Business people who use tourism guides to market their businesses in the Parksville Qualicum Beach area will have an exciting, new product starting in February 2013 .
The Parksville Qualicum Beach News and Oceanside Tourism are announcing today they have merged their separate guides to form one product with superior reach.
“It’s a win-win-win for Oceanside Tourism, The NEWS, and the entire area,” says Blain Sepos, the Executive Director of the Oceanside Tourism Association.
“The Parksville Qualicum Beach News produces an annual visitor’s guide of 25,000 copies that offers mostly local circulation throughout District 69,” says Peter McCully, NEWS Publisher. “Combine our local strength with Oceanside Tourism’s 100,000 copies that are distributed to visitors externally, and you have the best of both guides.” The 2013 guide will offer many features, including accommodation and dining directories, road maps, hiking trails, business directories as well as festival and event listings.
Says Sepos: “We use every avenue possible to get our guides into visitors’ hands, including B.C. and Port Angeles Ferries, Visitor Centres throughout B.C., consumer shows in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, and much more.”
Visitors to Oceanside Tourism’s website (VisitParksvilleQualicumBeach.com) may request a copy to be mailed to them for free, or they can download it from the web.
Says McCully: We at The NEWS are every pleased with this partnership, as it offers our current and potential clients a product which continues to evolve in both print and online.”
Sepos says demand for the Oceanside Tourism Travel & Leisure Guide has been up over the summer of 2012, and McCully indicated that the pickup rate for The NEWS guide locally has been very strong. Earlier this spring, The NEWS distributed several thousand Oceanside Tourism guides, which were targeted for delivery in Oak Bay and Victoria through sister newspapers.
The Oceanside Tourism Association pioneered a new concept of offering smaller testimonial style articles in their 2010 guide sourced from social media, a feature that will be retained in the new guide and heavily promoted online through Facebook. Findings from Oceanside Tourism’s recent community branding program will be implemented to further improve the 2013 guide’s ability to entice visitors to our region.
Visitors to the website can also download smartphone apps that allow visitors to browse online directories on the go.
Participating members of the Parksville & District Chamber of Commerce and the Qualicum Beach Chamber of Commerce may choose to receive added value by offering a coupon to be featured on the Oceanside Tourism website for visitors to download.