It's Our Anniversary; TravelPulse Canada Celebrates Five Years

TravelPulse Canada's celebrating our fifth anniversary - time flies when you're having fun! - and it's been quite the ride.

It was said it couldn't be done. That there was no room in the Canadian travel trade media market place for a new player. Five years later it certainly appears there was room, and then some.

In just five years, TravelPulse Canada has become the #1 trade media outlet in the country, as voted by retail travel professionals, built by engaging with our audience every day and building mutually rewarding relationships with key suppliers and employing new technologies in innovative ways.

We established a lot of firsts in our industry: We were the first to deliver a live, in person awards gala celebrating our industry, as voted on by retail travel professionals. First to stream that same gala event via webcast the following year. We took a lead position in social media, recognizing its soaring importance.

We broadcast live on location over Facebook and interviewed industry leaders from the boardroom to hotel rooftops.

We put out a daily newsletter at 7 am, ensuring that advisors start their day with the information they need. And we made professional travel advisors our first priority, because you are 90% of our audience.

Recognizing the distinct market of Quebec, TravelPulse Canada also created a French-language offshoot catering to the unique information needs of travel advisors in La Belle Province. Through our unique offerings, we are able to attend FAMs and deliver key articles in both French and English.

Here's a look at back at the last five years … let us know how many you were a part of!

TravelPulse Canada founder John Kirk has decades of high-level industry experience, on both the wholesale and retail side of the industry. Among his many achievements, he was a pioneer in retail travel e-commerce, served six years with Thomas Cook North America as SVP Retail and E-Commerce. He is also founder of Porter Escapes, the vacation division of Porter Airlines as he went full "Dragon's Den" infront of then President & CEO Robert Deluce and current President & CEO Michael Deluce. Needless to say his pitch was a success.

Recognized for his experience in the industry and as a true travel expert, Kirk was able to envision what was lacking in our overall industry and created what was referred to by many as the "best party in the industry" …

In 2018 TravelPulse Canada launched the Readers Choice Awards, celebrating the suppliers best-loved by Canadian travel advisors, voted on by the industry. We brought together 275 members of our industry in downtown Toronto to create a smashing success and that was followed by 350 attendees at our second edition in 2019.

After a two-year pandemic pause, the awards will return again this spring, celebrating a rejuvenated industry with what is already being billed by suppliers and advertisers as the 'Party of the Decade.'

But as fun as it was to celebrate the achievements in our industry, we decided it was time to also create something that had never been done before in travel …

For decades, the Canadian travel industry has struggled to get the attention it deserves. TravelPulse Canada changed that in 2018 by creating the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame celebrates the efforts of those visionary leaders who have enabled millions of Canadians to escape winter and explore the world with affordable travel options and who helped shape the travel industry into what it is today.

The inductees were all well deserving and were honoured in front of their peers at our Readers Choice Awards in 2018 and 2019. Stay tuned for an announcement on this year's list. Vist CanadianTravelHallofFame.ca to have look.

But then … a little thing called COVID started …

When the industry was shut down by the global pandemic in March 2020, TravelPulse Canada's ability to be nimble came to the fore. We were able to keep business at a level where we didn't have to accept government funds or let go any of our team. Traffic to our site quadrupled as we were the go-to site for the latest and most up to date information.

Relationships with our key partners continued and strengthened, and we were able to use our virtual events platform to keep them in touch with Canadian travel advisors.

At a time when our industry was suffering, especially advisors who were hardest hit, we thought "what could we do to help boost morale with advisors?"

And then it hit us … BINGO ...

We threw the idea about doing an online virtual BINGO! Game with agents as part of a weird and whacky idea. Except it wasn't - we made it happen and came to you LIVE via our private Facebook TPC Trade Group. Incredible prizes were handed out, special guests joined in the fun.

Kirk did his accents, we had dinks on camera, we dressed up for Halloween. We set the time of our Bingo games strategically We had advisors from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland. It tuns out the " strategic time " allowed for those who chose, to join us in an adult beverage… in total close to 5,000 agents played BINGO with us throuought the pandemic - maybe the largest agent BINGO game ever - many expressing how much they needed the laughs and the release during our industry's darkest days.

The pandemic has proven the value and continuing relevance of professional travel advisors, whose perseverance is the stuff of legend. Consumers of travel have learned the importance of vacations to their mental health and general happiness. They will no longer take travel for granted and are much more likely to seek expert advice.

"I'd like to offer a huge 'Thank you' to the current TravelPulse Canada team; Marsha, Catherine, Alexandra and Bruce and those who have contributed to our content and success over the first five years," said John Kirk.

"To our advertising partners who believed in our model and most importantly to the retail travel professionals out there, thank you for your support. We look forward to your continuing to support.

Watch this week as we reveal details on our gala event, the hall of fame, this years entertainment a Canadian rock legend, and how angents from across Canada can join in using our state of the art virtual events platform!

If there is something you think we can do better, please drop me a line directly at [email protected].

The future looks fantastic."