Hon. Wes MacAleer, Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, and Mr. Dale Larkin, Co-chair of the Tourism Marketing Authority, jointly announced today the new tourism marketing strategy for 1998.
Heavily featuring the activities and beauty of Prince Edward Island, the plan centres around new television, newspaper and radio creative designed to attract even more customers from the province's strong traditional markets of Ontario, Quebec, New England and Atlantic Canada. As in the previous two years, the campaign will continue with efforts to build both the spring and fall shoulder seasons.
"1997 was the best tourism year in our province's history and it is important that we keep the momentum building," said Mr. MacAleer. "We are looking for further growth from key opportunities in Ontario, Quebec and New England plus expanding our traditional Maritime visitor into more visits in non-summer months."
The new 1998 advertising is an evolution of the previously successful campaigns of the past several years. Designed by the Tourism Marketing Authority's advertising agency Young & Rubicam, the campaign is actually a series of separate mini-campaigns devised to focus on key travel targets.
"Our customers are actually quite diverse and what may attract a customer from Ontario may turn away a Maritimer. For that reason, we have designed separate campaigns for each key territory to ensure that our messages are not only attractive but penetrating as well," said Mr. Larkin.
New initiatives for 1998 include: all-new television, newspaper, magazine and radio advertising; an Emily of New Moon promotion on television and in book stores; pay-per-inquiry television, an AAA/CAA autoclub "PEI Ambassador" program; a new 1-888 response number; a partnership with the Canadian Tourism Commission and Home Hardware stores throughout Canada; and a direct mail campaign to over 200,000 homes in New England and Mid Atlantic states.