The folks at Tourism Prince Rupert have been busy conducting surveys of visitors to the city to chart a future direction for the city’s tourism industry. There are two separate surveys currently underway, one looking at the value of the visitors centre located in the Atlin Terminal at Cow bay, the second is what is called an intercept survey, where tourists are asked about their impressions about the city as they are leaving the city.
The Tuesday edition of the Daily News had some background on the twin surveys and what Tourism Prince Rupert hopes to achieve from them.
SURVEYS SEEK TOURISM ANSWERS
By Christian Schumacher
The Daily News
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Pages one and three
Tourism Prince Rupert (TPR) is finding out just what this city is worth, through a partnership with Tourism British Columbia.
TPR is taking a survey of the city and its visitors so they know what direction to take in the future. The program is a spin-off of the Community Tourism Foundation’s program.
Tourism Prince Rupert applied in early 2006 to become a CTF community and they were successful in that.
“We’re really excited about it, because this is the first time that Prince Rupert has ever had this comprehensive research done, and it will help us finally quantify what the tourism industry is worth in Prince Rupert,” said Tourism Prince Rupert’s Bruce Wishart.
The first major component is the research program that will help TPR build a multi-year tourism strategy.
There are two research projects going on right now, one has two researchers working on the value of the visitor’s centre, to learn how effective and valuable the centre is and how many people are helped.
“The other survey is the visitor intercept study. They intercept people that are on all points of departure from Prince Rupert, from the airport bus, to the docks, anywhere people are leaving Prince Rupert,” said Wishart.
In that survey, tourists are asked about their experience, how much they spent while in town and all those sorts of things.
The program started on June 1 and will run until the end of August.
“Certain components of it will run a little bit longer. We should have reports back by early 2008,” said Wishart.
He said that the surveys will really help in the future as TPR looks to understand their marketing investment and how to market Prince Rupert.
Tourism Prince Rupert has four staff right now who interview the visitors.
Wishart said that as the surveys are completed, they become more specific in terms of who the visitor is. For example, if they say they are in town for sport fishing, the questions will continue with, ‘are you out for salmon or halibut’ and each one becomes more specific.
There are two teams out there working on contract for TPR and Tourism British Columbia. One of the first questions is ‘are you a visitor or a local? And if you are a local you are allowed on your way.
“One that sticks out in my mind is one of the Adventure Racers was intercepted and one of the questions is, “how much did you spend in Prince Rupert yesterday?” His answer was $6,000. I wish everybody would say that,” said Wishart.
He said they have wanted this for many years and it is a gap in every community in the North, if not in the province. Wishart added that when the opportunity came along, they jumped at it.
“It’s timely, but it would be timely any year, I think the benefits to the city will be enormous,” said Wishart.
He said that right now they are operating on best-guess and limited information about our tourism industry, and for the first time this will provide comprehensive knowledge so they will know where they should be spending their money and targeting their marketing. And the cost is covered by Tourism British Columbia.
“I think that benefit will last for years to come,” said Wishart.
The Tuesday edition of the Daily News had some background on the twin surveys and what Tourism Prince Rupert hopes to achieve from them.
SURVEYS SEEK TOURISM ANSWERS
By Christian Schumacher
The Daily News
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Pages one and three
Tourism Prince Rupert (TPR) is finding out just what this city is worth, through a partnership with Tourism British Columbia.
TPR is taking a survey of the city and its visitors so they know what direction to take in the future. The program is a spin-off of the Community Tourism Foundation’s program.
Tourism Prince Rupert applied in early 2006 to become a CTF community and they were successful in that.
“We’re really excited about it, because this is the first time that Prince Rupert has ever had this comprehensive research done, and it will help us finally quantify what the tourism industry is worth in Prince Rupert,” said Tourism Prince Rupert’s Bruce Wishart.
The first major component is the research program that will help TPR build a multi-year tourism strategy.
There are two research projects going on right now, one has two researchers working on the value of the visitor’s centre, to learn how effective and valuable the centre is and how many people are helped.
“The other survey is the visitor intercept study. They intercept people that are on all points of departure from Prince Rupert, from the airport bus, to the docks, anywhere people are leaving Prince Rupert,” said Wishart.
In that survey, tourists are asked about their experience, how much they spent while in town and all those sorts of things.
The program started on June 1 and will run until the end of August.
“Certain components of it will run a little bit longer. We should have reports back by early 2008,” said Wishart.
He said that the surveys will really help in the future as TPR looks to understand their marketing investment and how to market Prince Rupert.
Tourism Prince Rupert has four staff right now who interview the visitors.
Wishart said that as the surveys are completed, they become more specific in terms of who the visitor is. For example, if they say they are in town for sport fishing, the questions will continue with, ‘are you out for salmon or halibut’ and each one becomes more specific.
There are two teams out there working on contract for TPR and Tourism British Columbia. One of the first questions is ‘are you a visitor or a local? And if you are a local you are allowed on your way.
“One that sticks out in my mind is one of the Adventure Racers was intercepted and one of the questions is, “how much did you spend in Prince Rupert yesterday?” His answer was $6,000. I wish everybody would say that,” said Wishart.
He said they have wanted this for many years and it is a gap in every community in the North, if not in the province. Wishart added that when the opportunity came along, they jumped at it.
“It’s timely, but it would be timely any year, I think the benefits to the city will be enormous,” said Wishart.
He said that right now they are operating on best-guess and limited information about our tourism industry, and for the first time this will provide comprehensive knowledge so they will know where they should be spending their money and targeting their marketing. And the cost is covered by Tourism British Columbia.
“I think that benefit will last for years to come,” said Wishart.
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