GoBC Newsletter

Newsletter February 2014

Tuesday Feb 04, 2014

Chinese New Year celebrations have only just passed. It’s not too late for us to wish you a successful Year of the Horse!

Judging by the descriptions of the Year of the Horse, we’d all better get ready for the ride of a lifetime: fast victories, unexpected adventure, surprising romance, travel to far away destinations are but a few of the predictions. It is said that energy is high, productiveness rewarded with success and decisive action the best strategy.

And sure enough, it has already been a year of new beginnings and positive activity. Here are a few examples that might interest you:

Redesign of GoBC
Our Rates in 2014
Launch of our Blog
Letter from a New Business
Calls for Artists gaining Momentum


Redesign of GoBC
Perhaps fittingly, GoBC is working on a redesign in earlyt 2014. Our goal is to optimize design and content on GoBC for display throughout all current devices - from desktop computer over iPads to smart phones, so that your information is at visitors’ fingertips anytime, anywhere.

Our Rates in 2014
To get back to the Chinese Year of the Horse once more, some warn that impulsiveness and overspending can accompany the high spirits. Do beware! At least GoBC is not putting you at risk: our rates will remain exactly the same as they have been for the past several years.
More information at www.gobc.ca/advertise

Launch of our Blog
The GoBC blog is now online: www.gobc.ca/travel-blog
We’re having fun writing about many different topics, playing with tags and keywords, informing and entertaining people about many aspects of BC and its communities while further enhancing our visibility in search engines. Watch as it grows.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and watch for more blog entries!

Letter from a New Business
We ask our new members about their experience and received this note:
“Trek & Treats started a new listing on GoBC last year. I was mostly interested in the German listing on GoBC, as I anticipate interest from German visitors in our inn-to-inn hiking tours but don’t have time or resources yet to have my website translated. The GoBC listing offers so much space that I can easily share all the relevant information. My website now links directly to my German GoBC listing and vice versa.

What I didn’t expect are the high number of visits to my listing, both the English and the German version!  With a new business, I am experimenting with different marketing opportunities and I watch carefully which strategies are most effective and cost effective. I have found that traffic to my GoBC listing exceeds visits to listings on DMO websites and also other aggregate tourism portals I have looked into.

Realistically, I am getting the same number of hits as I do with carefully targeted google ads, but the GoBC listing is permanent and people will find us again and again.”

Calls for Artists
Have you checked out GoBC’s BC Arts & Culture section lately? We’ve been seeing more and more calls for visual artists and performers, submitted by upcoming studio tours, festivals, performance groups and venues. Just email us if you want to add your call for artists for your upcoming event and we will advertise it on GoBC!

We added this feature to GoBC because artists made us aware of a need to connect art organizers with artists. GoBC is a hub for talent from across the province and it is easily accessed by anyone involved with the arts. Once a call for artists has been posted on GoBC, we can further spread the word through our social media channels. We’re happy to help.

Would you like to help spread the word: tell artists and arts organizers in your community about this free feature on GoBC, and of course, about our free listings for artists and arts organizations, as well as events. Their participation on GoBC will provide exposure for arts and events in your community to everyone’s benefit.