Tourism Nanaimo's presentation to City of Nanaimo Council on Monday, August 10th.

1. Mid-Year Tourism Report
Aug. 10, 2015
Special Open Council Meeting
2015-AUG-10
Supplemental Item

2. Board
Tourism
Leadership
Committee Sasha Angus
CEO
Lesley
Anderson
E.D. Destination
Management
Kara Walsh
Destination
Development Officer
Chelsea Barr
Destination Marketing
Officer
Megan
Beauregard
Stakeholder &
Communications Specialist
Amanda Daly
Visitor Services
Specialist
Helga Lange
VIC & Clerk
Part-time staff
& volunteers
Visitor Counsellors
Amrit Manhas
Economic
Development Officer
Peter McGee
Economic Development
Coordinator
Robynn Baijus
(temp)
Operations
Coordinator
NEDC Organizational
Chart
Updated Aug 2015

3. • CHAIR: Sandra Petryk – Nanaimo Airport
• VICE-CHAIR: Margot Holmes – Vancouver Island Symphony
• PREVIOUS CHAIR: Dan Brady – Howard Johnson / NHA
• David Mailloux – Nanaimo Port Authority
• Leif Bogwald – Owner, Vancouver Island Expeditions
• Leo Boon – Independent Contractor
• Jonelle Knowles – Vancouver Island University
• David Twynam – Vancouver Island University
• Douglass Legg – Douglass Legg & Associates
• Denise Tacon – Vancouver Island Conference Centre
• Diana Johnstone
• Geoff Wallace – Best Western Northgate (NHA appointee)
• James Young – Long Lake Inn (NHA appointee)
• Odai Sirri – Grand Hotel & Waterfront Suites (NHA appointee)
Tourism Leadership Committee

4. Then vs Now
• $924,110 – 2009 total approx. value of City spending on tourism (in
2014 dollars) to support Destination & Tourism Nanaimo
• $734, 139 – 2014 value of NEDC spending on tourism activities
– Includes $125,000 earmarked for product development through the TDF
• Tourism Nanaimo undertakes more activities at lower budget.
Additional activities since 2012:
– Cruise, product and travel trade development
– Meetings & conventions support
– Grants program administration
– Sport marketing
– 2nd visitor centre & roving visitor servicing
– Stakeholder programs – NBT, CYPT
– Social media, content development and website management
– Formal governance activities

5. Source: Destination NEXT, sample size 367 DMOs worldwide

6. DMO Roles Worldwide

7. Tourism Strategic Plan Goals
#1: Product Development
#2: Industry Partnerships
#3: Marketing & Public Relations
#4: Community Pride
#5: Accountability

8. TLC Direction for 2015
• Market what we have more effectively
• Maximize the value of local community
• Capitalize on existing visitors & local markets
• Develop meetings, events & festivals
• Lean on DMO partners to reach beyond local
markets

9. MARKETING

10. #ExploreNanaimo Campaign
explorenanaimobc.com
Local market pride of place
campaign running May –
Sept
Objectives:
1) Entice locals & visiting
friends/relatives to
experience things to do
in Nanaimo & Region
2) Grow our social media
audiences
3) Grow use of the
#ExploreNanaimo tag

11. Mid-campaign results
• 800 tourism passport downloads
• 1000+ passports distributed at VICs
• 6,000 website visits
• Significant growth in social audience:
– Facebook up 9.2% (to 6066)
– Instagram up 34.9% (to 1861)
– Twitter up 5% (to 8384)
• 360% growth in #ExploreNanaimo use
• Delivering qualified traffic to
tourismnanaimo.com – 2.5x more
pageviews & 3x longer stay on site

12. Share Vancouver Island Campaign
sharevancouverisland.com
The 3rd year of our award-
winning campaign (formerly
You Won’t Be Sorry)
Market: Pacific Northwest
Timing: June - Aug
Objective: Grow awareness &
visitation to VI beyond Victoria
Leveraged: 3:1 ($55,000
campaign for $13,500 from
Tourism Nanaimo)

13. Go Vancouver Island Campaign
govancouverisland.ca
Markets: Alberta/Seattle
Timing: Apr – June
Objective: Continue growing
awareness & visitation to VI
Leverage: 25:1 ($8,900
contribution for a $217,000
campaign)
Campaign visits up 24% over
previous year

14. Shifting Focus – From Print to Online
• 2014 guide = 20% of total
marketing budget
• 2015 publications = 11% of
marketing budget
• Increased investment in
website and online
presence
• All publications available
online
• Invested in enhanced
visibility in TAVI’s guide for
greater presence earlier in
travel decision cycle

15. Website
Year-over-year (Jan 1 – Aug 4)
• 61% increase in visits
• 55% increase in users
• 54% increase in pageviews
• Averaging 14,800 visits/mo

16. Explore Nanaimo Blog
• Posting 2-3x weekly
• Delivers qualified traffic to
tourismnanaimo.com – 2x more
pageviews and 4x longer site visit
than average
• 9552 views since Jan. 1 – almost
100% growth YOY

17. Social Media - Facebook
• 6106 followers to date
• 14.7% growth in followers since Jan. 1
• 225% increase in average reach over
same period 2014 (organic)
• 254% increase in average likes/post
• 470% increase in comments/post
• 275% increase in shares/post
• 4th top referring site

18. Twitter
• 8442 followers
• 13.8% growth in followers since Jan. 1

19. BC Day Instameet – Aug. 3
• Province-wide event in
partnership with
Destination BC
• 19 participants
• 149 uses of
#ExploreNanaimo
hashtag in 1 day
• 475 new Instagram
followers resulting from
this event

20. Media Relations
• Continuing to proactively grow our presence &
engagement with media
– Attending GoMedia & TMAC media marketplaces
– Regularly hosting writers
• Leveraging partner programs
• Proactive pitching
• Digital Asset Management & Branded Content

21. Media coverage examples
- Air Canada En Route
Magazine
- KING 5 Evening Magazine
from Seattle
- TSN Live Broadcast
- usatoday.com
- Huffingtonpost.com
- CalgaryHerald.com
- Western Living
- Northwest Travel
Magazine
- Komo News in Seattle
- Yahoo Travel
- BC Magazine

22. DESTINATION
DEVELOPMENT

23. Destination Development - Product
• Mt. Benson gondola – product fam
• Deep Discovery Centre
– event Feb. 19
– feasibility study completion
– steering committee
• Supported Newcastle development
– Hosted product development fam trip for SFN to 2 First
Nations cultural centres
– TDF grant to support business plan development
– Participated in consultation process

24. Destination Development - Grants
• 2 TDF intakes awarding $38,000 to 9 organizations
• TDF Program Review in progress
• MRDT grants program implementation
• Implemented new sport grants program
• 2 sport grant intakes awarding $17,300 to 24 sport
organizations (3rd intake in Oct)
• Estimated economic impact of funded events in 2015
approx. $4.5 million

25. Destination Development – Sport, Travel
Trade & Cruise
Sport:
• Built new website section with targeted sport content
• Completed sport tourism plan – working with sport steering committee
Travel Trade:
• Seattle travel agent show
• TAVI travel trade showcase
• Asian receptive fam with top buyers from Chinese & Japanese tour
operators
Cruise:
• Supporting 3 cruise visits with on-site visitor services
• Hosted RCL executive on site visit with NPA
• Supporting cruise product development efforts

26. Stakeholder Programs
• Nanaimo Bar Trail
• NBT 34 listings (at max. capacity)
• Cedar Yellowpoint Trail
– CYPAT 24 listings (up from 23)
• Working to develop digitally
mapped versions of these trails
• Website listings, brochure racking,
educational workshops, Tourism
Matters events

27. Hotel Tax Grants Program
• Live at www.tourismnanaimo.com/grants
• Ongoing application intakes with quarterly application
review & evaluation
• Approx. annual grants available $450,000
– 45% for festivals & events (incl. sporting events)
– 35% for sport tourism initiatives (incl. minor capital upgrades for
sport infrastructure)
– 20% for marketing associated with the events
• Newcastle Island funding pending business plan
completion and MRDT agreement addendum
submission to Provincial Gov’t

28. VISITOR
SERVICING

29. Visitor Centre Operations
• Northfield, Bastion (May 15 – Sep
8), roving “street team”, events &
conferences
– Dragonboat
– Silly Boat
– Marine Festival
– Blues Fest
– VIU student orientation
• Visitor Experience Survey
• Staff fam trips to train other VICs
on Nanaimo

30. Visitor Centre Statistics
2015
Q1 & Q2
% Change
YOY
2014
Q1 & Q2
2014 full
year
2013 full
year
# Visitors 9,218 7% 8,643 21,078 20,422
• Visitor servicing trends are shifting with technology
• More focus on reaching out and being where the visitors
are through mobile visitor servicing
• Street team contributed significantly to our 7% increase
YOY

31. 2015 Results to Date
• June 2015 average occupancy was 70%
• YTD occupancy is up 3% & Revenue per available room
up 10% over 2014
• Visitor Experience survey overall destination satisfaction
97%
• Visitation from US travelers is up 4 percentage points
YOY
• The average length of stay showing strong growth –
more visitors staying 2-3 and 7-14 days

32. Thank you