Brand USA, the destination marketing organization for the United States, has inked a major cooperative marketing agreement with Air Canada. The agreement makes Air Canada Brand USA’s largest North American airline partner.
The long-term partnership debuts with a high profile multi-media campaign this fall launching in Toronto and Montreal, and includes innovative, out-of-home (OOH), print, digital and radio promotions with surprise incentives to visit the USA. With a goal of reinforcing the Canadian traveller’s interest in New York, Florida and other getaway destinations, the campaign creative features iconic symbols such as the Statue of Liberty, pink flamingos, the Vegas sign and sandy beaches.
“We are delighted with the Air Canada partnership. Air Canada is a proven, high-quality award-winning brand and strong player in the transborder market, offering the most capacity into the USA. Recent outbound activity from Canada to the U.S. has been very strong and the forecast looks optimistic,” said Christopher Thompson, president and CEO for Brand USA. “Our research indicates that the ‘intent to visit’ among Canadians who saw our initial ‘Land of Dreams’ campaign increased 22 per cent–providing a great foundation and partnering with Air Canada will increase the momentum to expand our footprint in the market.”
According to the most recent U.s. Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI) reports that Canada improved its position as the leader in arrivals to the United States with 22.7 million visitors in 2012, injecting $22.5 billion in the U.S. economy.
Meeting + Incentive Travel’s 2013 market report revealed that Canadian planners were booking more business outside of the country. The cities that made the report’s top 10 list of American meeting places are New York, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas, Scottsdale, San Francisco and Phoenix.
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