Manic Monday | If you want to go far, go together
The above title is taken in part from an African Proverb; "if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together".
These words so clearly underscore the importance of developing partnerships and the need for our tourism industry to work together to ensure our far reaching success.
An excellent example of this type of collaboration is Canada's West Marketplace which was held last week in Victoria. This travel and business exchange is the result of Destination BC and Travel Alberta working in cooperation to bring their travel trade operators to Canada for meetings on an annual basis. Now in its 30th year, invited operators take part in a series of one-on-one meetings with stakeholders from both provinces over the course of four days. In addition, operators are able to experience firsthand many of the products they are representing through pre and post familiarization trips. This annual event is built on a recognition by all parties of the tremendous value and synergy of working in partnership.
Our TOTA team also believes in the critical importance of building partnerships with each of our DMO's as well as our stakeholders. Over the past few years we have also been pleased to have worked on unique alliances organizations including go2HR, AtBC, and GreenStep, to name but a few. We also work closely with our three major corporate partners including Air Canada, TELUS, and YLW without which we could not accomplish many of the goals that we view are critical in moving the tourism industry forward in our region.
In the months to come, we will continue to look for both traditional and non-traditional partnership opportunities, ones where both parties can clearly see value in working collectively and aligning with the tourism industry. We encourage you to do the same by building strong ties to your DMO's as well as other industry stakeholders and TOTA.
The value of working together can not be understated, we have far to go and each of us needs the other to get there!
Glenn Mandziuk, TOTA President & CEO
