Tourism 2010 Resource Centre

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Sowing the Seeds for Post-Games Visitor Harvest

Enter to Win! Seems that no winter sport enthusiast can resist a shot at winning everything from free tickets right up to an all expense paid trip to the Games themselves.

Every entry, from Saskatoon to San Francisco, or New York to New Denver, yields gold for Tourism BC and the 2010 Tourism Consortium.

Not gold like the Olympic medals reserved for the top athletes, but golden information that will be harvested after the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games through post-event direct marketing activities that capitalize on the excitement and awareness about British Columbia created during the event itself.

“We are using traditional and non-traditional activities, like TV contests on NBC affiliates during the evening news to viral Twitter contests, all in an effort to build our qualified consumer databases for ongoing direct marketing after the Games,” says Carol Nelson, Director of Marketing for North America at Tourism BC.

And the peak lead cultivation period is now during the actual Games themselves, with more than three billion people interacting with TV and online Olympic information and content.

A team of more than 20 Tourism BC staff are operating an around-the-clock marketing room at Tourism BC’s Vancouver headquarters. Many more Tourism BC field reporters and staff are blogging about their experiences on the front lines at Visitor Info Centres, media centres, cultural tourism pavilions and other Games sites.

“Cross a news room with a stock exchange trading floor, that’s what we’re activating 24/7 during the Games,” says Nelson.

“Our teams are monitoring web traffic, pitching story ideas to media, blogging and uploading fresh content to Tourism BC’s worldwide websites, determining shifts in our online advertising buys, and evaluating what keywords are hot this hour to tweak our Search Engine Marketing tactics on the fly. We’re re-writing the book on Games-time tourism marketing.”

Tourism BC is also encouraging British Columbians from throughout the province, particularly those from outside Vancouver and Whistler, to blog about their communities and local spirit on HelloBC.com during the Games.

Blog content is an important part of the information on HelloBC.com, giving online visitors a valued local perspective on travel tips and what experiences make their community unique. It is dynamically linked to display on relevant community and activity pages.

While many Games viewers may not be ready to book a trip to BC today, they are prepared to learn more about our province and move along the purchase cycle.

While the final chapter is still to be written, Nelson is confident that the seeds sown in the lead up to and during the Games will create a bountiful harvest for BC’s tourism industry for many years to come.

Click here to see how consumers are being tempted right now to plan their next vacation in Super, National British Columbia®.