Destination BC Launches New Travel Planning Website: HelloBC.com is the perfect tool for summer vacation inspiration and ideas

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Destination BC has introduced the next evolution of HelloBC.com: an immersive, content-rich, and thoroughly captivating consumer website that brings the province's unique personality and diverse experiences to life. The website launch comes as the summer holiday season kicks-off, providing visitors and residents alike with a visually impactful and technologically intuitive resource to plan their trip to and within BC.

Offering a clean and concise aesthetic, the new HelloBC.com integrates videos, maps, high-quality images, and user-generated content into an immersive travel-planning experience. The site is centred on storytelling, seamlessly guiding travelers through the entire trip planning process ? from ideation to booking to in-destination support ? through intuitive navigation, personalization capabilities and actionable links.

Key sections include Travel Ideas, which groups content according to road trips, cities, rainforest, mountains and ocean; Places to Go, which profiles popular communities in each of BC's regions, and facilitates travel to lesser-known or more remote areas; Things to Do, where users can search for experiences that match their interests; and Plan your Trip, which features a wealth of practical planning resources.

Travelers will find more than 400 thematic travel ideas integrated throughout the portal, including inspirational content perfect for planning summertime getaways. Warm-weather travel ideas visitors can browse include:

• Road trip through the Okanagan Corridor. The site features an entire section dedicated to self-guided road-tripping opportunities in the province. The Okanagan Corridor itinerary takes visitors through picture-perfect Lake Country, across the Myra Canyon, and past numerous beaches and parks ? all while providing suggestions for sampling the best of the region's homegrown produce and incredible wineries.
   
• Forest bathing in BC. The site is populated with articles that dive deep into activities and experiences unique to BC. One example is forest bathing ? offered in multiple communities across the province ? which involves therapeutic, slow-moving strolls deep in the forest that promote mindful and healing interaction with nature.
   
• Captivating coastal towns. Constantly refreshed content throughout the site directs visitors to further resources supporting the province's hidden and not-so-hidden gems. Summer inspiration can be found in several articles, including this one that profiles coastal areas like Prince Rupert, Cowichan Bay, and Powell River.
   
• Get into BC's Mountains. Featuring a whole section focused on BC's mountains from winter to summer, these trip ideas can elevate travellers to new heights in the Columbia Mountains, at Muncho Lake, or on the via ferrata at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
   
• Planning a trip to the Cariboo. The site highlights many outdoor adventure activities and locations, including guest ranches in the open plains of the Cariboo. Adventurous travellers can find inspiration for their next horseback riding, fishing, or canoeing trip.
   
• Eat your heart out. Find a wide range of food and drink stories offering an enlightening glimpse into BC and its people. Connect with farmers and food on the Pemberton Slow Food Cycle Sunday, explore the Fraser Valley's burgeoning wine scene or catch and cook a crab in Vancouver in this feature detailing ten edible tours that can be done in a day.

Visitors on the go, or already in BC, will find an efficient and speedy user experience thanks to the site's mobile-first technology, which is compatible with iPhones, iPads, Androids, desktop PCs, and Macs. In addition, the more travelers use the site, the better their experience as the site employs personalization techniques that tailor recommendations based on past use. An overview of how the new site works, and how it was designed, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgzGV9t5GzE&

Quote:

Marsha Walden, CEO, Destination BC
"Competition for global travellers is ferocious and it's primarily a digital battlefield. We need a web presence that can inspire travellers with mobile-first content, intuitive navigation, and easy trip-planning tools. Plus, our marketing teams will now have greater agility and new, super-smart capabilities in contextualized marketing and data analytics. Many visionary stakeholders in our industry provided input. HelloBC is a huge step forward in influencing millions of global visitors to connect with thousands of tourism businesses across BC."

Hon. Lisa Beare, Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture
"Having an inviting and user-friendly online presence has never been more important for attracting visitors," said the Honourable Lisa Beare, Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture.  "This updated HelloBC.com site will make it easier for British Columbians and tourists from around the world to explore BC. Congratulations to Destination BC for keeping our province's important tourism marketing tools on the leading edge."

Links and Resources:

• For an overview of how the new HelloBC site works, and its key features and design, please watch the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgzGV9t5GzE&
   
• To learn about BC Tourism industry successes in 2017, please watch https://youtu.be/4UNHcHLxN5w

About Destination BC:
Destination BC is an industry-led Crown corporation that works collaboratively with tourism stakeholders across the province to coordinate marketing at the international, provincial, regional, and local levels. For more information about Destination BC's programs and services, please visit:  http://www.DestinationBC.ca/

For additional information, please contact:
Destination BC Media Relations
Email: [email protected]

Backgrounder: Top 10 Features of the new HelloBC.com

1. The modern evolution of HelloBC.com consolidates immersive content from Destination BC's existing consumer sites ? including blogs, campaign microsites and curated social media ? into one cohesive portal that intuitively guides visitors through each stage of the travel planning and purchase cycle.  
    
2. More than 400 thematic travel ideas are seamlessly integrated throughout the portal. The site's design personalizes the visitor experience by encouraging the most contextually relevant content to "surface" earlier.
    
3. Modular and dynamic page construction streamlines efficiency by allowing multimedia stories and campaigns to coexist under one domain (removing the need to build independent microsites).
    
4. Alluring destination videos are prominently featured on every page to capture consumer attention and cultivate lust for travel to BC.
    
5. User-generated content is integrated onto relevant pages, supporting the site's authenticity by connecting potential visitors to unique stories and experiences directly relayed by fellow travellers.
    
6. The site profiles popular areas that resonate with travellers (for example, Great Bear Rainforest and the Sunshine Coast) to facilitate deeper exploration of surrounding cities, regions and communities.
    
7. Enhanced mapping capabilities contextually show locations for cities, corridors, driving routes and travel experiences around the province.
    
8. Integration with Salesforce Communities and TripAdvisor allows the opportunity for all tourism businesses to be featured.
    
9. Responsive mobile-first technology assures exceptional and speedy user experience on any device, including iPhone, iPad, Android, desktop PCs and Macs.
    
10. Personalization technologies collect audience data to fuel future retargeting and tailor content based on each visitor's context and past behavior.