City of Powell River councillors were given an overview of the regional tourism picture, with highlights on how destination marketing is working for the Sunshine Coast.
Speaking at the July 11 city council meeting, Annie Wise, executive director of Sunshine Coast Tourism, said her organization is proud to be a partner with the city, serving as its official destination marketing organization.
“Sunshine Coast Tourism is a nonprofit association, specifically a destination marketing organization, and our mission is to build a strong and sustainable tourism economy in the region that is consistent with the values of our residents,” said Wise.
She said that mission is achieved through delivery of four programs: destination marketing, visitor services, destination management and community engagement.
“It’s really about increasing awareness of the value of tourism among our government partners, residents and businesses in the region,” said Wise. “We represent the tourism industry and stakeholders from Howe Sound to Desolation Sound.
“One of the reasons we deeply appreciate your support and involvement in the work that we do is the vital role that tourism plays in shaping our communities, international brands, and reputation. Governments worldwide recognize that active destination marketing is critical for economic development and growth.”
Wise said Sunshine Coast Tourism uses a variety of marketing tactics to reach visitors, primarily in BC, Alberta and Washington State. She said her organization partners with Destination BC to reach more long-haul markets in Europe, the United States and Eastern Canada.
“We really work to generate awareness of our region as a travel destination and then to turn that awareness into consideration and bookings – heads and beds,” said Wise. “Most of our tactics call for people to visit our website and in the last year we’ve had approximately 1.5 million page views. That is continuing to grow.”
Wise said tourism campaigns use a variety of tactics, including television ad spots, digital advertisements and traditional print, as well as e-newsletters and outdoor displays. She said there was a partnership with CTV with ads and coverage on CTV Morning Live. There were six segments on the Sunshine Coast that were hosted, with three on the southern Sunshine Coast and three on the northern Sunshine Coast.
In the qathet region, CTV did segments covering Townsite, Willingdon Beach to talk about PRISMA, and the Shinglemill Pub to talk about food, floatplanes and the Sunshine Coast Trail.
Sunshine Coast Tourism receives $28,000 from City of Powell River and $12,000 from qathet Regional District.
Councillor Rob Southcott said in reviewing material from Sunshine Coast Tourism, he didn’t see much mention about marine traffic.
“I don’t get the impression there is much focus on transient boaters,” said Southcott. “What is your feeling about the profitability of that? There’s a sense in this town that it would be great to capture more boats to spend money along Marine Avenue. We have lots to share with boaters.”
Wise said Sunshine Coast Tourism partners with Ahoy BC, which is a sector association that directly promotes marine opportunities.
“We partner with them on marketing campaigns, primarily within BC and Washington State,” said Wise. “We also do some print advertising and we’ve hosted a number of travel writers with boating-specific publications. It’s definitely a market we are promoting.”
Councillor Jim Palm said he was interested in marketing around the Mt. Mahony cycling facility near Inland Lake. He asked if Sunshine Coast Tourism had any statistics around visitations.
Wise said there are no statistics yet, but her organization has signed up for some software that does cell phone geolocation tracking.
“The hope is we’ll be able to see dots on a map, points of interest,” said Wise. “In our initial look, as soon as the map is populated, you can see dots at the Sunshine Coast Trail, the [Powell Forest] canoe route, and you can highlight these spots. Once it continues to build more traction, and we dive further into the program, that will hopefully give us more data. We’ve had the program for about a month now.”
Palm said he asked the question because he sees so many vehicles with mountain bikes on them on the ferries.
“I know they are coming this way,” added Palm.
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