M&IT Update – Sept 24, 2009

On September 9, 2009, Tourism Victoria’s Kelly Pitt, Sales Manager, M&IT attended Live Canada 2009 in San Francisco, California. This event was held simultaneously in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Dallas and Minneapolis. Live Canada is an event designed to replaced the Canadian Tourism Commission’s traditional showcase receptions/marketplaces. The highly interactive and experiential multi-city event included a game show competition, held in Washington, DC and hosted by Canadian Colin Mochrie, connected all cities simultaneously. 112 clients from the San Francisco and LA areas attended this event. For more information visit Live Canada’s website.

 

M&IT Update – Sep 9, 2009

On August 25 & 26, 2009, Kelly Pitt, Sales Manager, M&IT attended IncentiveWorks 2009 in Toronto, with representatives from the Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort & Spa, Hotel Grand Pacific and the Inn at Laurel Point. IncentiveWorks is Canada’s largest trade show for the meetings, incentive travel, special events and promotions industries. There were more than 480 exhibit booths representing over 700 companies from a variety of domestic and international destinations, hotels, resorts, meeting/incentive travel services, business gifts and premium and reward merchandise at this show. Tourism Victoria’s booth received over 140 visitors interested in Victoria as a possible destination for future meetings and conventions.

Sales Update – Meetings & Incentive Travel – Aug 12, 2009

Kelly Pitt, Sales Manager, M&IT and Heather McGillivray, Director of Sales recently attended the MPI-World Education Congress, a four-day conference comprised of educational sessions and a 2-day tradeshow component. Tourism Victoria joined the Canadian Tourism Commission booth along with Tourism Vancouver, Tourism Whistler and other Canadian destinations. Tourism Victoria was able to connect with potential clients, even with a decrease in attendance -approximately 2,800 delegates (5,000 in 2008). This conference will be held in Vancouver in 2010, providing pre/post and other sponsorship opportunities to Victoria.

Kelly Pitt also recently attended Trailblazers in Toronto. The selected buyers at this unique educational marketplace are senior employees of North America’s most qualified incentive and meeting planning companies and have the ability to influence site selection with corporate clients. Tourism Victoria had 25 client appointments and met with 18 incentive buyers during this three day networking event. All 25 clients requested additional information on Victoria; five clients very interested in visiting Victoria on a Familiarization Tour or Site Inspection and one client has a possible lead for Victoria.

Tourism Victoria Profile – Jun 17, 2009

Once a month in an issue of Membership Matters, a Tourism Victoria staff member is interviewed on their role in the organization.
This month: Kelly Pitt, Sales Manager, Meetings & Incentive Travel 
 
How long have you been with Tourism Victoria?

I’ve been here for 6 months.

 

Where were you prior to joining us at Tourism Victoria?

I’ve actually come from a Meeting Planners background. I worked for 15 years in Vancouver for a destination management company as a meeting planner and then spent three years here in Victoria at the Brentwood Bay Lodge and Spa as a Conference Service Events Manager.

 

Your title at Tourism Victoria is Sales Manager for Meeting & Incentive Travel, what does that mean? What do you do?

I promote Victoria to Meeting Planners, so basically anybody that might consider Victoria for a conference, a meeting (such as a board retreat or a general meeting) or an incentive program.

I target the Meeting Planners that organize those types of events.

 

How do you do to appeal to Meeting Planners?

There’s a few ways we appeal to them. The first is prospect calling. I spend a great deal of my time on the telephone prospecting corporations. I phone corporations, find out if they have an in-house Meeting Planner, if they do I speak to that person and we look at what type of meetings they hold.

 

The second way is sales calls. We conduct one on one sales meetings with meeting planners, CEOs and sometimes the administrative assistants in various cities. I try to set up a meeting with whoever makes the decisions on where they’re hosting their meetings.

 

The third way we target our clientele is to hold client events. We’ll pick a destination outside Victoria, for example, this year we held client events in Vancouver and Seattle. We invite meeting planners (or the decision makers) to attend our one evening client event. It’s sort of a mixer that showcases Victoria.

 

Finally, the forth method is Familiarization Tour or FAMs. FAMs are for potential clients who’ve never been to Victoria. We want to show them everything the city has to offer so bring them on a FAM of Victoria and explore the city. This year we are planning two large FAMs. We’ve already done one – bringing in 10 clients from California and we’re hoping to bring 10 clients from Alberta in the fall.

 

Are there specific locations/cities you target, or do you target meeting planners based on word of mouth?

We are focusing this year a little closer to home. We are targeting the Canadian and the Pacific Northwest US Markets. Given the current state of the economy we’ve found more success by focusing on areas such as Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Seattle and Northern California.

 

So after the calls, meetings, and FAMs what does it all mean? What value does it present to Victoria and our membership?

Bringing conferences and meetings to Victoria is great value to our members and the city because we are bringing people to the destination. When people attend conferences they are not necessarily in conferences all day, they are out on our streets, visiting our restaurants, retail shops and attractions and taking tours all over the region.

 

What can our members do to make your job run smoother? What can people do to assist?

For us, the most important thing is keeping us updated with what’s new with their organization. That’s huge. Our clients, especially returning clients who tend to hold a lot of meetings in Victoria, are always looking for something new. But it’s not just about new products, if there’s a new person at the helm of an organization, or a new person acting as the point person for Tourism Victoria, we need to know about it right away. And if perhaps a member is reading this right now thinking that they have a product or service that’s a good fit with the conference market and they haven’t previously seen any conference business, we’d love to hear from them.

 

Fantastic! Thanks Kelly, on a completely different note – as one of the new faces of Tourism Victoria, what’s your favourite thing about working for the organization?

Oh, obviously the people. We have an amazing team. I felt right at home as soon as I started working here… I knew I had found a home.

-Kelsi Woodward, Communications Coordinator

Sales Update – Jun 3, 2009

The Sales Team has been busy, here’s a re-cap of what the Travel Trade and M&IT departments have been up to:

Travel Trade

Travel Trade Sales Managers, Doug Treleaven and Michelle Edington, and Director of Sales, Heather McGillivray attended Rendez-vous Canada 2009 in Calgary, Alberta.
 
Rendez-vous is Canada’s premier international tourism marketplace, bringing together international buyers and Canadian sellers in a series of scheduled appointments over a four day period. Tourism Victoria had pre-scheduled appointments with 100 international tour operators and Canadian Tourism Commission representatives. Due to the economic downturn 30% less buyers attended this year’s event, but the delegates in attendance were qualified buyers and there to do business. From one-on-one meetings with tour operators, Tourism Victoria develops a leads list to help generate business for our members. To access these leads please click here.

M&IT

On May 25, 2009 to May 29, Sales Manager, Kelly Pitt conducted a series of sales calls in Ottawa and Toronto, ON, meeting with representatives from organizations such as The Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada, The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, Wynford Motivation Works, The Canadian Public Relations Society, Financial Planners Standards Council and the Canadian Education & Research Institute of Counseling.  The meeting planners were very optimistic about the future of their meetings and although most were staying close to home this year, many were looking at destinations further a field for their future meetings. Kelly will be following up with the clients that had openings and would consider Victoria for programs/conferences in 2011 and beyond.

For more information please contact Kelly Pitt.

M&IT Spring ECO-FAM a Success! – May 6, 2009

On April 30th, 2009 Tourism Victoria’s Meeting and Incentive Travel Department welcomed nine Meeting Planners and two Canadian Tourism Commission representatives from Northern and Southern California for a three-day familiarization (FAM) trip. Thanks to the contribution of partners and suppliers, we were able to showcase Victoria and give our clients a taste of what our destination has to offer for meeting and incentive travel.

Click here to check out our photos of the FAM. Here’s just a small sample of the comments we’ve received:
 
“I just want to let you know that the Victoria Eco-FAM was, for me, a really fabulous trip. The scheduling was brilliant and everything felt smooth and well managed. I learned a tremendous amount and am eager to pitch Victoria as a future destination. Thank you so much for the opportunity to learn about your area in such an enjoyable way.”
 
“What an amazing fam, everyone did such a great job of incorporating the ECO and GREEN theme. But they don’t just talk about it…they practice it in earnest…really great to see (and taste!).”

Tourism Victoria M&IT Update – Mar 25, 2009

On March 8, 2009, Kelly Pitt, Sales Manager, Meeting and Incentive Travel (M&IT) department attended the Cascadia Conference in Bend, OR where over 200 Meeting Planners International members participated in a three day educational conference. At Cascadia, Tourism Victoria hosted a booth on the tradeshow floor which drew much attention from the attendees, as we were one of only two representatives from Canada. We took the opportunity to showcase Victoria as a truly unique meeting destination that is “close to home” as many Pacific Northwest companies are not travelling as far this year for meetings. Although the U.S. economy has certainly changed the look of executive board retreats and incentive meetings many are still going ahead with their annual conferences.  Following Cascadia, Kelly headed to Portland, OR for sales calls.
For more information please contact Kelly Pitt.

Tourism Victoria Activity Update – Feb 25, 2009

Tourism Victoria was recently invited to make a presentation to Tourism British Columbia’s Sales & Marketing Department and Call Centre in Vancouver on new tourism products in Victoria and the surrounding region.  

Holly Lenk, Manager Travel Media Relations and Doug Treleaven, Sales Manager, Travel Trade made three separate presentations informing Tourism British Columbia staff on “What’s New” in the culinary, outdoor adventure, leisure travel, attractions, accommodation, transportation and conference sectors.

This was a wonderful opportunity to ensure that Tourism BC is fully aware of the amazing range of experiences that we have for visitors to the destination.

Feedback from the staff at Tourism BC:

I found Doug and Holly’s presentation extremely valuable! While I had already heard about some of the new offerings before their presentation, the level of detail they provided really helped me better understand if it would be something relevant and useful for my purposes in Travel Information Management.  Well worth my time that’s for sure 

I found the food and wine content extremely relevant since we continually seem to be updating, refreshing and wanting more new product in that area.

I wanted to express my thanks for arranging the presentation from Tourism Victoria. The information presented gave me a better knowledge of the products in this area and a greater appreciation for the area in general. Please pass on my thanks to the Tourism Victoria team.

Tourism Victoria’s Meeting & Incentive Travel Department held its first two client events of the year in Vancouver, B.C. on February 18, 2009 and in Seattle, WA on February 19, 2009. The venues chosen were Voya Restaurant at the newly inaugurated Loden Hotel in Vancouver, and Wild Ginger Restaurant in downtown Seattle. The feedback was so positive that we are hoping to make this an annual event. Meeting planners and clients commented on the camaraderie and enthusiasm we all had for our destination. 
Thank you to the many Tourism Victoria members who’s sponsorship made this event possible.

 
Feedback from clients in attendance:

Thank you for your hospitality last Wednesday – it was a pleasure seeing you and connecting with Victoria hotel partners as well.
 
I appreciated all the industry colleagues taking the time to come to Vancouver to meet us.  I had many interesting conversations, learnt new things about Victoria and was very impressed with the great location, beverages and food.
 
Just wanted to say a very big thank you to you and your team for a great social last night! It was fantastic to connect with your team and hoteliers!