SAVE THE DATE! 2018 Rural Tourism Symposium – Beyond the Fires
Plan to be in Williams Lake on April 13-15, 2018 for two days of networking, professional development and expert speakers. Watch our corporate website for early bird registration and agenda details soon!
Mayor Walt Cobb states, “the City of Williams Lake is honoured to be the host community for the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association’s 2018 Rural Tourism Symposium – ‘Beyond the Fires’. The CCCTA is a strong advocate of our local tourism industry, and is a key partner in promoting our area. The City of Williams Lake recognizes the importance of the tourism industry’s significant contributions to our local economy and to ensuring that our region remains vibrant and attractive. This year, it is especially meaningful for Williams Lake to host the CCCTA Symposium in the wake of the Summer 2017 wildfires. Our tourism industry has only just begun to feel the effects of the devastation, and we know there is much hard work ahead of us all to support the businesses that rely on the tourism industry.”
Williams Lake is known as the “hub” of the Cariboo. The community is a vital part of the Highway 97 Cariboo Connector – the gateway to Northern BC – and is the junction for Highway 20 to all points west, leading to the West Coast and Bella Coola. Williams Lake is a bustling city that serves as the business centre for much of the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast region.
With a thriving business community, a full facility hospital, a Thompson Rivers University campus, a world class recreation complex, unbeatable outdoor recreational opportunities, and a rich arts and culture community, Williams Lake is a city bursting with opportunity!
CCCTA Wildfire Recovery Campaign
The regional campaign is centred on bringing people back to the area -“It’s Your Back Yard, Come Out and Play”. The landing page (www.landwithoutlimits.com/backyard) will feature all of our voting stakeholders, survey respondents and anyone with a web page which we can link to. If you are not on this page and would like to be added please email jason@frontrowvoiceovers.com with your company name and website.
The advertising consists of images of the area, with a call to action to drive people to the landing page. Here’s an example.
Advertising will be largely via social media, along with radio spots and newspaper, as per the priorities we heard in the survey results. We are primarily targeting the close-in areas, such as Prince George, Kelowna, Vernon, Kamloops and Terrace, and the Lower Mainland. Watch media outlets for upcoming marketing pieces.
In addition, there is a social media influencer scheduled for March that has 20 million guaranteed impressions across social media and blogs. The Cariboo Chilcotin Coast channels will share social content and the blogs will be added to the website, with the hashtags #CCCLives and #ExploreBC amplifying content.
The ‘Surprise and Delight’ portion of the campaign includes gift certificate giveaways to the public engaging on the regional channels. It will be completely random. We hope that recipients will spend additional funds to turn their gift certificate visit into an extended experience. This is NOT a contest, nor is there a “winner”. It is simply us giving away certificates we PURCHASED from our stakeholders. We are not asking for our members to contribute, rather CCCTA will be BUYING gift certificates from our stakeholders to be given away to anyone who accesses any of our social media channels. Watch for posts from winners excited about coming to the region this year!
Cooperative marketing opportunities exist for businesses and communities that would like to leverage these campaigns with a personal message in the following outlets. See the image below for an example of our co-op marketing options.
Click image to enlarge
Coast Mountain Culture Magazine
BC Backroads Map Book
BC Hunting Regulations
Soar
Gold Rush Trail Map Pad
Province newspaper
To be included in these campaigns email marketing@landwithoutlimits.com
The campaign launched March 1 and will continue until May 31, 2018.
Red Cross Business Assistance Extended
The phase II application deadline for the Red Cross business assistance, funded solely by the Province of BC, has been extended to May 4, 2018. If you have not yet applied for financial support for your business you can use the online link provided here
(https://www.bcfiressmallbusiness.ca/registration/ ) or contact a Community Futures business ambassador in your area.
Save the Date Notice – Destination Development Meeting for Highway 24
On April 17, 2018 the CCCTA, Destination BC and Tourism Café will return to the Hwy 24 corridor at a location to-be-determined for the second destination development community meeting. Topics will include a review of the data and findings for the situation analysis to-date, setting of priority investment areas and moving into the creation of the 10 year strategy for your area. Watch for more details coming soon.
Help shape B.C.’s rural development strategy.
Engagement extended to March 7, 2018 at 4:00 p.m.
The B.C. Government has committed to developing a long-term, durable Rural Development Strategy that works for all rural British Columbians. The new strategy will help rural and Indigenous communities build their capacity to create resilient, sustainable futures.
Your input will inform this strategy and the strategy will guide future investments including access to the Rural Dividend funds.
Go here for more information https://engage.gov.bc.ca/ruraldevelopment/
CCCTA Social Media Webinars
We have heard from you, and Kelly Cubbon, on the CCCTA digital team, has offered a series of social media learning Webinars. I want to thank everyone for their constructive advice – we are taking your input and crafting new learning opportunities for operators at all levels of experience!
To listen to the completed Webinar 1 click here – a registration window will open before access is granted to the video, just enter your name and email to click through to the webinar recording. This recording, along with the recording and tools from Webinar 2 will be added to the Industry website in the near future, watch for more tools as they are posted.
Webinar #3 for more advanced learning will occur in March – email Kelly@landwithoutlimits.com if you have not already registered.
Welcome to the CCCTA team
I am pleased to welcome Mareike Moore and Kristi Denby to the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast team and urge you to connect with these two talented ladies over the next few months.
Mareika Moore – Marketing Sales & Administration
Mareika is originally from Germany and came to Canada 3.5 years ago. After earning two Bachelor degrees in Marketing and Media economics, she has worked in different marketing positions for Nestle in Germany and previously for BC Assessment in Williams Lake. Mareike fell in love with our region and spends a lot of time exploring, fishing, kayaking and taking pictures of wildlife. She is very excited to work for CCCTA and look forward to getting to know more about our region and its people. An avid lover of the outdoors Mareika is looking forward to exploring all our region has to offer!
Kristi Denby – Digital Marketing & Destination Development
Kristi is an adventurer and global traveller with diverse experiences working in social research, Indigenous socio-economic engagement, marketing and social entrepreneurship. She is coming to our team after two years of working in the Peruvian Amazon where she lead projects in various social enterprises to improve their marketing, branding, communications and community engagement. Kristi has an undergraduate degree from TRU in International Business, a Master’s in International Development and Environment Studies completed in Norway and experience travelling, working and studying in over 35 countries in the world. Now, she is excited to get out and explore the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Region and showcase it to the world!