I've recently wrapped up a two-week stint covering a staff vacation at REW.ca, the online arm of Real Estate Weekly. Here are the stories:

• A Quarter of Canadian Home Buyers Plan to Buy Alone: Survey
• Action Needed to Increase Housing Affordability: Reports
• Vancouver Home Prices Up Yearly but Down Quarterly: Survey
• BC Home Sales Down 21.8% From Record Set Last March: BCREA
• BC Green Party Plans Major PTT Changes, Expanded Foreign Buyer Tax
• Vancouver One of Canada's Best Cities to Buy Real Estate: Study
• 36% of BC Residents Expect Home Prices to Rise this Year: RBC Poll
• Spring to Bring 4,500 New Presale Condo Units to Lower Mainland Market: MLA Advisory
• Metro Vancouver Calls for "Urgent Overhaul” of BC's Property Tax System

Travel Nevada welcomed about 70 travel agents and media to a Vancouver networking reception last week, where they had the chance to meet with 12 partner organizations representing tourism opportunities in the Silver State.

"The partners are here to raise awareness of things people don't know about,” Chris Moran, Travel Nevada's public relations specialist, told PAX. "We're hoping people give Nevada another look. We think the state as a whole is a good place to visit – we're eager to show it off.”

Read the rest at PAXnewsWest.com

Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of social is still the biggest challenge for social media marketers in North America, according to eMarketer. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that their second-biggest challenge is securing budget and resources. After all, if you can't show the ROI, where's the motivation to make the investment in the first place?

Read the rest on the Hootsuite blog

Visit Dallas met with Vancouver travel media yesterday to highlight new developments in the city and celebrate the launch of the new Air Canada direct flight to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport from YVR. Key to their message was that Dallas has more to offer than just what you've seen on TV.

Read the rest at PAXnewsWest.com

Read the story in the Hitched digital edition

Read the story in the Hitched digital edition

Busabout welcomed 50 travel agents, media, and social influencers to Grandview Lanes in Vancouver last week for a night of glow-in-the-dark bowling to celebrate the launch of their 2017 Europe brochure.

Why bowling?

"It's a bit of fun to get everybody involved,” Damien Bennett, Busabout's sales director for North America, told PAX. "One of the great things about Busabout is that many people travel as individuals, but they meet new friends and end up travelling together. This captures that same spirit.”

Read the rest at PAXnewsWest.com