NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Friday, October 1, 2010

TOTA AND TELUS FORM PARTNERSHIP TO BOOST THE REGION’S TOURISM INDUSTRY

A new landmark partnership between the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) and TELUS will provide a major telecommunications boost to help the region’s tourism industry connect with its potential customers across Canada and around the world.

TOTA CEO Glenn Mandziuk announced today that the regional destination management organization has just signed a multi-year agreement with TELUS, making the huge telecommunications company a strategic partner, official supplier and corporate sponsor for the region’s tourism industry.

“TELUS is a recognized leader in the provision of world-class wireless, data, voice and internet products and services – and we are thrilled to form this partnership to take our industry to the next level,” Mandziuik says.

“This partnership will provide the latest and best TELUS products and services to the more than 3,200 businesses and organizations in our Thompson Okanagan tourism industry – and it will offer them at cost-effective rates and in formats tailored for tourism operations.”

Andrew Devlin, TELUS Director of Sales, says the company is pleased to become the official information and communication technologies partner for TOTA and its tourism stakeholders. “TELUS is very committed to working with tourism stakeholders to make the Thompson Okanagan region a destination of choice for people from around the world.”

Devlin says this regional agreement means tourism businesses and organizations will be able to take advantage of economies of scale in order to get leading-edge technological services that will connect them to each other and to customers everywhere.

“TELUS has been an advocate for tourism and this region for a number of years, particularly with ski resorts and the golf industry, and with this agreement we are making a broader long-term commitment to tourism in the Thompson Okanagan,” Devlin says. He adds that TELUS is already starting to work with TOTA on ways to bring its services to tourism stakeholders in a cost-effective manner.

Mandziuk says he is excited by this partnership, because it will advance the availability of the best communications technologies to all TOTA stakeholders. He says it could even see the provision of “technology in a box” – a set of telecommunications services tailor-made for the tourism sector. “We hope to be able to start announcing available services as soon as our major Thompson Okanagan Tourism Industry Summit, which we are hosting Nov. 3-5 at Sparkling Hill Resort.”

Mandziuk credits TOTA Board Chair Michael J. Ballingall with doing much of the work to secure the partnership with TELUS.

Ballingall, Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for Big White and Silver Star Ski Resorts, notes that those two resorts have partnered with TELUS for the past seven years. He says TELUS and its leading telecommunications products and services are “a natural fit” with tourism operations, which require a lot of communication with customers and others.

“TELUS’s technology and expertise in tourism will benefit all of our TOTA stakeholders,” Ballingall says.

TOTA is an industry-led organization which promotes the development of tourism products and the tourism industry in the Thompson Okanagan, and which assists with the implementation of Provincial tourism policies in the region. Its mission is to support the ongoing growth and sustainability of our tourism industry by establishing Thompson Okanagan Tourism as a champion of excellence and innovation in destination marketing, management and industry development.

TELUS is a leading Canadian telecommunications company with $9.6 billion in annual sales and 12 million customer connections – including 6.7 million wireless subscribers, 3.8 million wireline network access lines, 1.2 million internet subscribers, and 228,000 TV customers. TELUS provides communications products and services including data, internet protocol, voice, entertainment and video. The company focus aim is to unleash the power of the internet to deliver the best solutions to Canadians at home, in the workplace, and on the move.

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FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Glenn Mandziuk
Chief Executive Officer
Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA)
Tel: 250-860-5999
Email: ceo@totabc.com