northwest territories tourism 2018 year in reviewmarketing highlights in 2017/18, nwt tourism...

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES TOURISM | YEAR IN REVIEW | SPECTACULARNWT.COM | 1

2018 YEAR IN REVIEW

NORTHWES T TERRITORIES TOURISM


Message from the Chairperson

As we prepare to reconnect with industry colleagues from across the territory at our Annual Tourism Conference in Yellowknife, there will be exciting conversations about the Change, Challenge and Opportunities that our industry is facing. There is lots to talk about. Here are some highlights!

VISITATION AND VISITOR SPENDING IS UP International tourism continues to grow rapidly. In the Northwest Territories we are keeping pace! GNWT recently announced record breaking visitor numbers for the second year in a row! In 2017/18 the NWT hosted 112,530 visitors who directly spent $203.4 Million in our territory. That’s a 19% growth in visitation and a 48% growth in visitor spend over the last five years. NEW TOURISM BUSINESSES The number of licensed tourism operators in the NWT grew from 140 in 2017 to 153 in 2018. That is a 9% growth rate year over year.

AIR CAPACITY INCREASED INTO THE NWTIn 2017 we saw an increase in air capacity for flights coming into the NWT in response to demand from Asia and to increased hotel capacity here. Air Canada added a direct daily flight from Vancouver for the 2017/18 winter aurora season. That direct flight is now available all year long and a second daily direct flight from Vancouver was recently added for the fall and winter tourism season for 2018/19.

BMT TRAINING COMMENCEDHotel and airline capacity growth is important to grow our industry, but equally as important is the need to ensure spectacular experiences for our visitors, whether they fly or drive into or around our territory. Earlier this year, with GNWT support, we delivered the first pan-northern Business Market Trade (BMT) Ready training program which we had developed with Nunavut Tourism and Yukon Tourism. GNWT ITI is now delivering BMT training programs both in workshop format and on-line and the training is also available on our website. Our recent MOU signed with GNWT and the Indigenous Tourism Industry Association of Canada (ITAC) will enable increased delivery of this valuable training tool for tourism businesses. MEMBERS SURVEYEDIn the fall this year we surveyed our membership. The top two priorities for NWT Tourism members are increased marketing investments for NWTT and adequate core funding to support the marketing team in delivering on its DMO mandate. Members identified there is a growing need for skilled workers, and that

labor issues are anticipated to impact their own businesses and the industry more in the future. Members are concerned that there needs to be more enforcement to ensure health and safety of our visitors and adherence to license requirements to operate. It is clear from survey results that our members want to support strong destination marketing and a spectacular visitor experience in our territory!

In closing – our industry’s growth is a testament to the hard work and dedication of so many. Whether it is our dedicated staff who are working tirelessly to showcase our destination to potential visitors, our CEO who leads our team and advocates on our industry’s behalf for winning business conditions, or our members who deliver spectacular experiences and lasting memories every day for our visitors – together you all make us proud. On behalf of our Board, I want to thank our funding partners - the GNWT and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency who have put their trust in NWT Tourism with the funds they provide to enable us to do what we do. It has been my pleasure to serve as your board Chair in 2018. I look forward to serving you in this capacity again next year!

Susan WrightChairperson, NWT Tourism


Marketing HighlightsIn 2017/18, NWT Tourism invested $3,069,000 dollars in marketing the Northwest Territories. Of that investment, $2.769 Million was funded by the Government of the Northwest Territories and the remaining $300,010 came from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.

Our annual marketing plan is delivered across four different marketing channels and our small team in Yellowknife work with the expertise and creative talent of our Agency of Record – Outcrop Communications to develop and deliver our consumer marketing. Content on our English language platforms is continually used and repurposed for consumer platforms managed in international markets by our general sales agents and marketing partners.

Consumer direct marketing includes the production of our NWT travel guides, paid advertising, our spectacular NWT website, social media marketing on Twitter feeds, Facebook, Instagram and You Tube and ensuring the engaging content we have developed for our North American social media platforms is served up and repurposed on platforms in Japan, South Korea, China and Germany. It also includes Consumer show attendance in partnership with local tourism operators. Here are some highlights….

NWT CALL CENTRENWT Tourism printed 25,000 Explorers’ Guides in 2018 and 8,500 lure pieces. The 2018 Explorers’ Guides were distributed to a range of places including Visitor Information Centres across Canada in January and lure pieces were distributed

at consumer shows and marketing events. In 2017/18 our staff handled 6595 guide orders and 592 enquiries to help visitors plan their trips to the Northwest Territories!

NWT WEBSITE Content marketing on our spectacularnwt.com website continues to be very effective in our efforts to reach our target markets. Stories accounted for 268,000 story pageviews in 2017/18, compared to 188,871 in 2016/17. This is an increase of almost 42%. Year over year, NWT Tourism aimed at achieving the same number of pageviews for the website as there were in 2016/17 when we had the very successful Secrets Campaign as part of Canada’s 150th, minus the 2016/17 Secrets contest-only pageviews (339,226). This goal was met, and in fact exceeded by 46,808 pageviews. DIGITAL CONSUMER ADVERTISINGThe Just a Bit Different integrated marketing campaign was implemented from January through March 2018. The campaign had many components, including digital advertising, TV ads, advertorial, social media marketing, consumer shows and displays at airports. Digital ads were created and placed on various sites which aligned with our target audiences, including: Expedia, Travel & Leisure, Trip Advisor, Amazon and others. NWT Tourism also implemented paid search, primarily on Google. Social media drove another 17%. While it is difficult to attribute what causes people to search the web for tourism in the Northwest Territories, there was a noticeable spike in traffic starting in January 2018 through to the end of March, which is when the integrated marketing campaign was in market. Take a look at some of our ads!

Web banners from the Just a Bit Different Campaign.


Integrated campaign – Out of Home activation: Display in the Pearson International Airport, and visitors to the activation checking out NWT Tourism’s Explorers’ Guides and more.

Integrated campaign – Out of Home activation: Ad in Vancouver International Airport.


An example of a successful social media post.

Staff and tour operators interacting with potential visitors at consumer shows this spring.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETINGSocial media followers grew across all channels in the 2017/18 fiscal year. Facebook, by far the largest social media outlet in terms of visitor numbers and engagement, grew by over almost 3,000 followers ending the year with just under 70,000 followers. The total number of followers on all NWT Tourism social media accounts as we write this report is now sitting at 106,863.

CONSUMER SHOW PROGRAMMINGAttending consumer shows allows NWT Tourism to increase the general awareness of the NWT as a travel destination in face-to-face encounters with the public. NWT Tourism purchased a block of booth space at five consumer shows this fiscal and offered booth space to tourism operators at a reduced rate. NWT Tourism would like to thank those members who work with us to make a bigger impact at consumer shows than if NWT Tourism attended alone. Shows attended by NWT Tourism and operators were the Toronto Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show, the Vancouver Outdoor Adventure & Travel Show, the Toronto Sportsman Show, the Calgary Outdoor Adventure Show and the Ottawa Travel and Vacation Show. Check out our members actively selling their tourism products!


MEDIA PROMOTIONS The media coverage provided by travel writers and broadcast journalists enables an extensive audience reach at a greatly reduced cost compared to paid advertising, so travel media are an important component of our tourism marketing plan.

NWT Tourism attended Go Media in Halifax in October 2017, meeting with 31 media representatives who were interested in doing travel stories about the NWT. Appointments included media from Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Germany and other international markets.

MEDIA FAMsNWT Tourism hosted and aided with a total of 21 media familiarization tours in the 2017/18 fiscal year. Media from Canada, the US, Australia, Japan, China, Germany and South Korea visited various regions in both summer and winter.

NWT TOURISM PHOTO LIBRARYNWT Tourism populates and maintains an online photo database that is used by

travel trade and travel media and other tourism marketing partners who are promoting tourism to the NWT. In the 2017/18 fiscal year, there were 2,520 photos in the public library folder and there were 6,080 photo downloads from the public library. Photo requests were received from every national and international target market of NWTT. There are currently over 37,000 images in the main library. Keeping our photos and videos organized, catalogued and managing the rights associated with the photos is a huge task and this year 69 video clips and 889 photos were uploaded with tags and keywords and rights documentation to our main photo library.

MEDIA COVERAGE In the 2017/18 fiscal year, media ad equivalence value in North America totaled $9,146,296 with a circulation of 166,826,062.

Media Marketing

Sample stories generated from travel media about the NWT.

Meeting and Incentive TravelThe 2017/2018 fiscal year was the fourth year that NWT Tourism operated the NWT Conference Bureau.

A total of 22 proposals to host conferences in the Northwest Territories were prepared and submitted to external organizations for evaluation and destination selection by event planners. These proposals were valued at $7,909,600 which represents a 302% growth in the value of conference bids submitted in comparison to 2016/17. Seven site visits were hosted this year. Site visits are a tool used by NWT Tourism when our destination has

been shortlisted to one of three final conference destinations. These visits are planned in partnership with hotels, municipalities and other partners to convince conference planners that our destination can deliver to their requirements.

Nine conferences, that had been secured by the NWT Conference Bureau between 2014/15 and 2017/18 took place in the NWT this year, four of which were secured this year. The revenue realized for these nine conferences represents an estimated $1,612,600 in conference expenditures which took place in 2017/18.


Name of Show Location of Show Business to Business Planner Appointments Taken

Incentive Canada Quebec City 32 appointmentsIncentive Works Toronto 20 appointments & open show formatIMEX America Las Vegas 28 appointmentsDestination Direct St. Johns 15 appointments Tête-à-Tête Ottawa Open show format

In addition, NWT Tourism participated in MCIT Trade Shows pursuing additional sales leads and chasing RFPs for conferences that the NWT could host and wanted to bid on. (See table below).

$7,000,000

$8,000,000

2014 / 2015 2015 / 2016 2016 / 2017 2017 / 2018

$6,000,000

$5,000,000

$4,000,000

$3,000,000

$2,000,000

$1,000,000

$0

302% GROWTH

$2,263,000

$1,518,200$1,964,000

$7,909,600

NWT CONFERENCE BUREAU - ANNUAL VALUE OF PROPOSALS

The booth for NWT Tourism was enhanced in partnership with the City of Yellowknife. The City has been an important contributing partner to MCIT marketing efforts.

Ensemble Travel Group Executives pause for a photo after enjoying outdoor activities at Aurora Village in Yellowknife.

PHOTO CREDIT: TOP OF THE WORLD TRAVEL

In follow- up to leads pursued in 2015 and a site visit hosted in 2017, the Ensemble Travel Group chose the NWT for their Executive Retreat . NWT Tourism and the GNWT worked together to stage a showcase of the tourism product available across the NWT ensuring that these executives left our capital city with our whole destination in their hearts and in the forefront of their minds as they headed back to their own travel agencies to begin packaging the destinations they would sell.

Michelle Handley selling the NWT as a spectacular travel destination for meeting conferences and incentive travel.


TRAVEL TRADE PROMOTIONSThe travel trade is an important channel for NWTT’s marketing activities in international markets. NWTT staff work closely with a variety of international travel trade companies and with members who are Trade Ready, ensuring travel trade is up to date about information on the tourism product and tourism suppliers in the NWT who are interested in working with the travel trade on a commission basis. NWT Tourism participated in five travel trade shows. Rendez-Vous Canada (RVC) which is Destination Canada’s premier international tourism marketplace, annually connects international buyers with Canadian sellers of tourism products. Other trade shows attended were Focus Japan, Showcase Canada in China, Modetour in South Korea, ITB in Berlin, CITAP in Vancouver and Australia’s Coroboree. Our staff and General Sales Agents took hundreds of appointments with travel trade from all target international markets at these shows this year. In Germany, our General Sales Agent Michaela Arnold who markets to German-speaking Europe made a total of 93 sales calls to German-speaking travel trade companies with some sales calls including seminars for travel agents in order to familiarize them with the tourism product available in the NWT. A number of cooperative ads focusing on NWT content, including two with the German Travel Trade company CANUSA were implemented. A media and travel trade FAM trip were hosted in the Western Arctic in March 2018.

In Japan our General Sales Agent, Eiko Tanaka, worked closely with Destination Canada (Japan) and the other members of Team Canada Japan to coordinate marketing activities with key trade accounts as part of the Canada Theatre program. This content-based marketing promotion focuses on developing key stories and experiences that will encourage the Japanese tour wholesalers to develop new itineraries with the intent of generating more interest in travel to Canada. A total of 23 sales calls were made to key travel companies in Japan to educate travel agents about NWT products, to discuss their travel programs and help with upcoming travel programs to promote NWT tourism products.

NWT Tourism arranged and supported a total of 4 traditional trade FAMs from China, Japan, Germany and South Korea. In addition, NWT Tourism participated in Destination Canada’s MEGA FAM program, hosting 3 groups of 4 travel trade agents in this fiscal year. Participants on the MEGA FAM were from Australia, Germany, South Korea and the UK.

Above: NWT travel trade-ready operators encouraging the travel trade to carry NWT in their product offerings.

Shannon Szucs, Northwest Territories Tourism’s new Marketing Director marketing spectacular NWT.


TOURISM 2020 MARKETING INITIATIVES Tourism 2020 funding is targeted at addressing two key marketing areas:Regional Tourism initiatives and other special marketing projects that are initiated by ITI and mutually agreed to by ITI and NWTT as they arise. The 2017/18 budget includes $250,000 that is allocated to the five regions ($50,000 each) and the balance is set aside for other special initiatives that may arise in 2017/18.

In the Western Arctic, implementation of the regional plan included a variety of activities including paid advertising, support for the Western Arctic website, and attendance at consumer shows. The Western Arctic was featured in the Yukon Visitor Guide, Town of Inuvik Guide and Dawson City Guide. Advertising was also purchased in Motorcycle Mojo in order to capture the interest of this audience for the new highway to Tuktoyaktuk.

In the North Slave Region, support was given to the development of a video by Shopify to help the marketing efforts of the Tlicho online store. Photography was gathered from Wekweeti to help promote this community to future tourists. In Lutselk’e, a photo shoot was conducted, and a story was developed and posted which promotes the community as the future entrance to Thaidene Nene National Park. Signage was developed and produced for the Snowking Festival in English, simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French. A new tourism operator, Frozen Rock Studio, was assisted with brochure promotion. The Be a Tourist in Your Own Town event was supported. Winners of the YK Festivals contest claimed their prize, snowmobiling to Hearne Lake.

In the Dehcho Region video footage shot in March 2017 was reviewed, tagged and uploaded into the Canto library for use.

A video was created and a mini-campaign was launched. Two shorter videos and two stories were created, and all of these assets were used to advertise the Dehcho as a tourist destination. Dehcho staff attended the Edmonton RV Show. A stand-up banner was completed for use in trade shows.

In the Sahtu Region, the Canol Trail was promoted with advertising and editorial content in Up Here magazine. Paddling operators in the region were supported through the production of consumer show collateral, giving a unified Sahtu presence at the show for all paddlers offering trips in this area. Consumer shows were offered to operators at a subsidized rate. Banner ads and social media boosted posts were utilized to drive traffic to the consumer shows attended by the paddlers. A Wild Sheep Magazine story was produced. This initiative was part of the Destination Canada National Hunting Program. The Sahtu region supported a new tourism operator (Canol Outfitters) to attend Safari Club International’s Annual Hunters’ Convention in Las Vegas.

In the South Slave Region, a photo/video shoot was completed, and assets were uploaded to the NWT Tourism database and shared with NWT Parks, ITI HQ and ITI South Slave. The South Slave Region attended the Edmonton RV Show and distributed the numbered NWT Parks camping vouchers to track attendance at the show to actual stays in NWT campgrounds. Trade Show promotional items were produced to support consumer show attendance. Map pads, and community-focused collateral were developed. A video was produced from footage acquired in the previous fiscal year, to be shown at trade shows. A photographer was provided to capture images of the Arctic Winter Games for

use by the region. Ads were produced and placed in the Milepost, promoting the driving route in the South Slave.

NWTT promotions include tourism experiences in all regions of the territory.


INDUSTRY ADVOCACYNWT Tourism continues work on important advocacy issues. This includes working on territorial industry issues and national issues in partnership with the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) and the Provincial & Territorial Industry Associations (PTTIA). Advocacy activities this year included:• Participation with TIAC in a national

lobby on Parliament Hill during tourism week to address labour shortages, improve access and visa processing, address Canada’s cost competitiveness and to ensure continued Canadian marketing investments in Destination Canada;

• Participation in Parks Canada’s consultation regarding its Business License Policy for Nááts’įhch’oh and Nahanni National Park Reserves;

• Continued work to address Liquor license flexibility for tourism operators;

• Advancing the One-Day Fishing License project within DFO and ENR;

• Advocating for Visitor Services in Yellowknife following the closure of the Northern Frontier Visitor Association and their visitor Centre;

• Advocacy for amendments to the Towns and Villages Act to enable municipalities to move forward with an accommodations levy for increased destination marketing; and

• Participation in the City of Yellowknife’s consultation related to development of new by-laws for Short Term Rental Accommodations to ensure a level playing field for accommodations providers.

All advocacy efforts are focussed on our mission which is to grow the tourism industry for the NWT to support a strong and sustainable economy.

SPECIAL INITIATIVES SPECIAL INITIATIVES – DESTINATION CANADA – ANGLING PROGRAMThis fiscal, NWT Tourism completed the final year of a three-year commitment with Destination Canada to participate in its Connecting America Program. NWTT’s participation was focused on Destination Canada’s National Angling program. The Destination Canada Angling Program was coordinated by NewBase, formerly Publicitas. The NWT media trip for In-Fisherman was completed on Great

Bear Lake. Two content stories for the Destination Canada website were created. The first story was published January 18th, 2018 and the second story went in-market in February. Print and digital ads to support the content creation were in market as each story was published. There was substantial traffic driven to the spectacularnwt.com website, with 16,648 sessions generated by this traffic.

Aurora in the Western Arctic region.

Hiking in the Sahtu region.

Fishing in the South Slave region.

Paddling in the Dehcho region.


2017 AGM HighlightsThe 2017 Annual General Meeting and Conference was held in Inuvik, NT. If you missed it – here are a few snapshots capturing spectacular moments!

The winners of the GNWT-ITI Parks award along with the winners of the Service Excellence, Lifetime Achievement, and Operator of the Year.

The newly elected NWTT Board of Directors’ Executive.

A youth jigging performance was presented by the Gwich’in Tribal Council.

The Inuvik Drummers and Dancers wowed the crowd and...

...got everyone up dancing.

Northwest Territories Tourism, Box 610, Yellowknife, NT, Canada X1A 2N5Telephone (Local): (867) 873-5007, Fax: (867) 873-4059Email: [email protected]

northwest territories tourism 2018 year in reviewmarketing highlights in 2017/18, nwt tourism...

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