Tourism Victoria Resurrects Phone Booth Campaign

Victoria Harbour | BCBusiness
Victoria’s inner harbour.

Tourism Victoria is offering visitors $100 cash—with a few caveats, of course

Tourism Victoria is on a mission to get its visitor numbers up, and is targeting Vancouverites and Seattlites to do so.

The organization has resurrected its previously successful telephone booth campaign, but this year it works like this: Tourism Victoria will plant colourful “phone booths” in Vancouver and Seattle, and curious consumers and potential travellers will enter these booths and engage in short, first person perspective video tours of quintessential Victoria experiences. When the video finishes, the viewer gets offered incentives to book a trip to Victoria right then and there.

In addition, the phones inside these booths will randomly ring. The person who picks up the phone will be immediately connected to a Tourism Victoria representative through a live video chat on the phone’s touch screeen tablet, and awarded a prize (such as hotel stays, dining experiences and $100 cash).

The initiative, says Trina Mousseau, director of destination marketing for Tourism Victoria, puts the target traveller “in the driver’s seat.” From the moment the consumer enters the phone booth, they are able to highlight experiences in Victoria tailored to their specific interests, which the organization hopes will help to showcase B.C.’s capital city’s diverse offerings.

The tourism industry is waiting for an update from Tourism Victoria regarding its new CEO. Current CEO Rob Gialloreto announced last month that he will be stepping down from the post, which he assumed in April 2008.

In Vancouver, booths will be a Metropolis at Metrotown Mall (June 3-9) and Coquitlam Centre (June 12-16 and 19-23). Booths will appear in Seattle at Tacoma Mall (July 8-14) and Northgate Shopping Center (July 17-21 and 24-28).