Best Western International, CAA and TIAC Forecast a Summer of Travel Bargains and Domestic Travel.Canadian Travel Industry Leaders Address State of the Industry, Forecast New Travel Trends at Annual Best Western Leisure Travel Summit TORONTO -- Travel executives from Best Western International, CAA Caa See CCC. (Canadian Automobile Association The Canadian Automobile Association (commonly known as CAA) is a non-profit federation, founded in 1913, of nine clubs across Canada, providing roadside assistance service, a complete range of auto touring and leisure travel services, insurance services, and member discounts ) and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC See Thrift Institution Advisory Council. ) convened last week to address the summer travel outlook, and predicted that Canadians will actively seek aggressive deals before booking travel and stay closer to home when vacationing. What will get travellers on the road? Dorothy Dowling, Best Western's senior vice president of sales and marketing, said people today are seeking value like never before. Families are still hitting the road, but are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. the most budget-friendly vacation, she stated. In many cases, that means leveraging rewards program perks perk 1 v. perked, perk·ing, perks v.intr. 1. To stick up or jut out: dogs' ears that perk. 2. To carry oneself in a lively and jaunty manner. to offset costs Costs for which funds have been appropriated but will not be obligated because of a contingency operation. See also contingency operation. . "Our loyalty program has seen a 60 percent increase in the number of points issued and redeemed re·deem tr.v. re·deemed, re·deem·ing, re·deems 1. To recover ownership of by paying a specified sum. 2. To pay off (a promissory note, for example). 3. ," said Dowling. "Best Western is delivering value to travellers by putting the best deals we have ever offered into the market place. This summer, we are rewarding travellers with a free night after staying with us just twice - earning points while they stay and bonus points for simply booking online." Canadian travel expert and YouMustBeTrippin.com blogger Bryson Forbes agreed, indicating that value would reign supreme for summer travel, but that quality was an important part of the value equation. "Value is a function of quality and price," said Forbes. "You can't have value with just a low price point; the experience has to include good customer service. It wasn't that long ago that price alone ruled travel decisions. Travel choice today is impacted by the customer experience." What types of vacations are people looking to take? The economic climate, cost of air travel and new passport legislation are all causing travellers to take another look at their destination of choice. "I am calling it the Yay-cation," said Chris Jones, vice president, public affairs Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in the Department of Defense. Also called PA. See also command information; community relations; public information. for TIAC. "As in 'yay' - I can afford a vacation! People are cutting back in other areas, like lattes, lunch and clothes, because they want the money to go on vacation. Vacations may be shorter and closer to home, but people will take them." Alison Hermansen, executive vice president association and club services for CAA, noted that new passport legislation, which requires that all citizens have a passport to cross the Canada/United States border, will have a positive impact on Canadians travelling domestically. TIAC reported approximately 54 percent of Canadians have a passport. "We are anticipating a strong summer drive market with Canadians exploring their own backyard," said Hermansen. "The uses of our on-the-road features, like Trip Tik, maps and tour books, have shown a steady increase which points to a heavy road trip season." Where can travellers find deals? Travel brand Web sites are great sources for deals as these companies often post the best offers directly through their own marketing channels. Best Western provides its lowest rate guarantee for all its hotels in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. on www.bestwestern.com, noted Dowling. Travellers should look for targeted communications, such as newsletters and e-mails that provide the best deals and are often segmented based on the specific interests of the traveller. Hermansen commented that the days of mass marketing are over. "Our goal is to have a relationship with each of our customers, and with 5.5 million members that can be difficult," she said. "We have to be smart and innovative to reach our customers and drive the right product to the right members, which we do through targeted direct marketing and social media." The panelists agreed that social media was a powerful tactic for reaching customers. Avenues such as Facebook and Twitter A Web site and service that lets users send short text messages from their cellphones to a group of friends. Launched in 2006, Twitter (www.twitter.com) was designed for people to broadcast their current activities and thoughts. allow companies to not only deliver deals to customers, but also create an open dialogue for feedback. ABOUT BEST WESTERN INTERNATIONAL Best Western International is THE WORLD'S LARGEST HOTEL CHAIN[R], providing marketing, reservations and operational support to over 4,000* independently owned and operated member hotels in 80* countries and territories worldwide. An industry pioneer since 1946, Best Western has grown into an iconic i·con·ic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or having the character of an icon. 2. Having a conventional formulaic style. Used of certain memorial statues and busts. brand that hosts 400,000* worldwide guests each night. Best Western's diverse property portfolio, its greatest strength, stems from a business model designed to give owners maximum flexibility to address market-specific needs. Equally committed to the business and leisure traveler, Best Western recently embarked on a mission to lead the hotel industry in customer care. World Vision is the charity of choice for Best Western in building the world's largest family, as our hotels and staff sponsor children in need around the globe. Since 2004, Best Western has served as the Official Hotel of NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. [R]. For more information or to make a reservation, please visit www.bestwestern.com. *Numbers are approximate and can fluctuate. ABOUT CAA CAA is a federation of 9 automobile clubs serving 5.3 million members through 138 offices across Canada Across Canada was an afternoon program that formerly aired on The Weather Network. The segment ran from early 1999 until mid 2002. The show ran from 3:00PM ET until 7:00 PM ET. . CAA provides a wide range of member services and works to improve travelling and motoring conditions at home and around the world, including national advocacy efforts on both traffic safety and public policy issues that affect Canadian motorists. www.caa.ca ABOUT TIAC The Tourism Industry Association of Canada is the voice of Canadian tourism. Founded in 1930 to encourage the development of tourism in Canada Canada, as a rich Western country, has both a large domestic and foreign tourist industry. Canada is known for its large, majestic landscapes and several record-holding landmarks. , TIAC serves today as the national private-sector advocate for this $74.9 billion industry, representing the interests of the tourism business community nation-wide. It successfully influences government thinking and action on behalf of Canadian tourism businesses, promoting positive measures that help the industry grow and prosper. TIAC's membership reflects partnerships among all sectors of the industry, and provincial, territorial and regional tourism associations, enabling the association to address the full range of issues facing Canadian tourism -- forcefully force·ful adj. Characterized by or full of force; effective: was persuaded by the forceful speaker to register to vote; enacted forceful measures to reduce drug abuse. and effectively. Its activities focus on legislative and regulatory barriers to the growth of Canadian tourism. Listen to a podcast (iPOD broadCAST) An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player or computer. The "pod" in podcast was coined from "iPod," the predominant portable, digital music player, and although podcasts are from the Leisure Travel Summit at http://www.bestwestern.com/ltspodcast2.mp3 Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=5987787&lang=en |
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