Competitive intelligence: Canada’s tourism rivals make a summer splash.

Videos, merchandise and business-travel stats: just some of the promotions other international tourism destinations are carrying out

2012-07-24 — /travelprnews.com/ — Pay attention, trendwatchers. CTC News is back with another collection of notable activities in the global tourism marketplace to share with the Canadian tourism industry.

Thanks again for all the hot tips passed on by our colleagues, partners, general sales agents and other pals in the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC)’s key international markets.

• VisitScotland’s global marketing push has landed Down Under in conjunction with the release of the new Disney-Pixar movie “Brave.” The ad is running in Aussie cinemas and on TV. It should go down well with lovers of kilts, lochs and castles.

• Tourism Australia teamed up with boutique hotel gurus Mr & Mrs Smith in June in an editorial partnership to lure affluent British travellers to Australia. Videos on the website were backed by a competition to win a luxury trip for two and a 24-page supplement in The Sunday Times.
• The Aussies have been active closer to our home, too. Breakfast Television Toronto united with Tourism Australia and Qantas to show off travel experiences to early-morning viewers for a week in May. Canada was Australia’s 13^th largest inbound market in 2011, with almost 120,000 heading west for a visit.
• VisitBritain has been busy bees, with the Diamond Jubilee in full swing and the 2012 Summer Games just around the corner. The VisitBritain shop has more branded merchandise than you could shake a stick at, including shopping bags, mugs and the inevitable tea towels. VisitBritain’s Facebook page now has almost 800,000 followers and its Weibo presence has attracted 250,000-plus Chinese consumers.
• Tourism New Zealand has a new theme (“Beyond convention”) to market the country as a destination for the international meetings, conventions and incentive travel (MC&IT) market.
• According to a report from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), Chinese business travellers spent a whopping US$182 billion in 2011. GBTA predicted that trend would continue, with spending projected to hit US$202 billion in 2012 and US$245 billion in 2013. GBTA expects China will knock the US off its perch to become the world’s biggest business travel market in 2015.
• The German National Tourist Boardhas announced it expects an annual 10% boost in visitor numbers from India, leading to the total doubling by 2020. Fourteen Indian buyers recently attended the 38^th annual Germany Travel Mart in Leipzig.
• After a two-year build-up, Oman Tourism’s new portal has gone live. “Side trip of a Lifetime” has 144 video shorts showing life in the sultanate from a first-person point of view.