January/February 2010
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North American Leisure Pre-Conozca Sales Mission, Mexico City – September 2-7 Travel Alberta coordinated sales meetings with MCIT reps and media appointments in Mexico City prior to the start of the Conozca Marketplace. Edmonton Tourism and Tourism Calgary participated. Conozca Canada, Mexico City – September 8-11 Conozca Canadá is the annual event organized by the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) in Mexico. This event benefits both tourism industry organizations and consumers, and is designed to foster relations and increase trade and tourism exchanges. During the four day event in Mexico City, Conozca Canada brings together buyers and sellers from Mexico, Canada and Latin America. Participation in Conozca Canada creates attractive opportunities to significantly increase our business and marketing advantage in Mexico and Latin America. ABA (American Bus Association) Top 100 Events in North America Congratulations to the Edmonton Heritage Festival, the event was nominated by Edmonton Tourism and was chosen as one of the American Bus Association’s Top 100 Events in North America for group travel in 2010. A panel of American Bus Association (ABA) member bus and tour operators selected the event from hundreds of entries nominated by state/provincial tourism offices and local and regional convention and visitors bureaus. Mexico Tour Operators Fam - Sept 28-29 Travel Alberta invited key tour operator accounts that were currently selling but had never been to Alberta or operators who had expressed keen interested in offering Alberta product. This was an important opportunity to cement relationships with operators with a home court advantage for Edmonton that created many memorable experiences for the operators. The operators enjoyed a private Festival City reception that proved to be one of the highlights of their Alberta trip. Mexicana Corporate Fam - October 2-3 Representatives from Mexicana’s Corporate Travel division visited Edmonton to tour convention and meeting space and some key attractions before heading of to Jasper. Mexicana Airlines – Suspends Edmonton Service After months of struggling through the H1N1 pandemic and then the Mexican Visa requirement, Mexicana has advised that it will suspend the Edmonton – Mexico City flight, effective January 14th, 2010. Mexicana has cited the inability to support both cities in Alberta and given the load factors out of Calgary were slightly higher over the last 4 months, as a result, effective January 15th they will increase Calgary’s service to Mexico City to 5 times a week. Houston Inaugural Flight – November 1 Continental Airlines began daily direct service in Edmonton from Houston. This route will make it easier for travelers form the southern US to travel to Edmonton and opens up a new marketing region which can potentially extend in to Mexico and South America. Edmonton Tourism participated in the inaugural events at the airport to welcome the first flight from Houston. Expo Management, Mexico City – Nov 18-19 Expo Management, the premier corporate business forum in Mexico City took place November 18 and 19, 2009. Travel Alberta secured space in the business area along with other sponsors and will have an opportunity to engage some of the expected 3500 delegates that will attend this confer ence. Sales calls were also done to corporate and incentive offices on Friday the 20th. Fall Marketplace Season Every fall, the central focus is meeting with tour operator clients at several marketplaces to discuss program and itineraries for the next tour cycle – typically 18 months ahead. A list of the Americas shows are below. It was still very difficult to discuss new product with operators that are down anywhere from 20-60% down for 2009. The most positive appointments come from smaller/niche operators that are quicker to recover/respond to market conditions. NTA – National Tour Association Marketplace, Reno, NV – Nov 14-17 CWM – Canada’s West Marketplace, Victoria, BC – Nov 30 – Dec 3 USTOA – United States Tour Operators Association, Banff – Dec 7-11 Future Marketplaces – Edmonton has been confirmed to host; CWM November 2010 RVC May 2012 If you would like more information on any of these initiatives, please contact Christie Makowichuk at cmakowichuk@edmonton.com or (780) 917-7626.
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