Honourable Valerie Docherty, Minister of Tourism, joined Kevin Murphy, the Chair of TAC, and Barry MacLeod from Golf PEI in the official launch of the 2009 Marketing Plan.

“As we look ahead, we have some really exciting activities planned in Prince Edward Island in 2009,” said Minister Docherty. “With a banner year in meetings and conventions, the airing of GOLF CHANNEL’s Big Break Prince Edward Island, and the host location for the 2009 Canada Games, we have several opportunities to grow tourism. The 2009 creative captures the true essence of our brand positioning and, once again, our ad agency has done a remarkable job assisting Tourism PEI and TAC in building a strategic 2009 marketing plan that we are very pleased to share today.”

The elements of the campaign – from online and print ads, to the Island Guide, publications and the television ads, the creative is showcased to members of the tourism industry of Prince Edward Island before the marketing plan is distributed to various media outlets and the traveling public.

Kevin Murphy, Chair of TAC is pleased with the program they’ve been working to bring together for 2009.

“Given the TAC-endorsed strategic objectives from the Tourism Plan 2009 (presented in November at the TIAPEI annual meeting), we are encouraged by the responsive campaign the agency has been able to come up with,” Murphy said. “New initiatives targeting key product verticals of golf and culinary, maximizing the role of the web, sales and experiential packaging, as well as ramping up the power of our public relations efforts – all promise to help us reach our objectives in 2009.”

With golf as a key specialty market, Barry MacLeod, Chief Operating Officer for Golf PEI, had this to say about PEI and the golf plan for the upcoming season:

“The brand coverage we get from a partnership like the Golf Channel, not only puts us on the map in the mind of the serious golf travelers, but also with Golf Tour wholesalers who wouldn’t have ordinarily represented or carried PEI as an alternative world class destination for their customers.”

For more information, please visit www.peitac.com.