In addition to increasing its marketing spend by 25% this year to attract more tourists and meeting planners, Tourism Richmond is investing $250,000 in IT upgrades to collect more data about potential visitors.
Tourism Richmond CEO Tracy Lakeman said: “That helps us communicate with [tourists] better and helps us identify what we may be lacking in terms of product development.”
The agency will also shortly announce a new marketing director to help maintain the momentum the city gained from the Olympics and to start luring more visitors under Canada’s approved destination status (ADS) with China.
The agency will target meeting planners and consumers with similarly branded campaigns.
For meeting planners, the agency is offering $2,010 credits to any event booked in Richmond this year. The agency also developed discount dining, shopping and tourism packages for leisure travellers.
Tourism Richmond is using its “It’s all here” brand as a platform.
Lakeman said: “That [brand] is based on the idea that you can taste it in Richmond, you can see it in Richmond, you can get it in Richmond, but most importantly you can book it in Richmond.”
The two campaigns have been developed to collect as much data about potential visitors as possible using surveys, contests, discounts and other incentives to have consumers and meeting planners divulge information about demographics and their perceptions of Richmond.
Lakemand said: “We’re becoming far more focused in our activities and how we carry them out so we can start having a two-way conversation with potential visitors to Richmond.”
A new sales and marketing committee will target the Chinese ADS market. Without approved destination status, which Canada finally received last month, Richmond had been unable to market itself in China.
“We’re a prefect launching pad into B.C. and Canada for China,” said Lakeman. “Many of the new Chinese visitors are ones who haven’t travelled a lot. They love their culture, but they’re not very adventurous.”
With that in mind, Tourism Richmond is pitching the city as a home base for Chinese travellers who leave the city during the day to explore B.C., but return to Richmond in the evening.
Tourism Richmond is seeking to boost the average visitor’s stay in Richmond from 1.6 nights to 2.3 nights.