Canada
Additional Market Information
With its close proximity to California, Canada remains the second largest international market of origin for the state. California offers key attributes that remain important for the Canadian traveler, such as solid airlift and reasonable airfares, increasing/new capacity to various cities, variety of cultural offerings, cosmopolitan cities, wine and food experiences, and favorable weather. Also, despite peaking in value vs. the US dollar in 2007, the Canadian dollar is still over 40% stronger than it was in 2003 (as of February 2009).
Of the 18.9 million Canadians visitors to the U.S. in 2008, 7% (1.12 million) visited California in 2008. This represents a 7% increase from 2007. Canadians’ average length of stay in California is 8.6 nights. Canadian travel to the U.S. decreased year over year in each month from September to December 2008, but still finished the year up nearly 7% compared to 2007. In regard to market strategy, CTTC is guided by quantitative research findings from 2007 and 2008 that pertain to television and print campaign effectiveness, as well as data from Statistics Canada that profiles Canadian travelers to California. The topline conclusions are as follows:
- Target Canadian leisure travelers with the greatest propensity to visit California.
- Concentrate promotional efforts in Q1 and Q4 when potential travel volume is highest.
- Use domestic television spot (“Work”) and (You’ll be Back”) to reach audience throughout the country via national advertising campaign in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Edmonton.
- Utilize promotional campaigns such as Wine and Food, Shop California, Golf California and Culture California to refresh the California brand and variety of travel offerings throughout the state.
- Work closely with key travel partners such as tour operators, airlines, auto clubs on California promotions and new/expanded product offerings.
Key Strategies
- Work with key partners in the trade to promote California in a creative, aggressive manner.
- Promote experiences that are uniquely California.
- Leverage close proximity of California to the market, ease of access, no language barriers, value of a California vacation.
- Refresh brand by promoting key attributes (lifestyle, proximity, culture, wine and food).