BC's third best wonder waiting for the visitors

The Queen Charlotte's are a secret no longer, the Vancouver Sun listed the Haida Gwaii as B. C.'s third wonder of the province. Giving the islands a fair amount of marketing free of charge.

The Daily News examined how they are greeting their new found notoriety on the islands and how they feel it may impact them in the future.

Islands stoked with tourism ranking
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 08, 2007

In a recent poll conducted by the Vancouver Sun to find B.C.'s top wonder, Haida Gwaii was selected as the third best, just behind Tofino/Long Beach and the Rocky Mountains.

It's another sign that the rest of the world is learning about the Islands, and the people from the Charlottes need to prepare for the potential increase in tourism, said Maureen Weddell, manager of the Queen Charlotte City visitor's centre.

"I think it's pretty exciting," she said. "People are looking to go places that have more wilderness, or that take care of the environment. We're on a list to be discovered ... or even re-discovered."

Barry Pages, the mayor of the Village of Masset, said that the rest of the province is finally finding out what Haida Gwaii has to offer.

"We're the jewel of the province," he said. "That's why a lot of us are here."

The seclusion and isolated setting of the Islands is an attraction not many other locations in the world can offer, and Weddell was pleased to see that Haida Gwaii made everyone's list.

"Tofino and the Mountains ... those are the two places everyone has to go," she said. "You have to go camping in the mountains, and you have to go to the beach.

"But with us being number three, it's going to draw a lot of attention out here. I think they're going to start coming in droves."

But the Charlottes are different in a sense that they don't have the heavy crowds that sometimes descend on the top two names on that list.

"I think people want to experience it and not go where there's a million people," said Weddell. "It's a place where within a week, everyone knows your name."

Pages hopes that this poll is just another way to get more tourists up to Haida Gwaii.
The Islands took a rather devastating hit in 2006 when the Queen of the North sank, and while this tourist season has obviously been an improvement, Haida Gwaii is still struggling to get their economy back on track.

"Last year didn't help," he said. "That put us back a few years. And it's pretty easy to be a good (tourism) year after last year.

"But I know most of the communities have worked very hard to get tourism ready."
Weddell added: "(We) need to get ready. The traveller that comes here is very knowledgeable, and we need to be prepared for that.

"There's lots of people who cater to tourists, but we need more."

The Central Coast, referred to by its fictitious name "the Great Bear Rainforest", finished in fourth place.