Download - 2015 Business Plan Presentation
Welcome to Tourism Victoria’s 2015 Business Plan Launch!
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Victoria…It’s More than That
2015 Business Plan Overview
January 13, 2015
111 days to High Season
What is the plan?
Tourism Victoria Overview
Destination Marketing Framework
• Legislated provincially in British Columbia
• Enabled by accommodation sector, municipalities, and industry coming together
• Tourism is largely local small and medium sized businesses coming together under a common tourism brand
• Customers choose place first then businesses
• Competition is other destinations and other customer choices
Economic Catalyst
Source: Destination Promotion: An Engine of Economic Development, Oxford Economics, November 2014
Economic Catalyst
Source: Destination Promotion: An Engine of Economic Development, Oxford Economics, November 2014
2014 Overview
2014: Others Taking Notice
• 2014 B.C. Marketer of the Year, by BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association
• 2014 HSMAI Silver of Advertising Campaign Great Meetings
• 2014 HSMAI Bronze of Advertising Campaign Victoria Calling
• 2015 HSMAI Gold for Media and Public Relations campaign Find Christmas Here
What Are You Doing as an Encore?
Building the business day by day:
• Brick by brick
• Solid strategy
• Rock solid execution
2015 Principles
• Tourism industry recovery
• Focus on sustained growth, rate and diversification
• Disciplined about role vis-à-vis other destination marketing partners
• Align not duplicate
• Separate mature business from growth opportunities
• Keep punching above our weight as an organization
Sophisticated Board of Directors
• Evolving from a “Policy” to a “Strategy Focused” Board
• Deep experience and business acumen
• Community leaders and industry experts
• Provide deep support and independent oversight to management
Strong Executive Team
Four Key Functional Areas:
• President & CEO: Executive office, Board of Directors and Committees, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs, Research, Membership and Visitor Services
• CFO & VP Strategy Management: Accounting, Finance, IT, Human Resources and Strategy management (Balanced Scorecard management)
• Chief Marketing Officer: Marketing Communications including advertising, website, Content Marketing, travel/lifestyle Media and Public Relations
• Director of Sales: Meetings and Incentive sales, Leisure Travel sales and sports tourism
Funding Profile
Total 2015 Budget: $4.3 million
Disruptions in 2014
Need to Be Conservative in 2015
Effective Destination Marketing & Sales
Organization
Why We Exist
Mission
• We inspire the world to experience our destination
Why We Exist
Vision
• Tourism Victoria will be internationally recognized as a leader in sustainable tourism development, ensuring Greater Victoria remains one of the top destinations in the world
Why We Exist: Customer Recall
Source: Tourism Victoria Exit Survey, 2014
Why We Exist: Measured Results
39:1 2014 Campaign ROI
Source: Insignia Research
Stakeholders
Brand Promise
Victoria is where old-world tradition meets new-world experiences.
Our guests are rejuvenated by fresh ocean air and inspired by our warm, island welcome
and year-round natural beauty.
Strategic Objectives
• Grow Rate and Volume: Focus efforts to generate demand for the must-visit destination with an emphasis to drive revenue and growth
• Addressing Seasonality: Promote Greater Victoria as a year-round destination that includes building equity around shoulder and off-season opportunities
• Destination Management: Work with industry on select, but critical policy and supply side drivers of destination success
• Telling Tourism’s Story: Increase appreciation and support for Greater Victoria’s vibrant visitor economy
Strategy Map
Key Channels
Destination Marketing Foundations
Strategy-Focused Organization
Principles:
1. Translate the strategy into operational terms
2. Align the organization to the strategy
3. Make strategy everyone’s everyday job
4. Make strategy a continual process
5. Mobilize change through executive leadership
2015-2017 Strategy Development
Process
Getting Ready for 2015
• Organizational review
• Spoke with 300 members
• Survey of member priorities on leisure business
• Strategic retreat June 2015
• Objectives and priorities approved
• 2015 Plan approved by Committees and Board
• Balanced Scorecard to support
Environmental Scan
Environmental Scan
Purpose: Assesses the macro-environment the firm is operating in
• Sets context
• Helps to frame opportunity and risk
• Prudent step to help kick off a strategy cycle
Output - Strategic Issues: Key factors in the corporate plan that need to be addressed by the organization
PESTEL Framework
P - Political
E - Economic
S - Societal
T - Technological
E - Environmental
L - Legislative
Political
Public Policy Priority Worldwide
• G20 statement on the economic power of tourism
• Integrated approaches to tourism policy and marketing
• Strong work in understanding tourism policy
• President Obama recognizes tourism as the “star” of the US economic recovery
Disruption Affects Confidence
UN Report issued in June 2014: More than 50 million refugees
Fuel Price Risk
Source: Three reasons Iraq conflict isn't driving up gas prices (yet); Kathleen Pender, Published 3:03 pm, June 21, 2014
Canadian Federal Election in 2015
• Federal election with a return to balanced budgets will likely drive changes to Federal Tourism political landscape:
– New leadership at CTC
– New federal Minister likely
– More sophisticated positions on open skies
– Improved approach to visas
Municipal Elections in 2014
• Some key roles have changed
• Voters have spoken loud and clear on the amalgamation question
– Message, think regionally
• Strong support for Tourism and Tourism Victoria
Brand Portfolio
Economic
Recovery in Victoria Accelerated
2014: Year to Date 68.7% Through November 2014
Global Recovery Sustained if Not Spectacular
• Broad recovery
• US recovery is robust
• China’s hard landing never happened
Volatile Stock Markets
• Dow Jones trades well into record territory
• TSX hurt severely by falling oil prices
• Active IPO environment
• Flight to quality in equity market
• Significant retrenchment beneath the surface
Canada is a Strong Foundation
• Wealth has increased significantly
• Number of wealthy Canadians grew by 7.2% in 2013
Source: World Wealth Institute Report, June 2014
Rise of Asia is Undeniable
• Highly FIT and moving to overnights
Sources: China Contact and Boeing
Resilience of US Economy
• Remarkable structural recovery driven by entrepreneurship and innovation
Source: Outbound Travel Spending, January 2014
Pacific Northwest Region: Victoria Strategically Located
• Delta’s Asia hub is at Seattle Tacoma
• Air Canada is moving 787 capacity for Asia to Vancouver International Airport
• Victoria International Airport has intermodal connectivity to both global hubs
• Other intermodal options such as ferry
M&IT is Back: But Demand Tech
• Tech enhanced meetings
• Business is back
• Business has changed
• More corporate
• Association is mature
• We must adapt and innovate
• Need for sales innovation
2015 Economic Uncertainties
• There is always risk in the economic environment
• Falling fuel prices a double edged sword
• Falling Canadian dollar will support tourism exports
• Impact of potential interest rate rises on consumers
But US Dollar: Not a Panacea
Source: Tourism Victoria Exit Survey, 2014
Societal
Travel as a Basic Human Right
April 2014 - Major industry study written by Oxford Economics and commissioned by Amadeus, forecasts travel to grow by 5.4% annually over the next 10 years, outpacing global GDP
Travel as a Basic Human Right
Global travel industry set for decade of sustained growth according to new report from Amadeus
Demographic Challenges in Europe
Source: Is Recovery from the EU Banking Crisis Possible?, IMF 2011
Boomers, Gen Y and Gen Z
• Boomers are in peak travel years now
• Generation Y are placing travel as a lifestyle priority
• Generation Z may be the hardest working and most entrepreneurial generation yet
Technological
It’s All About Mobile
Source: The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behaviour, Google in partnership with Sterling Brands and Ipsos, 2012
Tourism Victoria’s first mobile advertising opportunity sold out in six weeks
Technology Driving Capacity
Aircraft and Cruise Capacity
Source: Shipsu
Environmental
Aviation Innovating to Be Clean
IATA has made Sustainability a Key Strategic Priority
Environment is a Differentiator
• Only 4% of Chinese cities reported clean air
Source: ChinaUSA Daily, March 2014
Impact of Weather
Source: Tourism Victoria Exit Survey, 2014
Legislative
The Rise of Privacy Legislation
• Canada and elsewhere
• E-mail, social marketing and Big Data analytics are all impacted
• Could have significant implications on marketers
• Expect this to be an ongoing trend
Our Consumer
Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Relaxation
Bull’s Eye Targets
• Extensive research and day in the life thinking applied to our five key consumers:
1. Meeting Planner
2. Tour Operator
3. Travel Agent
4. Journalist
5. Leisure Traveller
Bull’s Eye Targets
• Meeting Planner - Heather
Bull’s Eye Targets
• Tour Operator - Chris
Bull’s Eye Targets
• Travel Agent - Mary
Bull’s Eye Targets
• Journalist - Robert
Bull’s Eye Targets
2011 2015
• Leisure traveller - Lisa
Under5
5 to9
10 to14
15 to19
20 to24
25 to29
30 to34
35 to39
40 to44
45 to49
50 to54
55 to59
60 to64
65 to69
70 to74
75 to79
80 to84
85andover
Boomers 74M
X 70M
Y 99M
Z 40M
Greatest 33M
Geographic Markets
Why the US over Canada?
Source: Tourism Victoria Exit Survey, 2014
Target
• 38-years-old bull’s eye
• 69% No kids at home
• 49% women
• Best customer: First time, overnighters
Target
Source: Tourism Victoria Destination Brand Study, 2013
EQ Profile - Free Spirit
• Free Spirits are highly social and open-minded. Their enthusiasm for life extends to their outlook on travel. Experimental and adventurous, they indulge in high-end experiences that are shared with others
Source: CTC Explorer Quotient Research prepared by Environics Research Group
EQ Profile - Free Spirit
• Free Spirit’s preferred activities:
– Shopping, dining and other food-related activities
– Entertainment and performing arts
– Water-based outdoor activities
– Outdoor/nature sports & activities
– Festivals, events & spectator sports
EQ Profile - Free Spirit
• Free Spirit’s motivation and ambition:
– Social Mobility: Social advancement is desirable
– Need for Status Recognition: Desire to be held in high esteem by others
– Penchant for Risk: Desire to take risks to get what they want out of life
– Time Stress: Feeling there is never enough time to do everything they want
– Show off travel: Desire to visit well-known landmarks
What our Visitors Do
Source: Tourism Victoria Exit Survey, 2014
Destination Marketing Media Relations
Content Marketing
2015 Will be Successful IF
• We continue to solidify positioning shoulder/season, giving consumers year-round reasons to visit
• We continue to be integrated across all departments and aligned as a destination
• We continue to build great content and impactful creative that grows our following and keeps our consumer engaged
Marketing Calendar 2015
Halloween
Halloween Results
45% up for campaign
#VictoriaBOO Results
• 950 tweets with 550,000 impressions
• October 1 - Trending in Victoria, Vancouver and Shenzhen, China
Halloween Results
Occupancy 0.59%
RevPAR $5.39
100+ Halloween-themed hotel packages sold
Romance
Romance
Alignment
• Animating the city
Amazing Race Canada
Wanting Qu
High Performing Website
Desktop & Mobile
• 1.5 million sessions
• 3.28 pages per session
• 5 million page views
Strong Digital Platforms
29K 30K 39K
5K
100,000+
Integration of Efforts
• Aligning the destination in our messaging
Membership
• Warming up the market with editorial coverage
Media Relations
• Extending the direct invitation to consumers
Destination Marketing
• Building shelf space through the trade channel
Travel Trade
• Servicing the visitor when they get here and maximising sales of member product
Visitor Services
Meetings & Incentive Travel Travel Trade
Sport Tourism
Meetings & Incentive Travel
2015 Will be Successful IF
• We build awareness for Victoria as a meetings destination and differentiate it against competitors
• We drive shoulder season meetings business to the destination and create compression in the marketplace
• We secure a large industry conference where we can showcase our destination to greater potential clients and customers
• Mobilize VCON to strengthen collective messaging and reach
VCON
Victoria Conference Optimization Network
VCON Key Goals & Objectives
• Increase hotel room nights
• Develop a unifying, visible meetings identity
• Highlight the collaborative nature of the meetings sector in Greater Victoria
• Promote Victoria as a “one-stop” meetings and conference destination
Developing Identity
• Three “Take-to-Market” concepts were developed
• Messaging survey was administered to list of 25 clients
• Goal to determine if one of the messages clearly stood out as an authentic and believable message
• One that aligns to our targets client’s needs, wants and purchase plans
Identity Concepts
• Victoria: Your unique, boutique
meeting destination
• Victoria: Shhh…it’s our secret
• Victoria: A place that connects
people
VCON – Take to Market
Victoria: A place that connects people
VCON – Take to Market
Victoria is a meetings destination that
stimulates a deeper dimension of
networking
VCON – Take to Market
In Victoria,
great ideas will be born the way they
always have…
by accident
2015 Meetings Campaign
Connecting people, stimulating ideas
Video Book
Trade Show Booth
Connect and recharge
Capital Ideas Content Strategy
#CapitalIdeaYYJ
Content Marketing
Capital Ideas
Capital Ideas
VCON – Destination Sales Plan
• Shared Goal
– “Maximize meeting and conference opportunities for the region”
• Opportunity to build on strong foundations
– Collaboration Agreement
• Developed a synchronized sales plan
– Coordinate and communicate our sales activities to maximize coverage and opportunities
• Reviewed and communicated
M&IT 2015 Event Schedule
• Tete-a-Tete – January
• Incentive Canada - June
• Incentive Works – August
• IMEX – October
• CSAE- October
• PCMA Innovation - November
• Other:
– BEC Showcase Seattle
– BEC Showcase Dallas
– TT Corporate Meeting Planners Show
• Vancouver and Calgary
Travel Trade
2015 Will be Successful IF
• We better leverage partnerships and resources in key markets that will deliver growth
• We develop shoulder season itineraries and effectively sell member product opportunities
• We increase shelf space and distribution in key USA markets and drive high end FIT and group business
• We optimize the use of our CRM system and leverage to increase lead delivery to members
2014 China Trade Mission
2015 Travel Trade Strategy
2015 Travel Trade Strategy
• Developed utilizing:
– Member survey results
– Market analysis
– Discussions with key partners (DBC, CTC)
• Segment markets and prioritize
– Based on business opportunity for destination
– Allocate resources to grow in key markets
Member Survey
United States of America
• USA west coast a priority with members
Market Review - USA
Market Review – China
Market Review - International
Travel Trade Strategy
• Re-segment our international markets
• Re-profile investments to support segmentation
– Better align and focus our resources and efforts
– Ensure we are spending prudently in core and stable markets
– Provide adequate fuel to support key growth markets
• Streamline and synergize resources to grow business
• Better leverage partnerships with DBC and CTC
Market Segmentation
Market Segmentation
Travel Trade Strategy - Leads
2015 Travel Trade Shows
• USA
– Clipper Vacations Show
– Go -West
– USTOA
– Cruise 360
– Active America - China
• Canada
– CTC RVC 2015
– Canada’s West Marketplace
– CITAP
• Australia
– CTC Corroboree Australia
• Asia
– CTC Showcase China
Consortia – Western USA
Sports Tourism
• Sport Host partnership
• Priority:
– Shoulder Season
– High Profile Opportunities
Visitor Services Member Services
2015 Will Be Successful IF
• We grow Visitor Centre traffic to 300,000
• We grow Visitor Centre Sales to $1.5M
• We grow membership to 850 business listings
• We improve membership engagement
Visitor Centre
• Increased business focus
• Turned from a negative to a small profit business in line in 2014
• Renovation in 2014 customer experience
• More upside potential
• More innovation and training required
Vacation Guide Innovation
Vacation Guide Innovation
Festivals & Events
Develop a Bold Festivals/Events Strategy
• Best practices from other destinations
• Thoroughly researched
• Fill need periods
• True demand drivers
• Partner with City of Victoria and hotel community
• Different skill sets required
• Festivals/Events be able to stand on their own two feet
Refined Current Criteria
• Online and transparent for all to see
• Linked to measure hotel performance
• Not designed to increase the profitability of already profitable programs
• Shoulder and off-season given higher priority
• Decisions in February 2015
Finance Technology
Achieving Success
• Needs to be based on a solid foundation
• Financial - question activities and spends
• Does the activity / cost support the strategy
• Is there a better use of the resources
• Can we achieve the same goal more efficiently
• IT – holistic approach – not isolationist
Budget Highlights - 2015
Increase in sales and marketing
• Bidding for off-season meetings, route development, more campaigns, entering California
Decrease in overhead
• Labour, business travel, telecommunications, etc.
IT
• Cliché – “Leverage IT”
• not in departmental isolation but in alignment with Tourism Victoria’s strategy
• Streamline processes
• reduce overhead activities
• balanced with proper internal controls
• Reduce churn (unnecessary paperwork)
• Systems integration
• better knowledge, information and communication = better decisions
Monitoring Risk
• Financial - Foreign Exchange
• Up to 45% of all marketing expenses are US$
– 10% increase in US$ = $80,000 difference
• Up to 10% of operating expenses are US$
– 10% increase in US$ = $10,000 difference
• IT – Outside / Inside
• Outside – protect from malware, ransomware, viruses
• Inside – security, data backup, data integrity - disaster recovery
Summary
Tourism Panel Power of Tourism
Panel Participants
• Marsha Walden, President & CEO, Destination BC
• Ian Robertson, Executive Director, TIABC
• Jocelyn Jenkyns, General Manager, Victoria Conference Centre
• Dave Cowen, Chair, Tourism Victoria Board of Directors
• Bill Lewis, First Vice Chair, Tourism Victoria Board of Directors
• Moderator: Paul Nursey, President & CEO, Tourism Victoria