Destination BC award wins reinforce economic power of tourism

On Friday, November 23, Maya Lange, VP of Marketing for Destination British Columbia, accepted the “Marketer of the Year” award, presented by the Canadian Marketing Association. The award – one of several that pay homage to the organization’s multiple-year journey from destination marketing organization to industry-leading marketing powerhouse – arrives at the close of BC’s most successful tourism year to date, supporting the rising importance of tourism to the BC economy.
In the past few months, Destination BC has received awards for:

• Marketer of the Year by the BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association (BCAMA), which lauded the organization’s bar-setting marketing initiatives in the global tourism space. These include building key relationships with marketing giants like Facebook and Google; launching the Powerful Marketing Network, a province-wide collaboration that supports and amplifies each region’s marketing efforts; and introducing attention-grabbing content marketing that incorporates video, audio and user-generated social media
• Canadian Marketer of the Year, presented to Maya Lange, VP of Global Marketing, by the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA), recognizing her leadership in helping to transform destination marketing organizations around BC into global competitors, thereby increasing visitation and spend
• Triumph (Gold) Award presented by Global Trend Awards, as well as a Gold (Destination) Award by Travel Weekly Magellan Awards, both earned for Destination BC’s inspirational and user-friendly website

In each awards category, the organization outshone strong competition by demonstrating unparalleled intuition for designing and executing innovative, attention-catching and results-oriented marketing initiatives.

Destination BC’s award wins coincide with BC’s most successful tourism year to date, reinforcing the power of tourism and tourism marketing to the regional economy. Tourism is a key economic driver in BC, generating more than $17 billion in revenue and upwards of 133,000 jobs annually – more than any other primary resource industry in the province. In 2018, international visitation totaled more than 3.4 million (year-to-date September), a 4.8% increase over 2017, including increased numbers of travellers from the U.S. (up 3.2% over 2017), Asia Pacific (+6.9%) and Europe (+8.2%). In 2017, the BC tourism industry grew at nearly twice the rate of the BC economy.

“Each year, destinations around the world compete for trillions of tourism dollars. The competitive landscape for travel marketers has completely transformed in the past few years. Today, it’s a ferocious digital battlefield and we need to be excellent competitors,” said Marsha Walden, CEO of Destination BC. “Maya is an exceptional marketer, with an exceptional team. They know that when our industry works together, we can achieve great things. I think our whole industry feels this win.”

“Our tourism industry is driven by small business, supporting people and families in every corner of the province. They rely on the world-class marketing and industry development undertaken by Destination BC,” said Lisa Beare, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture. “The recognition that our team at Destination BC is receiving for its marketing efforts is well deserved, as we work to strengthen the B.C. brand worldwide.”