PAUL NURSEY
VICTORIA – Like most Canadians, all of us at Destination Greater Victoria (DGV) are eagerly cheering on Canada’s team at the Paris Olympics this month. As an organization that competes against city destinations every day, in our case for the attention of high value travellers, we understand the importance of hard work, creativity and innovative strategies when it comes to outperforming the competition.
As the number of people travelling worldwide continues to grow following the COVID-19 pandemic, DGV is committed to capturing their attention. To that end, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve recently partnered with MMGY Global to promote Greater Victoria in the United Kingdom to expand our presence in a key overseas market. As our third biggest source market, after the US and Canada, the UK is a particularly important market for us, accounting for 24 per cent of our international visitors.
MMGY Global is the world’s leading integrated marketing company, with over 40 years’ experience specializing in the travel and tourism industry. Simply put, they inspire people to go places. Through Hills Balfour, its partner agency in London, MMGY Global will re-introduce Greater Victoria to the UK market and establish our region and its attractions as must-see destinations for UK travellers.
As part of its work, MMGY Global will leverage its extensive relationships with travel and hospitality journalists in the UK, and use its storytelling expertise to secure the valuable media coverage which plays such a key role in convincing travellers’ where to take their next vacation. Using an in-market communications agency to promote our region abroad has already proven itself to be a successful formula for us.
For instance, in the United States, MMGY Global’s media and PR teams have had great success securing stories about Greater Victoria in prized publications such as Vogue, USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, as well as a full episode featuring Greater Victoria on the hit PBS travel series Samantha Brown’s “Places to Love”.
This innovative and flexible marketing approach, and our success attracting new visitors are reflections of how the COVID-19 pandemic changed DGV in a profound way. In response to many months of travel restrictions, we became a much leaner organization, which made us more nimble and resulted in freeing up resources to expand our reach in markets with the greatest potential. For us, that’s a winning formula that helps us go for the gold every day as we work to grow our vital visitor economy.
Paul Nursey is the President and CEO of Destination Greater Victoria
