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VCM February 2021 Newsletter
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Whytecliff Park, West Vancouver | Destination BC/Alex Strohl
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Stay tuned for more contest details coming soon!
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Share Your Love for BC Campaign
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Announced on last week’s Destination BC industry call, a new marketing initiative will be launching next week. Share Your Love for BC is an engagement and advocacy initiative for BC locals, aimed at re-igniting British Columbians’ pride of place and creating a province-wide narrative about what makes BC – our places, our people, our experiences – so special. Introductory activities from influencers are now underway, and the official campaign and corresponding contest are set to launch February 22 and run until March 26. Be sure to follow along @HelloBC, and stay tuned for more details on how you can participate by sharing your love for BC and the VCM region.
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Destination BC is holding regular COVID-19 update calls with industry partners from across the province.
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Catch up on the latest BC Industry Call
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Last week’s call featured an overview of the free resources available to the BC tourism industry through Small Business BC, an update on BC ski resort COVID-19 protocols from the CEO of the Canada West Ski Areas Association, Christopher Nicolson, and a marketing update from Destination BC's VP of Global Marketing, Maya Lange.
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Stay local and support local.
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Stay Local: Messaging Guidance
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Businesses and individuals in BC must continue to avoid non-essential travel and significantly reduce social interactions, according to the latest Public Health Orders and recommendations. The current Order will be kept in place until further notice, based on direction from BC's Provincial Health Officer. BC tourism businesses can refer to our Messaging Guidance for February 5 until further notice on provincial restrictions.
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Learn more about the market monitoring and reports Destination BC produces about COVID-19 impacts on BC’s tourism industry.
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Destination BC COVID-19 Research
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Destination BC produces weekly Research Roundup Reports and commissions bi-weekly Public Perceptions Reports.
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The latest reports show that domestic travel to VCM continues to perform below the rest of BC, with domestic travel declining by -39.1% compared to the same time last year (week ending Feb 7). Similarly, hotel occupancy for VCM communities remains relatively unchanged with the City of Vancouver having an occupancy of 17.6%, Whistler 18.5% and Richmond 34.5% for the week ending Feb 6.
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The new interactive dashboard will be updated monthly.
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New Tourism Indicators Dashboard
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To provide a better user experience, Destination BC recently transitioned the once quarterly Tourism Indicators publication to an interactive dashboard, enabling users to easily retrieve and compare information betweens months and years. The dashboard features provincial and community level industry data including: international arrivals, restaurant receipts, convention centre data, hotel occupancy and average daily room rates, BC Ferries passenger volume, and more.
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VCM dashboard on the IMM event website with Heather McGillivray, Travel Media Relations & Travel Trade Rep.
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Travel Media Relations & Travel Trade
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VCM participated in International Media Marketplace (IMM) - North America Edition in January 2021. Held virtually, IMM connected 550 delegates, including travel journalists, influencers and industry from Canada and the US for 24 meetings over three days. VCM will also participate in Rendez-vous Canada (RVC+) from May 17-20, 2021. RVC+ will also be held as an online event following its cancellation in 2020. Destination BC will be sponsoring the registration of all returning VCM sellers to assist tourism operators during the pandemic.
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For more information about Travel Media Relations & Travel Trade in the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains region, please contact Heather McGillivray.
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Supports and opportunities available to tourism businesses and communities in VCM.
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Enrol for free access to a range of business supports.
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VCM Tourism Resiliency Program
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Through a targeted business partnership, Vancouver, Coast & Mountains and Spring Activator is providing extensive one-on-one support for tourism businesses in the region to aid recovery, adaptation, and survival during these challenging times. To be eligible to work with Spring Activator, tourism businesses must first enrol in the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Tourism Resiliency Program. Once enrolled, businesses can also benefit from our continued partnership with Small Business BC.
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Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program Now Accepting Applications
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Apply for the Federal Government’s Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program. Financing is for small and medium-sized businesses that have seen their revenues decrease by 50% or more due to COVID-19, and consists of government-guaranteed, low-interest loans ranging from $25,000 to $1 million to cover operational cash flow needs, with repayment terms of up to 10 years.
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Indigenous Tourism Business Grants
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Indigenous Tourism BC and provinical partners are providing recovery support for Indigenous businesses that have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Indigenous Community Business Fund will deliver up to $250,000 in non-repayable grants to First Nation and Inuit community-owned and Métis collectively owned businesses and microbusinesses in BC. The BC Indigenous Tourism Recovery Fund Program will provide up to $45,000 in non-repayable grant contributions to Indigenous businesses.
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Check Your Eligibility for BC's Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant
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There have been a number of changes to the BC Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant since its launch in October 2020. We encourage you to review the criteria on the webpage (last updated February 8, 2021) to determine if your tourism business is now eligible for the program as the deadline is fast approaching (March 31, 2021).
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Free business education opportunities through SBBC.
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Free Small Business BC Education
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Destination BC and Small Business BC have partnered to provide tourism businesses with free access to Small Business BC’s webinars and online education to support COVID-19 recovery and help mitigate ongoing impacts. Upcoming sessions include: Operations Management for Small Business (Feb 23), How to Drive More Traffic to Your Website (Feb 24), Online Lead Generation for Small Business (March 2), and much more. For free access, please register online using coupon code DBC3034.
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Online Engagement launching soon!
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Canada has an opportunity to harness its ocean growth potential by building back better—and bluer. Growing a sustainable blue economy requires a strategy to create jobs in coastal communities while ensuring our oceans remain healthy. Have your say in the development of the Blue Economy Strategy by reading the engagement paper or hosting a discussion (toolkit available), so you're ready for the online engagement launching soon!
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Stay Local Guides are available by community. Contribute today to help build your community's Stay Local Guide.
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Contribute to BC Stay Local Guides
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While now is not the time to travel, there's still so much BC residents can enjoy while staying in their own communities and continuing to adhere to public health guidelines. In order to encourage locals to find safe and responsible ways to support local businesses this year, we are continuing to curate Stay Local Guides to share on HelloBC.com and other channels. Want to share a stay local guide for your community in Vancouver, Coast & Mountains with us?
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New Metro Vancouver Destination Management Council
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The Metro Vancouver Destination Management Council held its first meeting in January. The newly formed group will help direct the implementation of the Metro Vancouver Destination Development Strategy, launched last fall. Fifteen members of the Council represent a variety of organizations focused on building tourism together, including TransLink, the Surrey Board of Trade, YVR, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, Metro Vancouver, municipalities, and community DMOs such as Tourism Vancouver, Tourism Richmond, Tourism Burnaby and Tourism Coquitlam. The group will be supported by Destination BC and ITBC team members.
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The Sunshine Coast Tourism Growth Management Pilot Project
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The Sunshine Coast Tourism Growth Management pilot project is moving ahead, focused on projects that will ensure positive visitor experiences are balanced with community capacity and protection of natural places, on the Sunshine Coast. In December, the Advisory Committee provided a written submission to the BC Ferries Moving Ahead Together on the Sunshine Coast engagement process that outlined 14 recommendations to improve the travel experience for visitors and increase ferry capacity to support expected demand. The submission, including the list of recommendations, can be found appended to the BC Ferries engagement report (page 27).
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Visit Destination BC's Tourism Industry COVID-19 Safety Plans page for information and tools relating to COVID-19 safety plans, including the following resources below.
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Update your COVID-19 Safety Plan
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A reminder that all businesses in BC are required to have a COVID-19 safety plan that outlines the policies, guidelines, and procedures they have put in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, which must be posted on their consumer-facing website. Keep your safety plan up to date in relation to changing conditions and updated Provincial Health Officer orders with WorkSafe BC's useful guide.
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Add Your Safety Plan to HelloBC.com
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Reassure customers that you have implemented measures to protect them and your employees from COVID-19, and link to your online safety plan directly from your business listing on HelloBC.com.
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Tourism Mission's Clare Seeley Supports Author on New Children's Book About Canada
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, California-based author Suzanne Mirviss could not embark on her planned Inside Passage cruise from Vancouver to Alaska. The intent for the trip had been to get inspiration for her third children’s book featuring “Sammi”, a small but curious owl that travels the world on adventures. Suzanne chose to rethink her situation and rather than travelling to BC she turned to “online dreaming” for writing inspiration. While researching British Columbia, she came across Mission’s annual Bald Eagle Festival and decided to write a book about how Sammi comes to Canada to meet the eagles and witness the spawning salmon. She reached out to Clare Seeley at Tourism Mission for more information. As many resources such as libraries and universities were closed due to COVID-19, Clare jumped in and assisted Suzanne with her research. What ensued was not only a helpful exchange of information, but the beginning of a continuing friendship.
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Clare Seeley with her copy of "Hello from Sammi in Canada"
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Suzanne’s hope for her recently published and latest book, “Hello from Sammi in Canada”, is that it will help take children away from the stress of the pandemic to a world where everyone gets along, helps each other and recognizes just how connected we all can be no matter where we are in the world. Clare and Suzanne continue to correspond and keep in touch. “I really hope we get to meet in person one day”, says Clare. “This has been such an amazing journey during a difficult year”.
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Destination BC COVID-19 Communications
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Stay connected with the Vancouver, Coast & Mountains team, which is managed by Destination BC:
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If you have questions that can't be answered through the various resources on our website and official channels, please email the VCM team.
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