Tourism Showcase Event

Another of the South West Regional Alliance initiatives to help market our tourism operations took place a little while ago in Pincher Creek. Unfortunately I could not attend but Sue Moser (our best holiday home rep) managed to get there with her display. From all reports, including an article in the Pincher Creek Echo, the evening was a great success with approximately 30 operators attending.


This begs a question: do marketing consortia and co-op affairs work or are we just kidding ourselves thinking that collective efforts are a waste of time?

My thoughts on the matter go as follows:

1. There is no way I have time to attend all the workshops meetings and get togethers I should so I'm just glad that someone ( read Sue) has put in the effort to get there for us and I don't care if she promotes her own places first ( she should) I'm just pleased that I got included at all.

2. The referral set up we have going in our little consortium works out great for all, particularly the customers. Places are filled and customers are happy. Win -win scenario

3. The bigger consortia, like SW do a vast amount of work for us that no one small operator could accomplish not to mention the grants and buying power they create. Again it's win - win

4. To many consortia mean competition. Let’s face it if there are not a bunch of operators in a specific area there is no one to populate the consortium so there has to be some competitors in the mix. So is competition bad - No way. It tends to produce a better product for the customer , prevent price gouging , and I really believe that a traveler may not stop for one shop ( read - shop or restaurant or attraction etc.) but they are likely to stop for 10 shops. And travelers that stop are good for everyone. Just my thought (and I plan to go into it more in a later post)

Back to the Showcase Event. It sounds like it was a great night and I wish I could have gone. Thanks to Sue for going as well as for keeping us updated with your emails



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