The City of Langford, in partnership with Sooke to Port Renfrew Regional Tourism Association (SRTA), Malahat Nation, Malahat Skywalk, and Destination BC have launched a new tourism marketing collective. The South Island Spirit Loop promotes unique tourism experiences in Langford, Sooke, Port Renfrew and Malahat regions.
This project has connected community partners in a significant way. There are now 4 communities actively collaborating together to quickly achieve deliverables of the campaign. This initiative has provided tourism-related support for communities that do not have paid staff.
These partners are now able to leverage smaller budgets and partner with larger communities with paid staff to manage the campaign. The website and short film style documentary has been a major boost in terms of awareness and media coverage significantly impacting the economic impact of all communities and businesses around the Spirit Loop.
This tourism marketing cooperative was formed with support from Destination BC’s Co-Operative Marketing Partnerships Program, to highlight some of the communities and partners around the Pacific Marine Circle Route. It was established to complement and enhance the regions existing marketing already in place. The initial work, including the short film and website, is just the beginning and starting point for this marketing co-operative venture. These promotional materials will act as a template for additional communities and stakeholders to join us to market and promote more communities throughout this region. Any community along the route is open to join the collective regardless of
marketing budget available. So far 3 travel media writers have reached out to set up a FAM tour of the route to cover in national travel magazines and websites. The marketing assets were launched at spiritloop.ca on October 26, 2021.
Tourism Minister Mark was quoted in the initiative’s press release launch statement: “This partnership supports Indigenous tourism and is an example of reconciliation in action.” Local media coverage of the Spirt Loop launch included CTV News, CHEK News, Cowichan Valley Citizen, Chemainus Courier, Discourse.
In the first month of launch (Oct 22-Nov20), the website had 6,600+ visitors and 100+ email subscribers. Google and CBC campaigns garnered 260K+ and 145K+ impressions respectively. (when the Province had the emergency weather/road incident the campaign was put on hold / did not encourage road travel); campaign will be launched again at the beginning of Feb)
The Spirt Loop’s Instagram channel was launched in Oct 2021: 41 published posts & stories led to 212,828 impressions, gaining almost 300 followers, in the first 3 months
This type of cooperative marketing program is replicable or transferable to other communities. The keys to the success of this project so far include:
- a full-time staff person able to coordinate the various components of the program; there needs to be 1 lead project manager, ideally not a volunteer who has the time and expertise to manage the project, complete reports and meet deadlines
- existing positive working relationships to build upon
- commitment to the vision of the project
- sufficient lead time is required to have enough time for each stakeholder group to get approval from their Board or elected officials
- willingness to "stay the course" when things beyond one's control (i.e. pandemic and travel restrictions) stall activities and take attention away from the project