A NEW YEAR & A NEW VISION
A new year, a new Tourism Marketing Manager (that's me!) and a new vision for tourism development in Penticton & Wine Country. Over the past four months, we've been working hard to better understand our visitors and potential visitors through intensive surveying. With this knowledge now in hand, we're gathering input from a key group of savvy tourism businesses and stakeholders to build Penticton's Destination Marketing Strategy.
The DRAFT strategy will be presented for your input Wednesday, February 2 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. at the Penticton & Wine Country Chamber Boardroom, 2nd floor. Please RVSP if you plan to attend to jcampbell@penticton.org. Space is limited.
Looking back at this past year, overall city tourism numbers indicate we were down slightly compared to 2009. Growth in tourism is forecasted for BC this year, and our objectives are being set for Penticton to experience growth as well.
A key area for growth are the shoulder seasons - April to June and September to November. In November, we hired Jeff Plant, Sport Tourism Coordinator with Penticton & Wine Country Tourism. Jeff's role? To market Penticton as an ideal location for a myriad of sporting events, with a goal of driving up tourism business in the should seasons. Click here to view January's Sport Tourism Newsletter.
HOT OFF THE PRESS!
The Official 2011 Visitors Guide was released this week, and is now available at the Penticton & Wine Country Visitors Centre. The guide, which was once again well-supported by the tourism community, is carried at visitor information centres throughout BC, Alberta and Washington state. It can also be accessed online via tourismpenticton.com. Locally, it can also be found at hotels and motels, restaurants and other businesses.
Watch for us to be pushing the marketing envelope on this project in 2012 (going more online and tech-savvy), as well as with many other initiatives we'll be leading this year.
We'll be:
· ramping up our social media efforts
· launching a new e-communications strategy
· building a BRAND NEW website that will work even harder to promote our brand
· working more collaboratively with ALL our partners - wherever we can partner/co-op, we're going to try to find a way to do so
For me, this year is all about building an army. Taking Penticton to new heights as a destination is going to take a lot of work, but if you're up to the challenge and want to join forces, please call me. I'd love to hear from you. (250) 490-2464.
Until then, let's make 2011 a most successful and prosperous year!
