8/19/2019 Langley Advance Welcome to the Neighbourhood Page
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LANDREVILLE
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urism Langley is on themove – quite literally.
In 2014, Destination BC
rly Tourism BC) advisedunities to start planningfuture.meant
adopting a “more, innovative, commun-ed visitor servicing”
according to Tourismy’s executive directorh Kulchiski.e same time,
Tourismy identified a rapid declineors to the Langley Visitormost
significantly since
More than 75 per cent ofitors utilizing the centreocal
residents.criteria to operate Visitor
s was adjusted to enable
unities to seek opportun-utside the confines of their
and mortar’ facilities,”ski said.
“Ivan,” Tourismy’s mobile visitor ser-unit. The Ask
Langleymobile information unitto events and visitor hot-
providing directions, infor-, and tips to visitors.
our organization adaptschanging travel and tour-ndscape, Tourism
Langley
realized a need to reach visitorsbeyond the traditional meansof
the counter at a visitors cen-tre,” notes Teri James, chair
ofTourism Langley’s board.
Tourism Langley and visitorexperiences specialist SarahTough
currently play a role onthe provincial social media pilotproject,
guiding communitiesthat are embracing visitor servi-cing
models.
The Langley Advance recentlycaught up with
Kulchiskiand her team to chat about
Tourism Langley’s recent chan-ges:
What is Tourism Langley’sprimary goal?
Tourism Langley representsthe local tourism industry
andcomplements other existingorganizations such as the
Greater Langley Chamber of Commerceand local Business
Improvement Associations, aswell as regionaland provincial
des-tination marketingagencies.
Its mandate isto market Langleyas a tourism des-tination.
This isdelivered throughmarketing strat-egies aimed at gen-erating
increasedvisitation, extendedstays, addition-al revenue
opportunities, andincreased daily expenditures forbusinesses in
both the City andTownship of Langley.
Where is Tourism Langley’soffice located? In March of 2015,
Tourism
Langley unveiled a new busi-ness model whichincluded a
shiftfrom the trad-itional means ofvisitor servicing to
emphasizing anonline focus. Thechange markedthe relocation ofthe
corporate officeand visitor centreat the Langley Events Centre
toa new locationat Thunderbird
Village in Walnut Grove.How have Tourism Langley’s
format and day-to-day oper-ations changed?
The transition to online meansthat Tourism Langley can
fullyfocus efforts and resources onenriching the experiences of
pro-spective and current visitors, aswell as investing more
resourcesinto stakeholder developmentand support.
Staff now pro-actively seek
out potential guests in thetrip-planning phase to help edu-cate
and assist in booking anditinerary planning. Questionsare answered
in real-time via“social listening” on sites includ-ing Twitter,
TripAdvisor and Instagram.
The bureau also remains activeoffline and has increased
their presence at community events.
How does Tourism Langleylearn about events that areposted on its
website?
Local festival and event plan-ners as well as local
businessesregularly submit events.
Community events are alsosourced through a variety ofsocial
media platforms thatinclude Facebook, Instagram,and Twitter.
Can you elaborate on themobile information
unit? Recognizing Langley was one
of the communities not meeting
the criteria a minimum of threevisitor parties per hour
during peak season months, and thatthe current provincial
fundinglevels were in jeopardy, Tourism Langley struck a
Visitor Services Advisory Committee in the springof 2013. The
purpose of the com-mittee was to:
• review the provisions of the Langley Visitor Centre;
• consider options to rational-ize and improve, and to
increaseawareness of, the Langley VisitorCentre;
• to review options and poten-tial to adapt visitor services
toinclude/or replace with kiosks
within the Langley communitiesand to establish a framework foran
expanded network; and
• to involve and consult withexternal stakeholders,
external partners and other communityVisitor Centre operators
withinthe province.
For more, including how topost an event or request theLangley
mobile visitor servicesunit at an event, contact SarahTough at
[email protected] or 604-371-1477.
van’ delivers tourism info to communityey Advance
Welcome to the Neighbourhood, 2016 A29TOURISM
Tourism Langley photo
The Tourism Langley team gathered inside and around ‘Ivan,’ the
mobilevisitor services unit. Left to right are Mun Bagri, sport
tourism anddestination development; Sarah Tough, visitor
experiences specialist;Christina Marchand, destination sales and
marketing manager; andexecutive director Deborah Kulchiski.
“Tourism Langleyrealized a needto reach visitorsbeyond
thetraditional meansof the counter ata visitors centre.”Teri
James
