April 14, 2014
The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Terry French, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation:
Province’s Tourism Campaign Wins National Social Media Award
Mr. Speaker, Newfoundland and Labrador tourism marketing continues to redefine tourism advertising in Canada, and is now recognized as an industry leader. Our Find Yourself tourism marketing campaign has proven successful in raising awareness of Newfoundland and Labrador as a vacation destination, and has become one of the most recognizable advertising campaigns in the country. I am delighted to stand in this Honourable House today to announce that our campaign has won a second consecutive Canadian eTourism Award, this time for Best Online Campaign. With this win, Mr. Speaker, the Find Yourself campaign has garnered 211 awards.
The Canadian eTourism Awards recognize the evolution and marketing power of campaigns for the travel and tourism industry that are innovative, original, engaging and have proven to be successful. The award was presented last week during the 2014 Online Revealed Canada Conference held in Toronto, Ontario. Since 2010, our Find Yourself campaign has won four Canadian eTourism awards.
With the 2013 television advertisement Conversation as the anchor, an unconventional online advertising campaign called Language Lessons was linked with a social media campaign titled Word of the Week and launched. Nineteen YouTube videos were produced with people providing definitions of Newfoundland and Labrador-based words. Users were encouraged to interact with the ads and social media posts and try and guess the meaning of the words before watching the videos. The videos received more than 385,000 views, 16,000 Facebook likes, and 9,000 Facebook shares.
As a government, Mr. Speaker, we are very pleased to see our incredible Find Yourself campaign honoured once again for its creativity and innovation. It is encouraging how our social media engagement strategies have strengthened our province’s online presence and have fostered a loyal and engaged online community of travellers and brand ambassadors alike.
Since 2006, we have invested over $100 million in tourism marketing, and the positive impact can be seen in the growth in visitation and tourist spending. In fact, tourism spending reached $1 billion in Newfoundland and Labrador for the first time in 2011. Between 2009 and 2013, Mr. Speaker, non-resident visitation increased 19 per cent, surpassing a milestone of half a million visitors during that period. Non-resident tourism spending increased 30 per cent between 2009 and 2013, reaching $467 million in 2013, the highest level of non-resident spending ever in the province.
Our Find Yourself campaign truly is an important component of our efforts to promote Newfoundland and Labrador as a premiere destination.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
2014 04 14 1:55 p.m.