Attractions Victoria has a new lease on life, thanks to an invigorated vision and a motivated leader excited to refocus its strength and modernize its brand.
The tourism organization welcomed Executive Director Viktoria Csanicz to its team this year, and the Smith School of Business at Queens University graduate and recent transplant from Toronto plans to innovate its structure and programs while building and serving its member base.
For over 40 years Attractions Victoria’s mandate has been to promote its attraction, activity, and transportation-based members’ voice and identity within the larger tourism landscape. As a collective group of attractions, they’re most known for partnering with Destination Greater Victoria and the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority on the Official Destination Map, as well as for their annual Be A Tourist in Your Own Hometown program.
Csanicz (pronounced cha-ni-tz) recently worked with Bone Creative on a complete brand overhaul for the organization, including logo and visual identity, launching their new websites attractionsvictoria.com and beatourist.ca in November. “We know we need to be more agile and innovative online. I’m working to automate the member engagement and registration process for Be A Tourist as well as to create an intuitive, clickable online map experience and itinerary builder for visitors.”
Be A Tourist is “closest to my heart and certainly is the most complex one,” says Csanicz. “It provides opportunity for our members to give back to the community by providing discounts, allowing locals to try out more, for less money. It is a real win-win for the businesses that otherwise would not have traffic in late February and for locals who long to get out after a long winter.”
Csanicz says its other benefit is exposure to thousands of people “who then become local attractions ambassadors for that very important word of mouth out there. We provide participants with valuable data about the visits during the event, which allows them to make educated marketing decisions, follow up with people and gather feedback.”
As they begin planning 2020’s Be A Tourist (February 27 – March 2) Csanicz expects to be out and about meeting current members and enrolling new ones as she breathes new life into the event, finding different ways for locals to interact with area attractions. “We’re focused on inclusivity and creating opportunities by forming meaningful partnerships within the community,” she says, “and we’re here to listen and to help.”
Csanicz encourages anyone interested in learning more about Be a Tourist to email her at bat@attractionsvictoria.com. “Together we can make 2020 a banner year for BAT and Attractions Victoria.”
This Business Profile is from the December/January 2020 issue of Douglas.
