Tourism Montreal, NYC and Black Friday Warning for YVR: This week's JimBits

Tourisme Montréal has officially kicked off its MTL Specialist training program, which gives its members the chance to learn more about the city and its must-see attractions. The program was designed to help members of the local tourism trade become proud ambassadors of the destination and offer tourists a better overall experience. Ultimately, the goal is to encourage visitors to extend their stay and increase their spending in the tourism ecosystem.

Montréal is a city that continually reinvents itself, the program provides an overview of the city, its history, major attractions, newest features, distinctive neighbourhoods and practical tools for promoting the city. Participants will be given the chance to visit and discover more than a dozen local attractions, and upon completion of the program they will receive a certificate that remains valid for two years.

"Montréal is a dynamic city that's always changing-and this is truer than ever in 2018/2019! The program was designed to help industry professionals stay up-to-date so that they can provide potential visitors with accurate information," said Yves Lalumière, President and CEO of Tourisme Montréal.

In the same spirit as the MTL Specialist program, Tourisme Montréal is currently developing a similar certification for travel agents. It will be released in the next few weeks through distribution networks in international markets

NYC & Company, New York City's official destination marketing organization, has unveiled its refreshed digital-first global tourism campaign "Famous Original New York City." The $15 million USD campaign intends to reach travelers around the world, celebrating the personal ways NYC can be experienced. Original in-house creative-along with supporting video, photo galleries, editorial and social content-is pegged to distinct newly curated travel "affinities": Secret NYC, Glamorous NYC and Classic NYC.

"Utilizing our new digital tools and affinity-driven content, we invite global visitors to discover their 'Famous Original New York City' now," said NYC & Company President and CEO Fred Dixon.

Internationally, the campaign will appear in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom and first-time markets Colombia, India and Peru. In partnership with Facebook and Instagram, the campaign will utilize content marketing that has been developed to attract audience members with specific interests and behaviors. Artificial intelligence will target social media users with an intent to travel, ultimately encouraging visits to the campaign landing page, where dynamically generated content-pegged to the travel affinity of interest-will live, along with market-specific travel offers.

New this year are tools that will allow NYCgo.com visitors to immediately book or favorite Classic, Glamorous or Secret elements, including attractions, museums, restaurants, shopping, tours and editorial packages. Users who have favorited items can then build custom itineraries based on personal, saved interests through the travel-planning tool Utrip. Additional travel affinities will be introduced throughout the campaign's duration.

Additional strategic collaborations with partners including Aeromexico (Mexico), British Airways (UK), Copa Airlines (Chile), Porter Airlines (Canada), TUI (Germany) and TripAdvisor are live, with further partnerships to follow. Through these partners, various travel packages will be offered throughout the duration of the campaign, many including flight and/or hotel deals.

In addition, NYC & Company holds several tourism alliances domestically and internationally. These strategic city-to-city partnerships spotlight New York City via in-kind media in Toronto, Madrid and Tokyo.

An increase in community tourism, as well as social media use, has driven leading small group adventure operator, G Adventures, to lead the charge in educating people on how to interact responsibly with children when they travel - and many of the guidelines will surprise well-intentioned travellers.

Taking selfies with children, geo-tagging their location on social media, visiting school classrooms, and giving money and gifts directly to children are all potentially harmful activities well-meaning travellers need to stop doing. These are detailed in G Adventures' new, industry-leading, child welfare guidelines, which were developed in partnership with international child protection experts, ChildSafe Movement, and Planeterra Foundation.

This month, G Adventures became the first global travel company to be officially ChildSafe Certified. This is in recognition of the work that has been undertaken to safeguard children's well-being, both with G Adventures' travellers and staff.

A new short, shareable, video has been launched to support the campaign, and travellers are being encouraged to sign a pledge to be more responsible when interacting with children in the destinations they travel to. Top tips for travellers include not taking photos of kids without their parents' permission, not interrupting kids while their in school and not giving handouts to kids

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is expecting traffic delays to and from the airport on Friday, November 23. This is due to the annual Black Friday sale at the nearby McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Vancouver Airport. While the airport is working closely with traffic management personnel and RCMP traffic enforcement; heavy congestion is anticipated on the day and those travelling to and from the airport by road should expect delays.

YVR travellers are advised to take the Canada Line if possible. For those who must drive to the airport, leave extra time and have a parking plan. You can pre-book parking at yvr.ca.