Impact: TMAC Travel Conference Put Peterborough & Kawarthas On Map Across Canada

The June 2015 Travel Media Association of Canada Conference & AGM showcased Peterborough and the Kawarthas to hundreds of travel industry professionals from around the planet—and now the numbers are in to show the impact it has had on the region.

According to a Peterborough & the Kawarthas Tourism release, the economic impact of the conference was $575,000. In addition, the value of the media coverage earned has the region’s destination marketing organization particularly pleased—since June, the region has received 46 external media coverages valued at $588,000 and growing.

And the momentum continues...

“We currently have 54 qualified media leads as a result of hosting the conference, a high number compared to the 10-15 we average in a typical year," says Fiona Dawson, Director of Tourism for Peterborough Economid Development. "We’re answering calls from media outlets on a frequent basis now."

Of the 211 delegates that visited the region, 96 of them were media—representing the highest media turn-out that the association has seen in recent years.

“With our close proximity to Toronto and Ottawa, we were an easy choice for media travelling from all over Canada," says Dawson. "Peterborough & the Kawarthas offered media plenty of opportunities to discover new things and to leave with new story ideas."

To date, media coverage of the region as a result of hosting TMAC spans from large 2-3 page features in Canadian Cycling Magazine, West Jet Magazine and the Travel Section of the Toronto Star (including a feature on the new Star Touch App), to medium-sized articles in papers and magazines across Canada—as well as dozens of digital stories ranging from Buzzfeed Canada to personal travel blogs and websites.

Also, the power of social media was demontrated as there were 1.3 million Twitter impressions generated for the conference to the hashtag #TMACPtbo.

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