As Account Manager – Leisure Trade & Product Structure with Destination Sherbrooke for the past five years, William Hogg has developed and deepened key relationships with tourism partners and travel buyers from the region, across Canada, and around the world. The instigator of the Sherbrooke – Heart of the Townships brand, he continues to strategically develop products and position the city, partners, and the region in Canadian, American, and international (Asian and European) leisure and tour & travel markets.
On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with William Hogg about how he has kept his Canadian destination Sherbrooke, near the U.S. border in Quebec, at the forefront of travelers’ minds over the past year. He shares his most creative ideas – from hosting frequent virtual familiarization (FAM) tours for operators in the travel trade to creating an award-winning Local Flavors Road Trip. William also shares why he sees collaboration as the key to successfully navigating the changes in a post-pandemic travel industry.
What You Will Learn:
- What the closure of travel and tourism due to the pandemic has meant for Canadian destinations
- Creative elements incorporated in Sherbrooke’s strategy to move through the challenges of 2020/21 and beyond
- How William collaborated with neighboring municipal organizations to find ways of attracting hyper-local tourism
- What Destination Sherbrooke is doing to support their local community
- Why William is currently seeing more interest from U.S. tour operators than Canadian operators for Summer 2021
Collaborate for Success
In the current climate, sharing wealth and resources is the key to success, and collaborations between destinations don’t need to be completely equal for them to be successful. Smaller communities can collaborate with larger ones to work together to both draw visitors to their attractions and offer them a range of places to eat and sleep, leading to a win-win outcome for everyone.
COVID-19 Friendly Attractions
Being COVID-friendly is vital in the post-pandemic recovery period and promoting outdoor attractions that visitors feel comfortable with as they ease back into tourism is very important in the rejuvenation of the industry. William discusses why the attractions that Destination Sherbrooke is focusing on are centered around agri-tourism. He also describes how Sherbrooke won international recognition for the pivots they have made during the pandemic and the continued creativity they have shown in drawing people to the area.
Carole Stizza is a Professionally Certified ICF Executive Coach, a SeniorHR Professional, and has a background in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. She has also survived 3 different car accidents (all stopped while turning left) and stage 3 cancer. Resilience, grit, and impatience for life have all been constant companions as she has supported her Air Force Husband and moved her family around the U.S. for 26 years and traveled the world.
Her ability to help clients navigate change, clarify what is important, and step into better conversations have led her to be a contributing author in two books and now releasing her own called: The ASK Framework, questions that elevate your Influence, Performance, and Leadership.
On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Carole Stizza about the power of self-awareness that comes when you ask for positive feedback. It may seem counterintuitive to ask people to tell you what you are doing right — but that is exactly what Carol suggests doing. Carole also discusses the framework for how to have those professional conversations that she created to help people understand the idea of self-leadership, and why she decided to expand her ideas into a book.
What You Will Learn:
- What it means to use self-leadership
- How Carole is seeing people apply self-leadership as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic
- How Carole helps her clients learn how to celebrate and realize self-leadership
- The importance of taking curiosity in a more strategic, actionable direction by giving context in conversations
- How to use Carole’s framework to introduce a sense of positivity and collaboration one-to-one or within a team
- How to remind people what they should celebrate about themselves when home or hybrid working
You Are Already Your Best Self
The first step of self-leadership is to recognize that you are already positioned to be your best self. We’re all unique — so start to embrace how you uniquely think and move away from comparing yourself with others. Adopting what makes you unique and what sets you apart, then starting to appreciate and embrace those things ensures that you understand how to put yourself out in the world.
Framework for Feedback
As leaders and individuals we are always evolving, learning, and growing, so the idea that you are already your best self can be overwhelming. And that’s because we don’t always know what to celebrate about ourselves, we need a framework for feedback about what other people appreciate about the gifts they see in us. Keep growing and keep changing but also make the choice to enjoy who you are in the moment.
- Website: https://relevant-insight.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolestizza/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/relevant4you
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/relevant4you
- Book: https://resources.relevant-insight.com/ASKFramework986140
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Jim is the President & CEO of Response Marketing Group, a consumer-data-focused marketing agency in Richmond, Va. As such, he is responsible for relationship development and account strategy at the independent agency, which offers data analytics, predictive modeling, and multi-channel services. The agency serves several clients in the financial services, travel/tourism, and insurance sectors.
With over 30+ years of experience in the marketing and advertising industry, Jim is a nationally recognized speaker at conferences and events such as the Forrester Marketing Conference, Direct Marketing Association, Public Relations Society of America, and the Southeast Tourism Society. Jim is considered a thought-leader on the value of data insights married to relevant messaging to the target audience.
Jim also leads the Travel and Tourism practice for RMG, which includes clients such as Arkansas Tourism, Georgia Tourism, Visit Jacksonville, St Tammany Parish, The Ritz Carlton, and Marriott International among others.
Prior to Response Marketing Group, Jim was Senior Vice President at The Allant Group in Chicago, IL from 2010-2014. He led the Strategic Consulting practice that delivered marketing strategy and high-level research to CMOs and brand managers at clients such as GM, Comcast, Nationwide Insurance, US Tennis Association, US Cellular, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and Wells Fargo. From 1999-2010, Jim was an agency partner in RightMinds a strategic consultancy in Richmond, VA serving national brands and emerging growth brands.
On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk all things data with James Harenchar. Jim clarifies the types of data that are available, and how they help build predictive models and analytics that deliver a reduced cost per acquisition. He demonstrates how data has helped tourism marketers achieve better results with some recent case studies. Jim also walks us through the evolving nature of the direct response marketing industry, and how response attribution works in the digital world.
What You Will Learn:
- How Jim leverages data analytics, predictive modeling for clients in the travel and tourism sector
- Where Jim finds the data that we don’t have and the ‘secret sauce’ of matching it to messaging
- How building relationships translates into better, more effective marketing
- Why and how you should be differentiating your messaging for different audiences
- Why consistency across your messaging, imagery, and CTA considerably boosts your advertising response rate
Engaging the Audience
In the travel and tourism industry, we are always looking to marry customer insights with marketing strategy and use the data we have more effectively. But in some cases, it’s the data we don’t have that would help me gain greater insight into what individuals are looking for from a destination or experience. It’s great if you have a first name and last name and an email address but if you don’t have any detail on gender, income, whether they have children or are an empty nester then it’s much more difficult to tailor your messaging and engage that individual that’s already in your database in a meaningful way.
Personalized Messaging
The relevance of digital marketing is more important than ever, so the more data you have on your client base the more likely it is that you will be able to personalize your ads. The direct marketing industry has evolved to where potential visitors expect the images and ads that they’re seeing to be focused on their interests. This is where data, analysis, and segmentation can help professionals in the destination marketing world achieve personalization more quickly and efficiently.
- Website: https://rmg-usa.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jharenchar/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rmgusallc/
We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!: https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/
Andy McNeill is a travel and hospitality entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in his profession. He is the CEO and founder of American Meetings, Inc., an industry-leading meetings and events agency that produces thousands of live and virtual meetings annually for Fortune 500 clients. He is also the co-host of the Destination Everywhere Podcast, top travel and hospitality podcast that highlights bucket-list destinations, luxury hotels, local cuisine, and must-do activities. Andy is a significant voice in the hospitality, meeting, and travel industries.
On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Andy McNeill about how the travel industry has changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Andy shares his thoughts on the hybrid event model and how destinations and suppliers can benefit from this new approach to meetings. We also discuss creative ways that destinations can take their experiences and products virtual to support both online and in-person attendees.
What You Will Learn:
- Key lessons learned during the last year on how the travel industry is evolving
- Why Andy McNeill believes the hybrid-event model is here to stay
- How destinations can make their virtual event component creative
- How in-person events are making attendees feel safe
- How Conventions and Visitors Bureau (CVB) staff can innovate to promote their destination
Creative Hybrid Events
The travel and tourism industry has fundamentally changed over the last year, but we can adapt and grow with the changes. With a few creative tweaks, you can tailor your offering to what visitors are looking for both in-person and for virtual tourists. Andy describes some of the most creative online and hybrid events that he has seen in the past 12 months and gives listeners some inspiration for planning their own engaging events to attract visitors.
Technology and Collaboration
We dig into the specifics of how to leverage the spirit of ‘coop-etition’ the blend of collaboration and competition if you are part of the CVB community. Andy shares his experience of using technology to promote visitor destinations and how to ensure your region is still an attractive prospect in the new normal world of safety protocols and flexible booking policies. Collaboration is going to be key to enhancing the online event experience so we also explore the key lessons learned, and how the industry will evolve as we come out of the pandemic.
- Hotel Negotiating Tip in the New Normal: https://americanmeetings.com/tips-for-negotiating-in-the-new-normal/
- Cleaning Requirements Interview with Shari Cedar: https://americanmeetings.com/venue-cleaning-requirements/
- Safety Guideline Digital Booklet: https://americanmeetings.com/wp-content/uploads/AMI-Safety-Sanitation-Resource-Guide-for-Live-Meetings.pdf
- Destination Everywhere Podcast: https://americanmeetings.com/podcast/
- Website: https://americanmeetings.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-mcneill/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanMeetings/
- Twitter:
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A seasoned tourism executive with over 35 years of experience in the industry, Don Welsh serves as the President and CEO of Destinations International. Since joining the association in March 2016, Welsh has implemented a strategic realignment for the association through a renewed commitment to focus on member needs to deliver the resources members have determined to be essential to the success of their organizations.
Prior to joining Destinations International, Welsh served as the President and CEO of Choose Chicago. Welsh also held the CEO position at the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association and the Seattle Convention & Visitors Bureau. Prior to joining the destination marketing industry, Welsh served as senior vice president for Westin Hotels at its corporate headquarters and has also held senior leadership positions in sales and marketing for Westin Hotels and Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, and the MGM Grand Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas.
On this episode of Destination on the Left, I welcome President and CEO of Destinations International, Don Welsh back and we dive into what the travel industry has learned from the COVID-19 pandemic over the last 12 months. We discuss the various opportunities for the industry to drive home the importance of adopting tourism as a community shared value and how we can promote this mindset. Don also gives us his insights into sustainable tourism, the changing meetings industry and the adoption of equity, diversity and inclusion principles.
What You Will Learn:
- The silver linings hidden in the COVID-19 pandemic
- The importance of our networks and why we need to work together to move forward
- How the links between Convention and Visitor Bureau (CVB) and local communities have been cemented during the last 12 months
- What Destinations International has planned for their next program and how they are developing for the future
- What the travel industry should do to position themselves for successfully moving forward over the next five to 10 years
Collaboration in Recovery
The travel industry has been in crisis mode but now we are moving slowly towards recovery. There are certain destinations that are almost in full recovery mode, such as beach, mountains, or lake resorts and there are also many areas that are still at the beginning of their recovery process, such as urban destinations. The key factor for successfully returning to normality is that we maintain this hyper communication that has taken place this past year, so more people are aware of what destination organizations do and the contributions they make.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Besides the increase in community shared-value work we need to change our vocabulary around how the travel industry can benefit communities, through the recovery and into the good times ahead. There have also been silver linings to the pandemic, and one such positive change was the increased adoption of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles and their heightened visibility during challenging times.
- Website: destinationsinternational.org
- LinkedIn:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/destintl/
- Twitter: @destintl
We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!: https://breaktheicemedia.com/rating-review/