Destination On The Left

Tammy Blount-Canavan’s career has spanned 30+ years and two countries, including executive leadership at Tourism Vancouver, CEO of the Tacoma Regional CVB, architect and inaugural Chair of the Washington Tourism Alliance, President and CEO of the Monterey County CVB, and now President and CEO of Visit Seattle.

Tammy is a Past Chair of Destinations International. Tammy has been recognized as CEO of the Year, one of the 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry, twice as one of the top 25 Most Influential Women in the Industry, Leadership Supplier of the Year in the Meetings Industry, Top 100 Most Inspirational Women in the Meetings Industry, CSUMBs School of Business 2018 Community Leader of the Year, won the Global Leadership Award from Destinations International and IMEX and in 2023 is being inducted into the Smart Women in Meetings Hall of Fame.

In this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Tammy Blount-Canavan about some of Visit Seattle’s ingenious campaigns, such as rain booths in Arizona and coffee shop takeovers, which embody the unique character of Seattle. She describes how the community built a city-wide selling strategy to expand the conventions market. Tammy also shares some of the community and wider partnerships they’re involved in and how they help make the tourism industry successful.

• Some of the directions you can go in when you build a career in travel and tourism marketing
• How Visit Seattle promotes the values of their community when they’re out and about at shows
• Some of the creative ways they share more about their communities’ benefits including a rain booth in Arizona and coffee shop takeovers
• The challenges that COVID-19 threw in Visit Seattle’s path and how they have overcome them by collaborating on a city-wide selling strategy
• How they make partnerships successful by talking about what they want to accomplish, how they plan to get there, and how they make sure stakeholders have complementary skills

We spotlight the innovative approach to destination marketing taken by Visit Seattle this week. Rather than solely relying on traditional tactics like purchasing ads and attending trade shows, they put a unique spin on destination marketing by creating fun and memorable experiences at events that underscore their core values.

Visit Seattle has a knack for adding creative twists to their campaigns; last summer, they introduced a ‘rain booth’ in California and Arizona. This structure sprinkled light rain, allowing people to experience Seattle’s famous ‘cozy season’ amidst the summer heat. Participants could even create their own movie posters as though they were in Seattle, sparking conversations about the city’s unique charm.

In addition to these fresh marketing strategies, Visit Seattle capitalizes on the wealth of local celebrities and athletes who take pride in sharing the story of their city. Their ongoing “I Know a Place” campaign features local residents expressing their love for Seattle and its hidden gems. This not only highlights iconic locations but also unveils lesser-known aspects of the city.

We also discuss how Visit Seattle shares how their core values—innovation, creativity, and inclusivity— not only shape their city but also their marketing strategies. Inclusivity, for instance, is manifested through partnerships with Seattle Bank and Interventionalist, supporting traditionally underrepresented BIPOC-owned businesses.

Sponsorships enable people to experience these businesses firsthand, with Visit Seattle highlighting them in their campaigns. This demonstrates a proactive approach to diversity, actively working with these businesses to tell their stories instead of merely stating the presence of diversity.

Creativity is another cornerstone of Visit Seattle’s approach. The city boasts the title of the glassblowing capital of the world, second only to Italy, and hosts an annual festival named Refract, a month-long celebration of local and renowned glass artists. Along with Refract, they organize Cloudbreak, focused on music, and Museum Month, both of which showcase Seattle’s vibrant arts scene.

Their third core value, innovation, is encapsulated in Seattle’s identity as the birthplace of global tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, retail powerhouse Costco, and numerous other innovative ventures. This value traces back to the World’s Fair six decades ago that birthed the iconic Space Needle, highlighting the city’s longstanding history of groundbreaking ideas. Their commitment to these values is exemplified in events like the recent Pride Parade, reinforcing that inclusivity in Seattle goes beyond words—it is deeply rooted in the population’s values. Through these unique approaches, Visit Seattle is not just selli...

In the second episode in a special three-part series of Destination on the Left episodes from the National Tour Associations Travel Exchange in Reno, I’m sharing more insights from the group travel industry. I’m excited to share their thoughts on key trends and challenges as we move into 2023.

In this episode, you’ll hear from these extraordinary leaders:

Peter Johnson, Manager & Market Development at Tourism Nova Scotia Richard Arnold, President at Atlantic Tours Limited Tillie Youngs, Sales Manager at Visit 1000 Islands Anjuli King, Director, Domestic Group Tour & Entertainment Sales at Visit Savannah Debra Asberry, President & Founder at Women Traveling Together, Inc. Heather Egan, Director of Leisure & International Sales at Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau

Travel and Tourism Insight from The National Tour Associations Travel Exchange

In my interviews at the NTA, I talked with tour and travel professionals about how dynamic and resilient the group tour industry is. I asked each guest to share trends, challenges, and the future outlook for the tour industry from their viewpoint — you will find a lot of similar themes running through their answers.

Peter Johnson — Manager & Market Development at Tourism Nova Scotia

Peter discussed the number one issue they are facing in the industry right now and how Tourism Nova Scotia are moving through it. He shares what they’re doing to combat labor shortages with innovative ways to bring people back to the industry, including working closely with partner organizations.

Richard Arnold, President at Atlantic Tours Limited

The impact of COVID-19 on the group travel industry included reducing numbers on tour departures for health and safety reasons. Richard describes how this pivot has led to Atlantic Tours developing an offering of small group departures and why he believes that offering individual, unique experiences are among the key trends of 2023.

Tillie Youngs — Sales Manager at Visit 1000 Islands

Tille describes the impact straddling two countries has on her destination marketing organization. She discusses their notable collaborations on both sides of the St. Lawrence River and why they have always seen themselves as a two-nation destination. We also talked about the opportunities to collaborate and work as closely with international partners.

Anjuli King — Director, Domestic Group Tour & Entertainment Sales at Visit Savannah

There are so many great destinations that have a huge amount to offer groups, and Savannah is undoubtedly one of those places. Anjuli shares some of the trends she is seeing right now in the group tour industry, including the popularity of their black history tours. She also discusses why she believes that Georgia as a whole has opened up to new opportunities in the last couple of years.

Debra Asberry — President & Founder at Women Traveling Together, Inc.

Debra tells me about why she founded Women Traveling Together and describes the ethos of their exclusively small group women tours and why they embed a tour leader to manage group dynamics and just show guests a wonderful time. Debra also gives me her word to describe the NTA Travel Exchange, which is ‘ready’ and dives into how it relates to relationship building within the group travel and tourism industry.

Heather Egan — Director of Leisure & International Sales at Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau

Heather and I discuss some of the problems that have become evident in the group travel niche over recent years. She shares how her organization balances the needs of the group tourism industry with the requirements of individual travelers and why they remain committed to finding the best way to accommodate groups and maintaining key relationships in the sector.

Moving Through Challenges

These brilliant travel professionals join me in exploring key trends and challenges for 2023 and how the COVID-19 pandemic has informed what’s going on in the group travel niche right now. My guests also describe the NTA Travel Exchange in just one word, and some of the key themes you’ll hear in this episode center on partnership, invigorating the industry, and strong connections. Get ready to be inspired!

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Brand Strategist & Business Growth Accelerator Karley Cunningham takes businesses from overcrowded, competitive spaces out into blue ocean territory where they can confidently stand out and thrive as brand leaders in their sector.

Companies that want to be distinct in their marketplace retain Karley to sharpen their positioning and differentiation strategies to cut through the noise. Karley’s international client-base benefits from accelerated growth, increased profit, and stability as her innovative Surefire MethodTM provides them with a sure-fire strategy and toolkit that enables them to charge a premium, attract and retain ideal clients, develop a great company culture, and outpace their competitors.

Having built three successful businesses, Karley knows what it takes to start, develop and lead a company that delivers results. Her entrepreneurial success story is featured in the awarded book: The Widest Net by Pamela Slim. In addition, she’s a sought-after mentor and speaker for national and international business organizations and the host of The Made Possible Podcast.

Believing deeply in the practice of givers gain, she is well-known and networked and rarely goes a day without making a referral or connection. As a former pro athlete, Karley is performance-driven. An avid mountain athlete, she is a two-time finisher of the BC Bike Race, a seven-day, 325 km mountain bike stage race, and is always looking out for her next trail running adventure. When not focusing on the business or expanding her network, she can be found somewhere in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest with her wife and dog in their 4×4.

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Karley Cunningham about how branding can help a destination, attraction, or business in the tourism industry stand out from the crowd. Karley breaks creating your brand down into three simple sections — uncovering our fundamental beliefs, understanding the markets we serve, and showcasing our differentiators.

• When Karly became interested in marketing and communications
• The importance of resonating with your audience
• How her background as a competitive athlete has impacted her career in branding
• Why a tighter box often enhances creativity
• The importance of inner reflection when drilling down into your brand story
• Why a 3-5 year time period helps you set an achievable strategic plan and vision
• What ‘the people become the place’ means for destination marketers
• How your branding can help solve the retention and recruitment problem

As creatives, we constantly push the boundaries, but when the boundaries shrink, we’re forced to think more creatively than ever about the challenges we face. When defining their brand destinations, services, and businesses need to reflect on their ‘why’ to pin down what makes them unique.

Karley joins us on the podcast to discuss how to peel back the layers to understand what’s different about your offering because amazing branding is about the nuances. She describes the process as going fishing — if you drop the line and then go deeper and deeper and deeper, you’ll eventually hook on to something special.

Karley explores why it’s essential to start from the inside out when developing your brand. She shares her insights on why it’s all about being authentic as people when you’re creating a company brand. Karley also discusses how she helps businesses who have moved away from their true purpose to pivot back to their axis and reinvigorate them. When your brand story comes from the inside out and is genuinely driven by your purpose, who you are, the things that resonate with you, and how you show up in the world, it creates an innate sense of alignment and power.

Recruiting and retaining employees is a huge struggle in the travel and tourism industry right now. Karley gives her perspective on whether the current staffing challenges relate to how valued and cared for people felt before the pandemic and how that relates to standing behind your brand values.

On the show, we discuss how to solve the problem of recruitment and retention, and Karley gives her advice on how branding can help businesses in that regard. She shares how your brand ties into your promise to your staff in terms of supporting them in their everyday roles and challenging situations. Karley outlines why the key question in reframing the retention issues is, are you willing to deliver your staff the quality that you deliver your guests or service users?

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