Business Events Q3 Update

News and Trends

• A growing number of Americans report high levels of excitement for travel (80%, up from 76% in July). Read more here regarding US Sentiment for Travel to Canada. 
• Global DMC Partners, a collection of destination management companies, has just released its latest quarterly survey of meeting and event professionals. The report covers trending topics, including salaries, hiring, work/life balance, sustainability and what’s driving decisions throughout the global MICE industry. The full report can be found here.
• The Destination Canada Quarterly Tourism Snapshot shows Tourism Demand on the Rise with strong signs of recover in the second quarter. Tourism spending has progressed to 72% of its 2019 level and domestic air connectivity has improved to 90% of it’s 2019 level. More from this report can be found here.
• SITE has just launched Leadership inSITEs – a blog that focusses on research that advances the business case for incentive travel. Emerging practices that leaders showed curiosities around building out incentive travel budgets to allow for greater personalization and customization during a program, and innovative ways of incorporating meaningful CSR activities.
• Destination Canada Business Events launched a webinar looking at Incentive Industry trends using research that SITE and the IRF and FICP conducted. A key takeaway included that Wellness is a very important part of program design and giving guests more free time and looking at destinations where guests can explore on their own. 
• Wellness and CSR take centre stage in Lake Louise. Destination Canada Business Events and Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise joined Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) to host a whitepaper roundtable in Lake Louise. Read about the highlights of the trip and the whitepaper called “Decision Drivers 2022: Elevating The Experience” here.
  

What's Happening in Business Events Q3 2022

• Leveraging the Destination Canada Business Events teams opportunities, we participated in the following events:
  • ASAE Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN, connecting with thousands of association professionals.
  • The PharmaPhorum in Bethesda, MA, where 125 health planners attended. 
  • Canada Week, an inspiring week of incentive and sector focused meetings and events in London, UK, highlighting the best of Canada and what makes us an ideal destination for business events. DC partnered with Micebook, InVoyage as well as the High Commission of Canada in London to host more than 50 clients over 3 days.
  • Banff & Lake Louise Tourism organized 3 client luncheons alongside Canada Week to maximize our time in destination. We re-connected with familiar planners and met new ones.
  • Suppliers gathered in Halifax and spent two days with one-on-one scheduled appointments at Fox Harb’r Resort for Destination Canada’s Incentive Canada Summer, postponed from 2020. It was a balanced mix of 20 incentive planners, three media and 23 destination suppliers.
• We attended CVBReps Summer Soiree Client Event a signature industry event in the DC area that brings out clients that do not attend other events like PCMA, PMPI or ASAE. 129 clients from associations, third parties and corporations attended. It provides great reach for us, and we have been following up on several opportunities from being in attendance.
• ITA Group is among top channel incentive management companies. Banff already gets a good amount of business from ITA however the potential to increase groups in Lake Louise was recognized. We presented to bring more awareness about Lake Louise and the potential to increase their groups to Lake Louise was recognized. Future opportunities to work strategically with ITA Group is in the pipeline.
• American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) is one of the largest associations in the Greater Washington, DC area that hosts an information session to share their meeting department’s trends. In 2022, AAMC sourced 18 RFPs, received 354 proposals, and awarded 12 programs, showcases the value of attending this meeting. The majority of AAMC’s meetings are under 250 people, a perfect fit for our destination. They have 46 events slated for 2023, some of which are being considered in Canada.
• We attended our first Maritz NEXT& event as a result of our newly formed strategic partnership with Maritz. The event was attended by 260+ Maritz Global team members and 130+ clients. The program offered a full day of scheduled appointments and lots of networking opportunities with some key insights to the future, including booking behaviours which is looking strong for 2024 and beyond.
• In July we deployed a dedicated newsletter and banner on Prevue Meetings.com, click here to view the e-blast. 
• At the end of August, we created new banners to be included in the launch of Northstar’s incentive e-newsletter highlighting activities and venues in Banff to a targeted list. View the banners here.
• The Community Impact Initiative Program is a new, innovative incentive program for Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, led by the Business Events team. It helps build a positive impact on the communities of Banff and Lake Louise by generating contributions to local organizations. We welcomed the first pilot group in September, a Canadian Incentive. The group had a positive experience in destination, and we have been able to refine the process from this experience and we have gathered the data from this groups visit. The official launch is scheduled for 2023.
• Our team involved members early in the 2023-2024 planning. Those members completed the prework with high-level discussions within their businesses and workshopped the strategies and key tactics. We have received positive feedback on the alignment and efficiency we can create together with BLLT for the destination. The next working group session is December 8.

Business Events Q3 Results and Forward Thinking

• Q3 RFP’s - A total of 75 RFPs were distributed in Q3 with a total of 33,276 potential room nights with 10,579 delegates. These RFPs include 55% Incentive/Retreat, 25% Meetings and 20% Conferences.
• Pre-ASAE ELF Business Development Trip - We hosted 11 US association executives on a trip to Banff before they were set to participate in the American Society of Association Executives Executive Leadership Forum (ELF) in Calgary in June 2022. To date, two of the planners have scheduled return trips to Banff and Lake Louise to further explore specific properties for future programs we are being considered for.
• NorthStar Meetings campaign results – The campaign was delivered to 25,000 e-mails and got an open rate of 20% with a click through of 0.58%.
• IGNITE Magazine summer campaign results – The campaign included a Banff and Lake Louise full-page ad in the summer edition, click here to view the ad and the reporting metrics.
• Banff and Lake Louise has been chosen as the host destination for the Society of Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE)’s Exchange Canada. Coming this January 10-12, 2023, the event will bring highly qualified Canadian incentive buyers and global suppliers to our destination to showcase our winter incentive offerings. Click here for event information and email us for further details. 
• Banff and Lake Louise has been chosen as host destination for another Society of Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE)’s led event, this time, SITE Global’s Incentive Summit Americas (ISA). Coming this March 16-19, 2023, the event will bring highly qualified global incentive buyers and suppliers to our destination to showcase our incentive offerings. Click here for event information or email us if you are interested in being involved in this program and want further details. 
• Canadian planners are being recruited through a Canadian publication, to apply to attend a Banff and Lake Louise February 2023 Business Development Trip. Please email us if you are interested in learning more and being involved.