situation. Authentic Experiencers w
Page 65 and 66: Television advertising will include
Page 67 and 68: Out of HomeTo complement the other
Page 69 and 70: A contest provides a way to not onl
Page 71 and 72: The microsite should also have a
Page 73 and 74: Apr-SepRadio20,000 Negotiate media
Page 75 and 76: Promotion of Experiences and Packag
Page 77 and 78: APPENDIX ECommunications and Sales
Page 79 and 80: Business Community Member Engagemen
Page 81 and 82: Product DevelopmentTo heighten the
Page 83 and 84: NewslettersCreate and distribute re
Page 85 and 86: APPENDIX GMarketing Committee Chang

2013 DCBA Strategic Plan - Destination Cape Breton Association

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?