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Update on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative from COTA

BACKGROUND: WHTI results from legislation signed off by President Bush in December of 2004, part of which requires that all persons entering the US, subsequent to December 31, 2007 produce a valid passport or other secure document (as sanctioned by the US government). WHTI is to be implemented in two phases: one for persons entering by sea or air by December 31, 2006 and another for persons entering by land by December 31, 2007.

“Other secure documentation” is forecasted to include the NEXUS Card. The NEXUS program allows pre-cleared “trusted travelers” to cross using a card containing biometric indicators (fingerprint, iris print, etc) using special express lanes and electronic checking. This has been compared to the Interac card used by banks, in that it allows the customer to use automated tellers instead of standing in line to visit a human teller.

COTA is supportive of this approach in that it addresses two key issues for travelers crossing the border: speed and hassle. An obvious convenient for frequent travelers, it tends to reduce the volume of visitors who have to present some form of documentation to a border crossing guard, reducing the line-ups at border crossings.

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Spring looks bright in our region!

Tourism British Columbia's accommodation survey projects an average 5.4% increase in room revenues for Mar 1 - May 31. That is very encouraging, given the current uncertainty of the U.S. market, and its willingness to cross the border.

TBC's research department is more than willing to provide greater detail for the region, as it currently does for Richmond. It would be very helpful for us to monitor trends in the four areas of the region (Greater Vancouver, Sea to Sky Country, Mighty Fraser Country and the Sunshine Coast). If any hotel is interested in exploring how this would work, please call Kevan at 604-638-6930, or kevan@vcmbc.com.

Congratulations to our ATBC Partners!

Congratulations are in order for our ATBC winners, Sasquatch Tours, Liliget Feasthouse, Takaya Tours, and Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre!

Shawna Deagle attended the Aboriginal Tourism of British Columbia’s awards dinner on Saturday, March 25, 2006. It was a terrific evening and a well attended event. Several bands provided entertainment while educating the audience about the particular songs and dances performed. The awards recognized the hard work of everyone throughout the province and many of the winners are based in Vancouver, Coast & Mountains.

A representative of the Minister announced an interim grant of $150,000 to ATBC so that they can implement their ATBC blueprint strategy which was released last December. You can find a copy of this strategy at www.atbc.bc.ca, which outlines the three year plan to include coordinating media familiarization tours, publishing a cultural experiences guide, updating tourism training guides and expanding the Aboriginal tourism website. This plan is the first of its kind in the Canada.

And the awards went to:

Sasquatch Tours - Cultural Authenticity Award
Liliget Feasthouse - Excellence in Customer Service
Takaya Tours - Strength in Marketing
Xa:ytem Longhouse Interpretive Centre - Power of Education

Check out the new look at Hell’s Gate!

Wow, what an entryway! The Proscenium itself is approximately 6 standard tons. It has 3 major pieces with the two side pieces being built with 3km of steel and is hand sculpted with fiberglass-reinforced-concrete. The sculpting, painting and tinting all match the indigenous rock in the area. The sign face & tram are sculpted with Dan's CNC Router from Precision Board imported from California.

And who is the creator of the Hell’s Gate Proscenium? Dan Sawatsky's company is called "Sawatsky's Imagination Corporation". Here is what he has to say about the Hell’s Gate project: "The new gateway at Hell's Gate is indeed the proscenium which separates the real world from a world of wonder and magic. It is a stage upon which guests will leave the every day world and enter a world class experience. It is (and will continue to be) expressed with the wonder of the awesome forces which created Hell's Gate as well as the things we will create to show the attraction to its very best advantage."

What a great way to start the season!

Do you need to update a tired brochure?

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Tourism Region and Teldon Print Media have negotiated a special pricing and service package for brochures, rackcards, flyers, presentation folders and other promotional items. As a Tourism Partner with Vancouver, Coast & Mountains, you are entitled to take advantage of these savings!

This program will allow you access to a superior, high quality product as well as speedy turnaround times from weekly print runs.

Watch your mail for more information and please feel free to contact Teldon Print Media's customer service at 1-866-478-2445 if you have questions!

Community Tourism Foundations® Report

Squamish Explores Tourism Development through Community Tourism Foundations® Program

The communities of Langley, Squamish, Bowen Island, Sunshine Coast, Harrison, Kent & Agassiz and White Rock have all completed the first initial meeting with Tourism BC as part of the Community Tourism Foundations program. The meeting were well attended and attendees in all communities included tourism stakeholders, municipal council members, mayors, representatives for the local Chamber of Commerce and additional organizations throughout the community.

The next steps for all the communities will be outlined in reports from Tourism BC. From there each community will sign a Memorandum of Understanding which will include commitments from Tourism BC and the working group of the community. After this is complete the work begins towards the development of a sustainable tourism marketing plan.

More about Community Tourism Foundations activities ...

.TRAVEL Registry is Open!

By now many of you have probably heard or read something about .travel, and perhaps have even begun to see it in use on the internet (see www.vcmbc.travel). As only genuine travel & tourism companies will be able to register a .travel domain name, it will serve as an easy identifier for consumers doing travel-related Internet searches. Ultimately consumers using search engines to research travel will be directed to websites within the .travel domain first, which will make it much easier for them to identify genuine tourism businesses. Currently in Beta testing, www.Directory.travel is an on-line directory of every .travel registrant, and will allow users to search over 1400 categories covering all facets of tourism and travel, including destinations. Content in the .travel directory is currently presented in ten languages: English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Japanese,Korean, Mandarin and Malay.

“The .travel Registry is now open and all the world’s travel-related businesses are being invited to claim their space on the Internet,” said Ron Andruff, president of Tralliance Corporation, the .travel Registry responsible for administering the .travel domain.

More about how to register your .travel domain ...

Visual Media Update

Vcmbc.com - Site Statistics for Jan 1 - Mar 31, 2006

www.VCMBC.com, the offical website of Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Tourism Region is packed full of valuable information to lure potential visitors to choose our region for their next vacation or getaway. From destination information and where to stay & play, to details about taxes, currency and passports, www.VCMBC.com can answer just about any question. Below is a snapshot of how many visitors used the site from January to March, what they were looking at and where they're coming from.

If you have more questions, or wish to enhance your presence on www.VCMBC.com, please feel free to contact Mary Ann at 604-638-6927 or by e-mail at maryann@vcmbc.com.

Click here for up to date statistics ...

 

Staff & Board Profiles

Alexa Tammerle was born in Northern Italy, a region on the border to Austria where 70 % of the population speak German as their first and Italian as their second language. Alexa is one of them.

Alexa got her degree in Tourism Management from the Free University of Bolzano/Italy in September 2005. In this trilingual university (Italian, German and English), students are required to head abroad in their 5th semester. To gain international experience and improve her English, Alexa decided to come to Canada. Kevan Ridgway was happy to adopt her as an intern student at Vancouver, Coast & Mountains. Her duties included assisting with the publication of the annual travel guide, managing a co-operative advertising project, updating data on the website and coordinating familiarization tours for media and tour operators. After her 20-week-internship, Alexa was sad to leave and hoped to return soon. “Soon” turned out to happen rather fast! Alexa was offered an opportunity to come back to Vancouver, Coast & Mountains on a one year contract beginning June 2005, and the staff at VCM were thrilled to have Alexa return.

At Vancouver, Coast & Mountains Alexa is in charge of planning all the meetings, the upcoming Regional Tourism Leaders Forum (June 21/22) and other events. Furthermore, she co-ordinates familiarization tours for media and tour operators throughout the region as well as she works together with Jennifer on different research projects for media. You might say tourism is in her Italian blood, as Alexa grew up in a small town where tourism is the population’s primary income. Her mum runs a small Hotel/B&B where she helps out when she is at home.

In her free time Alexa likes to be with her friends, go out for a drink or two and meet new people. Alexa enjoys snowboarding, playing soccer (like all Italians do) and travelling. She is also interested in art and learning new languages (she speaks Spanish as well!). Alexa will be leaving us at the end of June, but before she returns to Italy, she will be travelling through Canada and some cities in the States. What will she do afterwards? This is yet to be known, but we hope she always keeps a bit of Vancouver, Coast & Mountains with her!