Roll Em, Roll Em, Roll Em, get them tourists rollin’

A number of tourism groups in the Northwest and Northern BC have begun to work out their plan to salvage a tourism season that has taken a number of hits so far this year.

With the sinking of the Queen of the North, rising gasoline prices and border concerns on their minds the Province and its tourism organizations are getting ready to put their plan of action in place.

The Daily News had all the details in a front page story on Wednesday.

PLANS TO HERD TOURISTS TO THE NORTH UNVEILED
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Pages One and Three

Tourism organizations around the region have released plans for the first three programs designed to address a potentially disastrous season for local operators in the wake of the sinking of the Queen of the North.

“At the end of May, our ministry provided a one-time $1 million investment to help ensure visitors are aware of all the travel opportunities available in Northern B. C.,” said Minister Olga Ilich, Ministry of Tourism, Sports and the Arts.

“The communities and operators in the Northern Tourism Region have done an excellent job of identifying creative uses for the $450,000 share of the funding to help attract visitors to the region this year.

”These new strategies are going to let visitors know that Northern B. C.‘s doors are open, and generate legacy benefits in the region for years to come.”

The Northern Fund Management Committee, set-up to administer the funds, will begin by filling two summer counselor positions at the Gateway Visitor Information Centre in Prince George.

“That’s our gateway for highway travel,” said Bruce Wishart, Tourism Prince Rupert executive director. “When those people are on the road already, let’s intercept them in Prince George and have people that thoroughly understand all that is available in Northern British Columbia so we can still bring people on the road west of Prince George.”

An extensive campaign will also launch featuring 15 large, annual festivals held throughout Northern British Columbia. Information will also be distributed to the region’s VIC’s weekly on 160 other smaller events.

“The idea was that we have these large festivals … in a lot of communities across the North,” he said.

“There really are significant draws bringing a lot of people into these communities, they’re really significant events in a lot of cases so we thought let’s take our best, bundle them together and brand them as the ‘Northern B. C. Signature Series.’

“It encourages people within the North to travel around to festivals in their own backyard and it creates the idea the Northern British Columbia is a place of festivals and events around music and culture.”

Finally, a direct marketing campaign in the form of 100,000 brochures directed at the Alaskan market will be undertaken on behalf of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

“The problem was that when the ferry sank people thought it was not longer possible to go to Prince Rupert and continue their circle tour,” said Wishart. “There is available capacity on the ferry, our idea is that we should promote that.

“There’s already significant traffic coming out of Southeast Alaska to places from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Smithers .. why not get them to stay a little longer, invite more people to come down for leisure.”

The initiatives are all part of a B. C. wide push to get people to experience their home province.

“For those people that are intending to go on a holiday, what we’re trying to say is travel within your own province, see your own province, it’s full of the most beautiful things to see and great experiences and great people.” Sail Ilich. “I’ve taken my kids to places like Disneyland and traveled around the world, but in my own backyard I’ve got a wealth of experiences and things to see and do and people to meet.”

Over 50 per cent of B. C’s tourism market right now is composed of tourism from people within the province, with an additional 27 per cent coming from people in other parts of Canada, providing many opportunities for a homegrown effort, she said.

“We’d like to be focusing on the North and saying there’s fabulous attractions, drive there, go there,” she said.

“We’d like to see (people in the North) not lose any business. If whatever we do has any impact in lessening the losses I think that will be a benefit.”

Through a $50 million investment in Tourism British Columbia, double the amount normally provided, Ilich explained the province is also trying to attract people from outside B. C. but this can be a difficult task due to a number of issues beyond the ferry sinking including gas prices and challenges crossing the border.

”It’s very difficult to associate the loss of business directly with the ferry sinking,” she said. “You don’t know what the real situation might be. What we … know (is) there’s been an issue, we know there’s been a problem and we want to make sure we can address the problem in whatever way we can.”