Issue link: http://tourismwpg.uberflip.com/i/1383107
Mike Peters COVID-19 response & recovery snapshot For much of 2020, our team had to move business development and visitor experiences from in-person activities to a virtual platform. In early March, TW had to shift quickly to support partners, their clients and the industry as they developed strategies to respond to a rapidly changing landscape in tourism. Business development & marketing consortiums TW led the management of the marketing consortiums for Team Winnipeg and Winnipeg Tour Connection to drive client engagement and increase the tourism economy. These consortiums brought together more than 60 stakeholders that maximized resources, provided a cohesive sales effort and promoted Winnipeg collaboratively for the greatest impact. Group travel trade The 2020 Student Youth Travel Association marketplace with 1,000 delegates in Winnipeg was cancelled due to the pandemic and rebooked for 2023. This is one of the industry's premier events that bring tour companies from across North America together with tourism suppliers for B2B meetings. We developed several new Winnipeg programs for Canadian tour companies that only promoted international outbound tours prior to the pandemic. The city's major attractions were featured as ideal travel motivators for social science and music classes. Visitor experiences outreach Our team facilitated online culinary and winter tourism workshops in collaboration with Travel Manitoba and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada to encourage Winnipeg tourism providers to develop, expand or offer culinary and winter experiences in the future. Prior to the shutdown of essential services, we delivered frontline training programs for Ubisoft's talent team, Goldwings ambassadors at the airport and international students at both Red River College and the University of Manitoba. These efforts resulted in 251 new people being trained to act as ambassadors for our city. We also increased engagement on tourismwinnnipeg.com, Trip Advisor and online travel organizations' platforms to provide personalized travel counseling. 25 2020 Annual Report