Northern B.C. Tourism AGM Starts Today
Prince George, B.C.- Today , Prince George puts out the welcome mat for those in the tourism industry throughout Northern B.C.
“We’re really excited that this year, we are able to have a really solid line up of speakers” says Clint Fraser, CEO Of Northern B.C. Tourism. One speaker of note is Jon Montgomery, who most will know from his role as the host of Amazing Race Canada but is also an Olympic gold medalist.
“We are really excited about having someone of his calibre come and speak about his journey. Jon actually has some experience in Northern B.C., he’s been in Prince George a few times, and has also recently been in Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii with the recent airing of the episode of Amazing Race Canada.”
The two days will see reps from across the region networking and learning.
It’s been a busy year for Northern BC Tourism, with the Google Tracker experience, and the exposure the region received from the Amazing Race Canada “Absolutely, a national broadcast like the Amazing race put a national network of eyeballs on our experiences out here” says Fraser “and certainly the episode that took place in Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii gave exposure to those areas that we couldn’t afford to buy so it’s really nice that we could work with them and bring them to the area and work behind the scenes to get that kind of coverage.”
It has been a very good year for tourism in B.C. overall, with the number of overnight international visitors to the province surpassing the 3 million mark. From January to July of this year, 3,300,503 came to British Columbia, that’s up 12% over the same period last year.
“We are pretty fortunate with the impact the U.S. dollar is having” says Fraser “it’s strength impacts us, so we expect tourism to be stable over the next few years in Northern B.C.”
Comments
The tourism in the north central and south central BC has been hugely impacted from the high prices and service cuts on BC Ferries, Yet the Liberals did nothing but watch as BC Ferries increased its fees and cut service and sailing all along the BC coast.
“Tourism operators in the West Chilcotin issued a report this week saying BC Ferry cuts ALONE have cost them $4 Million in lost tourism revenues … while the ferry corp saved $725,000.”
“The government did not undertake a single economic study before making these reckless cuts. Not one,” said Petrus Rykes, vice president of the West Chilcotin Tourism Association, in a release. “This is the first comprehensive review of the impact these changes have had, and it confirms our worst fears. The government has managed to cost itself money, not save it.” ~ From a 2014 Harvey Oberfeld article.
The only saving grace for tourism in south and north central BC was the low Canadian dollar attracting visitors from outside our country.
Okay, if this is true, then those tourism operators should’ve been more than happy to offer to pay BC Ferries the $725,000 and netted themselves a nice 3.2 million profit. Except, it’s revenues they lost. Revenues are the first item on the income statement, next come expenses. What expenses did these operators not incur because they did not have those revenues. The number that is relevant isn’t revenues, it’s profits. How much profit did those operators lose. If it was $725,000 or less, then the government made a good decision. If more, then the operators had the opportunity to step up and fund BC Ferries losses.
You whine about government subsidy all the time. BC Ferries is subsidized by the taxpayer, are you advocating BC Ferries give’s a $725,000 subsidy to tourism. And what about the unaccounted for carbon cost in the BC Ferries operations. Wasn’t long ago you were talking about externalized costs of oil. So how much did the environment save by those Ferries not running?
You never miss an opportunity to throw out a story that on the face makes the government look bad, and leave the critical thinking to others. So I thought a bit more about this. Let’s say these operators did lose 4 million in profits. Still a good deal for the government. BC’s small business tax rate is only 2.5%. The general rate is 11%. So assume an average of 6.5%. The most BC could gain in taxes is $260,000, and to do it, BC Ferries has to lose $725,000.00. So I guess Joe Taxpayer is expected to eat the difference. It sounds like the government worked the numbers and saved us taxpayers almost half a million dollars.
high ways are subsidized are they not? Last I saw coastal communities are part of the province.
Did you actually read the article or do any sort of CURRENT research??
Of course not…that wouldn’t fit the TROLL mentality.
Routinely seeing only the negative in everything and ignoring an acknowledgement of the positive can become a habit! Like a knee jerk response or a kind of self-flagellation!
This site has gotten into a rut.
Good for getting the local news, but not so much for anything else!
I read through both NyteHawwk and Prince George’s comments, and not once did I see any mention of “tourism” which is the subject of the news article. If you are tired of the bad news, try finding something positive to say about “tourism”.
Whining and complaining about other peoples comments just doesn’t quite cut it!
pot calling the kettle black eh JGalt.
Big difference between my comments and racist hate speech! That is where the CBC, most other responsible news networks, draws the line.
“Tourism from January to July of this year, 3,300,503 came to British Columbia, that’s up 12% over the same period last year! ”
This information is contained in the above news article! Great news! We can do even better by promoting all the positive assets and aspects of B.C. and Prince George at every opportunity.
Whining and complaining about some negatives does not cut it because nothing is perfect! Making things more perfect by coming up with positive suggestions does!
The Internet is world wide! Something to remember when posting! Anybody anywhere can see it!
Tourism is alive and well in BC. I toured the Okanagon for a week and witnessed thousands of tourists. If anything there could be a lot more as the demand is higher than the services. In the north there is a great deal of tourism opportunity that is not serviced but the industry is growing. Went out ocean fishing out of Kitimat and there is an area that is not taking full advantage of the tourism potential. Killer Whales, humpback whales, dolphins, white bears, wolves and incredible scenery. I think the government is doing a good job but it is up to business to develop a plan and expand tourism. Beautiful BC
I don’t see PG as a tourist destination, it is more of a overnight stop on the way to somewhere else, IMO.
You really have to get out more around here.
On our annual trip to West Kelowna we use it as a place to stay and make day excursions to interesting places nearby! Prince George has plenty of close by worthwhile attractions. Tourism Prince George has lots of information! We have met tourists from many different countries for instance at events at the Hubble Farm and they were excited about the pioneer history and ambience of it! Just one example!
“Whining and complaining about other peoples comments just doesn’t quite cut it!”
Maybe the author of that should take it to heart.
“Whining and complaining about some negatives does not cut it because nothing is perfect! Making things more perfect by coming up with positive suggestions does!”
Good answer!
You know the best way to deal with a troll is completely ignore him.
They crave attention, that’s why they troll. Cut that off and they will go elsewhere.
seamutt states; “high ways (sic) are subsidized are they not? Last I saw coastal communities are part of the province.”
seamutt is correct, the ferry transportation system is an extension of our highway transportation system, which is subsidized. Where you can’t build a bridge over a river, or body of water, to connect highways, we use the ferry system.
Unfortunately we have that right wing ideology that somethings should be treated as businesses, and so we have comments like Ski51’s. Nothing could be further from the truth, as tourists, and residents alkie, see our ferry’s as vital public transportation links.
What proof, on who public out Ferry System still is? “The ferry corporation is under enormous pressure from government – and its customers – to halt fare increases. The corporation needs $45-million over four years to keep the rate of increase at 2 per cent. The Departure Bay plan would have gone a long way toward achieving those savings.”
“At first, Transportation Minister Todd Stone supported public consultations on the idea, recognizing the fiscal pressures the ferry corporation is under. But 24 hours later, he reversed course, after getting pressure from a couple of Liberal MLAs whose ridings would have been negatively affected by the proposed route cut.”
And this, folks, is how major government policy decisions are made in B.C. It’s hard to overstate how wrong this move by Mr. Stone is on so many levels. So much for our BC Ferry system being an arms length independent business!
.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-ferries-reversal-shows-transportation-policy-in-bc-is-a-mess/article21512240/
“Want” proof, on “how” public “our” Ferry System still is? Sometimes I have to hurry my typing before the site refreshes and my comment disappears.
From here on in, I will no longer respond to any comments made by the TROLL. Or even ackowledge his presence. I will simply type the word TROLL and move along.
If my fellow bloggers would do the same this TROLL will most likely dissappear for a while, before morphing into some other identity!
We have been through this before, in fact PrinceGeorge said he would no longer respond to my comments, but that lasted maybe 2 weeks. Actually I don’t want anyone to comment on my posts, I simply want to do my “research” and post the facts and truth on here… please no need to comment on my comments!
Prince George is once again beating the **positive** drum. He seems to think that he and others of his ilk can put out less than accurate information, inundated with hype and hyperbole, and the rest of us should accept it at face value.
If anyone disputes the **great story** they are accused of being negative.
For starters we all know (or should know) that public entities, such as libraries, tourism bureau’s etc; try to build up their numbers because their jobs depend on it.
The story above as an example deals with 3,300,503 overnight visitors, and then preens about the huge increase over the previous year, however it does not give any indication as to where the tourist go or what percentage go through Prince George.
If we look at the 2015 figures for all travelers in BC we get the following picture.
All travelers in BC 17,905,000.
Northern BC 1,027,000. so we are second from the bottom after Cariboo Chilcotin Coast with 549,000.
So, 1,027,000 in Northern BC or 2813 per day for a year. Considering the territory covered by Northern BC. this is not a very big number.
A huge number of these people are travelling within Northern BC to come to Prince George to shop, vist the hospital, university, etc; and are classified as tourists.
So, once you eliminate the hype you have a totally different story.
And that my dear Prince George is why we need to fully discuss topics whether we like the results or not, and we need to quit playing the negative card.
Have a nice day.
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