This past winter travel season, Ottawa Tourism was looking for a new way to drive demand across city hotels while encouraging longer, more immersive stays. By pairing exclusive hotel discounts with access to a cultural pass, they tapped into a powerful incentive for families and visitors exploring the capital during February and March Break.
Challenge: Scaling Incentive Distribution
Winter is traditionally a quieter period for Ottawa’s tourism economy. Hotel bookings tend to slow, and typical promotions—cash incentives, gift cards, and city-wide offers—hadn’t delivered strong engagement in the past. Ottawa Tourism needed a compelling, easy-to-use promotion that would encourage longer stays at participation hotels, increase engagement with destination attractions, and deliverable measurable ROI.
Solution: Digital Gift Cards Powered by Ripe
Ottawa Tourism partnered with Ripe to build a custom booking engine featuring hotels offering a length-of-stay discount. This ensured the value stayed high for visitors and hotel partners had a reason to engage. Guests who booked through the platform received a discount code for Ottawa’s 3-day Museums Pass, valid at multiple local museums and attractions.
To streamline fulfillment, Ripe leveraged Bandwango, a trusted partner, to deliver the passes digitally. This seamless experience allowed guests to instantly receive and use their pass upon booking, boosting satisfaction and encouraging exploration across the city.
Success by the Numbers
This campaign became Ottawa Tourism’s most successful promotion to date. It not only drove strong bookings across participating hotels, but also helped promote cultural engagement across the city—creating value for both the visitor and the destination.
“This promotion was designed to boost family bookings from February through March Break which is typically a slower period for hotel bookings across the city. We invited hotels to participate by featuring a special length-of-stay deal through our Ripe ITA Platform. Additionally, guests were provided a discount code for our 3-day Museums Pass, encouraging guests to extend their stay for 3+ days and explore all the Museums Pass has to offer. This has been the most successful offer we’re launched to date. We’ve tried various incentives (cash, gift cards and other city-wide passes) but haven’t seen such a strong response until now.“
Robyn Coutts | Ottawa Tourism Senior Manager, Marketing
High-Impact Promotions, Measurable Results
Ottawa Tourism made the most of their Ripe-powered ITA this winter. By partnering with Ripe, they:
- Gained measurable attribution and first-party traveler data.
- Increased engagement with local attractions, driving value back into the community.
- Eliminated the logistical burden of distributing museum passes.
With Ripe, Ottawa Tourism built a custom booking engine exclusive to participating hotels, making it easy for travelers to find and book eligible stays. Thanks to our Bandwango integration, guests received their museum passes directly on their phones—no added work for the Ottawa team. And Ripe’s dedicated reservations team was on hand to support travelers every step of the way.
If you’re looking to extend stays, support local partners, and simplify fulfillment, Ripe is ready to help you deliver results.
