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From today's Orlando Sentinel......
Tourism officials hope to lure neighbors from the far North using TV ad
Christopher Boyd
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 26, 2007
Canada's strengthening dollar and its frigid winters make it a natural target for an advertising campaign aimed at attracting tourists to sunny Central Florida.
For the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, which is in the midst of a two-year, $68 million promotional drive, the time is right for a major drive urging Canadians to head south this winter.
The Canadian campaign, like its domestic counterpart, is aimed at women between the ages of 25 and 54. It promotes Central Florida as a place where familial bonds can be strengthened during a respite from bitter seasonal weather. The theme: "How to get closer to those who mean the most."
"This is a time when people in Canada are planning their winter vacations," bureau spokeswoman Danielle Courtenay said. "Coming on the heels of the Canadian dollar reaching parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since the 1970s, the timing is good."
The steady decline of the U.S. dollar relative to other major currencies is making U.S. vacations increasingly affordable for foreign visitors. But tourism experts say that international travel to the United States has never completely recovered from the plunge that followed the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Courtenay said Canada, with its shared border and large number of English speakers, is a natural growth market for the U.S. tourist industry. She said the $1 million campaign focuses on the nation's eastern provinces.
The bureau estimates that 690,000 Canadians visit the region each year, making their country Orlando's second-largest international market, after the United Kingdom. The multimedia-marketing campaign will reach nearly 7 million households, and will include the CVB's first Canadian broadcast-television campaign.
The first barrage consists of a four-week series of TV commercials that will air in southern Ontario; those are expected to reach 4.7 million households. The bureau also will distribute a 16-page glossy insert in five Ontario newspapers beginning next month. Internet advertising is also part of the mix, with ads appearing on a variety of search engines.
The bureau is in the process of winding down an advertising campaign in the United Kingdom, where the pound sterling has also gained strength on the dollar. And earlier this month, the bureau began a domestic cable-TV advertising effort, which will later expand to U.S. broadcast television.
Tourism officials hope to lure neighbors from the far North using TV ad
Christopher Boyd
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 26, 2007
Canada's strengthening dollar and its frigid winters make it a natural target for an advertising campaign aimed at attracting tourists to sunny Central Florida.
For the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, which is in the midst of a two-year, $68 million promotional drive, the time is right for a major drive urging Canadians to head south this winter.
The Canadian campaign, like its domestic counterpart, is aimed at women between the ages of 25 and 54. It promotes Central Florida as a place where familial bonds can be strengthened during a respite from bitter seasonal weather. The theme: "How to get closer to those who mean the most."
"This is a time when people in Canada are planning their winter vacations," bureau spokeswoman Danielle Courtenay said. "Coming on the heels of the Canadian dollar reaching parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since the 1970s, the timing is good."
The steady decline of the U.S. dollar relative to other major currencies is making U.S. vacations increasingly affordable for foreign visitors. But tourism experts say that international travel to the United States has never completely recovered from the plunge that followed the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Courtenay said Canada, with its shared border and large number of English speakers, is a natural growth market for the U.S. tourist industry. She said the $1 million campaign focuses on the nation's eastern provinces.
The bureau estimates that 690,000 Canadians visit the region each year, making their country Orlando's second-largest international market, after the United Kingdom. The multimedia-marketing campaign will reach nearly 7 million households, and will include the CVB's first Canadian broadcast-television campaign.
The first barrage consists of a four-week series of TV commercials that will air in southern Ontario; those are expected to reach 4.7 million households. The bureau also will distribute a 16-page glossy insert in five Ontario newspapers beginning next month. Internet advertising is also part of the mix, with ads appearing on a variety of search engines.
The bureau is in the process of winding down an advertising campaign in the United Kingdom, where the pound sterling has also gained strength on the dollar. And earlier this month, the bureau began a domestic cable-TV advertising effort, which will later expand to U.S. broadcast television.
