Tourism Prince George - sounds like an oxymoron to me!

Exactly... whats to market... we haven't even begun to develop our biggest tourism attraction in our river front and neighboring hill lookout points... we have no eco-tourism industry to speak of because they are effectively banned from the land in favor of planning for industry monopoly by a bureaucracy that twarts any potential service provider.

If a potential tourist wanted to go for a night out on the town, then we have no recognized entertainment district.

If they come by RV on their way to Alaska, then PG will ban them from stopping in town over night, and provide no quality camp grounds close to amenities or any of our natural strengths as a region.

If they come by trian, then they are dumped on George street at ground zero for social disorder.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig. We have a long way to go IMO before we even have something to market. The PG strategic vision is a 50pound weakling in this regard.

I wish them luck none the less... eveyone can be fooled at least once should be their motto.

Prince George's biggest tourist attraction?


Ritchie Bros Auctioneers.


2nd biggest?


Welfare day, all the out of towners coming in to spend their cheque.

You are bang on eagleone. One has to have more than just the great outdoors. There too, the potential is hardly touched.

We need infrastructure, infrastructure and more of the same infrastructure.

OBAC? What has been their advice to senior governments on tourism infrastructure in PG and the surrounding 1 hour or so travel radius?

Community Futures? What businesses have they been encouraging with some funding in local tourism enterprises?

NDI? What have they been doing other than providing some paint for signs and arenas?

IPG? What have they been doing to identify the NEED for infrastructure in this area?

City Planning? What advice have they been giving to Council with respect to planning for tourism infrastructure for the next 10 years?

Has everyone been waiting for this new organization? Are they supposed to do it all? Are they even going to be involved in that kind of infrastructure planning?

Too many questions yet to be answered. Who is going to answer them? The new kid on the block?

I am sure that Tourism PG was in the past a not-for-profit society, so I wonder when their situation changed. And that organization has tried over the years under some very competent general managers to promote our city as a destination without much success because we don't have a major attraction here to keep tourists in town for more than a gas/food fill up or at the very most a one night's stay. IMO Prince George is a great place to live and raise a family, but as a holiday destination, it leaves much to be desired.

"that organization has tried over the years under some very competent general managers to promote our city as a destination without much success because we don't have a major attraction here to keep tourists in town for more than a gas/food fill up or at the very most a one night's stay."

I believe it was a Society at one time. There was controversy around whether the office should be built at 15th and Victoria or the intersection of the two highways. I think the choice was a big mistake.

I also think that mistake was repeated again when they moved into first avenue.

As you say, we have to face the fact that the people passing through the community, the rubber tire trade, is what we have to work with and the highway intersection is where 100% of them have to pass by.

Work with what we have and try to keep them here for another day, whether in a hotel/motel or in their RV. I am not quite sure what is so difficult to understand about that.

Then move from there to those who come by plane from overseas for some specialty vacation, whether it is hunting, fishing, wilderness sightseeing, trekking, camping, etc.

That was tried after there was a change of CEO. There appeared to be a glimmer of success for a year or two, but that too died away.

I do not know whether they have familiarization tours for tourism promoters putting together package deals or not. If they do, it would be interesting what are they shown? Not only that, but it would be interesting to know what they are looking for. Not that hard to imagine I would think, but still interesting to hear what the professionals say where tourists will come from in the next decade and what they will be looking for.

I hope the new group will not just look at increasing the convention trade in order to sell as many rooms as possible. I hope that they will look beyond just selling hotel rooms, but also create opportunities for 4 season recreation areas that fit into the natural ammenities we have within an hour or so drive from here.

I have a friend who is a big game guide, he has taken some VERY high profile people, NFL players and coaches, NHL players, NASCAR drivers, movie and TV actors on 3-10 day guided hunting trips.

According to him it is a very lucrative market, but very much underground, word of mouth thing.

He usually picks up his clients at the airport and immediatly head out of town, the only cash infusion into our economy is the rates he charges and the supplies he purchases.

What a great way to start 2010 ....... a new hotel tax!

What kind of message does that send to the long suffering taxpayers?

Thanks IPG!

We're not the first to have a hotel tax. If anything, we're probably among the last to implement one. 2% is cheap compared to most other places I've seen.

As far as 'tourism' goes, we are once again trying to be something we are not.

PG is not, nor will it ever be a tourist destination, so let's stop trying to market our city this way.

A million dollars a year could go to so many more useful things than keeping a little office open to count the cars and RVs passing through.

Seriously, what can we offer to the so called tourist. Eagleone and Gus is correct. Sure these organizations struggle to justify their existence, and next years funding. In the process, they employ another dozen or so people.

Only way to attract people is to stage annual events like a huge Mardi Gras events, Sand Blast, or the Salmon Valley Musice Festival. It is the annual events that will always bring in the people. It takes a lot of energy, but it will pay off in the long run.

Take a look around. We are just a gritty little mill town. We don't have enough brains in city council to reinstate a City RV Park. What tourist would want to go down town with all the riff raffs. Even the residents of the city avoid the downtown after dusk. Stop trying to piss up a rope, and deal with the issues at the door steps. ignoring it or being PC is not going to resolve it. Get your hands dirty and git'er dun.

How are we going to get the tourist to stay an extra day. Well, your gonna have to have a theme park. Run a paddle wheel up and down the river. Have a train ride that connects the Cottonwood Park and South Fort George Park. Do something that no other city in the region has. Make it something worth being proud of. Reinvent ourselves every twenty years, so that it does not become the same old, same old.

Get a person that can make things happen, not those lily butted university graduates, that can not organize a project. Get a hands on person who knows something about taking risks, and willing to stake their name on it.

Am i the only one out there that is getting tired of name changes to organization, just to find a way to get more tax money out of us. PGRH gone.

Way too much common sense going on in this thread to result in anything good. We're much better off to work on a 250 page glossy that has a 15-20 year implementation plan, which nobody can be held accountable for, LOL :)

Don't get me going on festivals and events in this city.

Mardi Gras - was a going concern for 10 years at the most. If there is one now it is a non entity. "Mr. PG" simply does not cut it.

Snowgolf - used to be a part of the Mardi Gras festivities, I believe. Great event. Don't know how many outsiders were pulled in. Likely a few with a few more from the regions. GONE!

Oktoberfest - Also another local event that was successful for a few years. Such events have to be locally successful before they will attract people from other places. Kitchener's has been drawing crowds for decades. Rather than trying to fix it when Council thought it was turning into a big drunk (but they go to the one in Munich!!) ... it disappeared. With an old time temperance group running the City we have to be careful with the type of event we can build here.

Children’s Festival - great event for several years. Tons of volunteers running it. Gone!!!

River days - Used to have floats down the Nechako and Fraser with wooden Ducks dumped into the river at a cost and a prize or two given. During the August holiday. Right time of the year for a river festival in this part of the country. Now it is in September or sometime when the temperatures are more like autumn. How to kill a great event! GONE!

Train at Fort George Park - advertised in lots of travel brochures. Not operational for what, two years now? GONE!!!!

Salmon Valley Music Festival – a couple of poor weather years; not enough money being made to build up a contingency fund; GONE!!!!

These things can’t be run on a whim and a prayer like that!!!!

The other thing is that there are a few world wide traditions that need to e recognized if one wants to buy into some of these festivals.
Take the current version of Mardi Gras for instance – SnowDaze.
Mardi Gras the world over has a meaning. It is a festival prior to Ash Wednesday, thus the dates change every year. It is celebrated in various forms throughout the Christina part of the world the same as Christmas. German speaking countries, Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, New Orleans, Quebec City, Rio, Cologne are some of the more famous ones.

Ash Wednesday is on February 17 in 2010. The big festivities are the few days before. Our society is called “Prince George’s Mardi Gras of Winter Society”. The dates in 2010 are from February the 5th to the 21st. What is wrong with this picture? Too long! Wrong time! None of those people who are observing Lent will be coming to much of it.

Look at the Snow Daze site!! – it says February 2009 on it. Then it gives the 2010 dates. Waddling Duck is a sponsor. Doesn’t exist anymore. The organization is run on a shoe string. This is a local event. Nothing provincial, national or international about it. Wanna make it that! Nothing against volunteers, but it has to be professionally run with enough money to make sure it happens.

Entertainment places in the City, I don’t care where – have virtually all disappeared. Why? We have to support these places during the year for them to be here when tourists come. We have to build and support shopping places that have some local character.

Where is the Chamber of Commerce in all of this? Tourism is commerce just as much as other service businesses. In most towns Chambers of Commerce and Tourism offices work closely together. I do not see that here. Maybe they do and they are just being quiet about it.

Sorry. I know that PG is a great town for volunteerism. One of the best! But these kind of events and festivals need a bit of quality help from someone if the hotels and other businesses interested in promoting tourism in the City, as well as City Hall, want to have a few state of the art events and activities that will remain around for many many decades and one or two will eventually be the type that will cause people to say: “You just have to go to PG to participate in the YXS Festival in August. One of the must see events in Western Canada.” Snowgolf had that potential and we lost it. WHY?

Oh, forgot the airshow. Vanderhoof’s seemed to work fine. Then we took in on and theirs died. Then ours died. WHY?????

look up Prince George in the Lonely Planet Guide...we have our work cut out for us.

Economic overview of the Robson Valley Forest District (2001 figures)
http://www.forrex.org/JEM/ISS24/vol4_no2_art7.pdf

From table 17 on page 18 of the report the figures for 2001 are:
• The forestry sector - 574 full & part time positions, total $74.1 million revenue
• The visitor sector - 514 full & part time positions, total $17.8 million revenues
• Heliskiing sector – 71 full & part time positions, total $10.7 million revenues (7,700 skier user days)
• The public sector - total wage bill is approximately $8.7 million.
• The agriculture sector - $4.6 million in revenue

The Heliskiing sector has four companies between Crescent Spur and Blue River. Over 2/3 of the money goes to operations within the forest district while almost 100% of the clients come from outside the district.

The 7,700 skiers days has an income of $1,390 per skier day with $930 of that staying within the forest district. Contrast that to snowmobilers which spent about $85/day/snowmobiler for a total expenditure of $3.9 million. That would make it over 46,000 snowmobiler days. That group is included in the “visitor sector”, while the heliskiers are broken out separately.

Here is what the operators said:

Respondents to the heliski interviews felt that a shift toward tourism and recreation-related industries may be spurred by a reduction in the area’s forestry.

Snowmobiling, a ski destination, and urban planning in McBride were identified as likely to increase tourism in the region.

Industry operators felt that growth of the existing companies would occur; however, additional companies could result in overcrowding of the industry because of the finite availability of large tracts of land required for good quality heliskiing. Opportunity for growth may also exist in snow-cat skiing, which requires less land. Summer activities, such as helihiking
and mountaineering, offer potential growth that can extend business to all seasons of the year. OVERSEAS MARKETING of “package trips,” such as CULTURAL AND MULTI-SPORTS trips, is another opportunity for potential growth in the industry.

Three main constraints to growth of the industry were identified as: security of tenures, restricted access to parkland, and LACK OF REGULATION OVER SNOWMOBILING. Other restrictions included ACCESS TO THE ROBSON VALLEY VIA AIR, INCOMPATIBLE FORESTRY PRACTICES, and obtaining tenure for summer activities.

If you are not familiar with the operations, have a look at their web sites.
http://www.crescentspurheliski.com
http://www.cmhnordic.com/english/cmh-heli-skiing/our-lodges/mcbride
http://www.robsonhelimagic.com
http://www.wiegele.com/helivillageresortnew.htm

One piece of personal anecdotal information. I ran into a couple of Germans last year who were staying at the Inn of the North on the way to Crescent Spur. They were repeat customers who do this on an annual basis. For them, what was lacking is a place in PG that would provide them with some additional activity and entertainment on the way to and from. In other words, other than a couple of quality restaurants, there was no place to go where they could spend money and enjoy themselves at the level they expect on a quality vacation.

Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure.

We have the raw material. We need to have someone that can help us develop that raw material into a many more of the few gems we currently have.

China is about to unleash a market of 30+ million people who have the kind of money that can afford Heliskiing type of vacations and now have Canada as an officially designated tourist country.

BTW, seen the latest project in China yet? Four years to complete a 230+ mph train of over 600 miles.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1238496/Unveiled-Chinas-245mph-train-service-worlds-fastest--completed-just-FOUR-years.html

Maybe we can bring some Chinese expertise in to help us develop this area for their tourists? Wonder if that has crossed anyone's mind that has gone over there during the last 3 or 4 years? Go poll the customer?

AND, of course, the main thing, get the customer to invest in infrastructure to help build confidence and maintain the customer base!!!!

Speaking of potential events to draw people into town, I recall in the early years of UNBC's Backyard BBQ that they were attracting some very good up and coming bands and that they wanted to make the event a little bigger BUT council pooh poohed the idea because they wouldn't grant a variance permit for them to be able to play loud music later into the morning from what they were originally allowed. I seem to recall a handful of people complained and given that our council didn't have a backbone, they folded like a cheap suit on the issue.

Why not encourage or partner with UNBC to go BIG on something like this (and tell people that yes it may be loud for a few days, but get over it)? Make it a full fledged alternative/rock/hip hop/reggae type music festival (something that has mass appeal for that 18-30 crowd) set in the early fall, bring in a bunch of up and coming/independant groups and maybe even try and coordinate it with some headliners to play CN Centre during the same time. Given our student population I think we have the demographics for an event like that and it's unique enough that I think it would draw people from out of town as well.

There is no reason that something like this couldn't work if there was a little extra support from the city in being flexible to make it happen.

Lonely Planet

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/canada/british-columbia/prince-george

Here are the main words.
------------------------------
Trees – dead ones – are what Prince George is all about. A lumber town since 1807, it is a vital BC crossroads and you’re unlikely to visit the north without passing through at least once. To this end it has scores of motels and services. The downtown, no beauty-contest winner, is compact and has some good eateries. Still, you’ll do well to nab your 40 winks, enjoy some chow and hit the road.

Note that the region is filled with trees that have died before the loggers even got near. These bright red specimens line the hills and are victims of mountain pine beetles, whose explosive population growth is linked to comparatively milder winters due to global warming.

Last updated: 24-Sep-2008
---------------------------

No surprise! there have been others and all Council does with that is blame the messenger. Does anyone do anything with this sort of thing? Obviously a lot of education needed here. But what good will it do? How long do we let this go on? Are there enough that are looking at this area and skip it? I suspect so since the Pr. Rupert route to PG and then further east or back to the south is a fairly common one.

1807 for the start of lumber, eh? Would you believe the fur trade? So these people are ignorant of that part of history. yet history is one of the reasons people travel for to other parts of the world. We despise it. We tear any vestiges of it down and step on it and yell HOOOOray!!!!

There is one of may themes to build a package on.

That red stuff, which is now gone and turned grey, is another theme that actually interests people. There are industrial museums being built throughout the world. People like to learn by doing, seeing, experiencing and having a good time doing it knowing there is no test at the end, just a nice spa, good food, and good entertainment for some.

Another anecdotal piece of information. I was sitting in the Coast Bastion Inn in Nanaimo a couple of years ago. Some German ladies were talking at the next table about the red trees. I talked to them. They were wondering why all the red trees coming accross BC from Calgary to Vancouver. They were travelling by tour bus. All the way accross they were wondering and no one had the answer. They thought it was an actual tree colour of a living tree. It is not only PG that does not train people to inform tourists. These tourists are not dumb. They want to learn. If we want to keep them coming we have to learn how to accommodate their wants. They are our clients, our customers, our guests. We have to start acting as their hosts.

Good post gus. I used to work in a retail shop here in PG and it blew me away at how the highlight of the trip for many German tourists (at least based on what they told me and based on the look of excitement on their faces I had no reason to doubt them), was the fact that they saw a Black Bear or Moose along the highway while touring around. We take something simple like that for granted almost every day, yet it's an attraction to others. I suppose seeing North American big game in their natural setting to someone from Europe, is probably not much different than us seeing big game in Africa on a safari.

If seeing a moose on the side of the road is a big deal for a tourist from Germany, just imagine what they would feel if we could take them up the Nechako, Parsnip or McGregor Rivers with jet boats, on short day hikes into Eskers Park or Forests for the World, or even for a 7-10 day camping excursion up the Stuart, Trembluer, Takla chain of lakes, etc. I suspect they would feel completely overwhelmed with the beauty that we have around here. People around the world will pay to see that beauty, much like we pay to travel to Mexico or Florida. We just need to let people know that it's out there and we need to develop the infrastructure and business savvy to make it happen.

Good posts. I always thought PG needed a zoo that takes in local animals injured from road accidents and such and then use it as a focal point for foreign tourists. Ideally located in a place like Fish Trap Island next to a full service RV park on the river, and with rail service to the camp ground for rental units, and where river boat tours could depart and safe swimming holes could be engineered.

Something like that would be transformational in tourism for this region in the way others see our community, as well as how we see our community. We need to play on our strengths rather than what we've been doing. I have a lot of ideas on this issue, but it all seems so hopeless from the political culture perspective of our local politicans who deride the 'red forest tour operators'.

Tourism PG plans to be a DMO meaning they will only be dealing with marketing and not with advocating for infrastructure to promote tourism. They will not go the extra mile as Northern BC Tourism will not either as a Regional DMO citing their mandate to market as their sole mandate. They will not advocate for proper tourism infrastructure, tour operator certifications of quality, or brokeraging for potential small tour operators... they have existing stakeholders that the marketing is designed to meet the needs of, and are not interested in the potential for tourism growth outside of their stakeholder base... you will never see a provincial park advertised with NBCTA, or PGTourism dollars you can be sure of that.

Time will tell I guess....

To start anything in this "gritty little mill town" you have to deal with three levels of government. A bank or credit union. Maybe even the Ft. George Regional District. Zoning laws come to mind. Anything on or near any of our rivers you have to deal with the Fisheries and Ocean folk. "To start" any investment you have to have a plan. Plus investors. I'm sure they would mind standing around with their money in their hands waiting to give it to you while you spend years running into roadblocks while jumping through hoops trying to get permission to just do a study. We are too far away from any major population centre. Try to imagine building a restaurant overlooking the two rivers on or near Ft. George Park. It ain't gonna happen. The neighbours. The aboriginal community. Any kind of development near there is out. Face it.We here in PG personify this whole country. Underpopulated and underdeveloped. Stagnant population numbers, excessive taxation, poor roads, downtown malaise, no leadership from city hall, etc. Just say: Prince George. Eat here and get gas. Just satisfy yourself we have the railway museum and a water slide at the Casino AND Esthers Inn. Whoop de doo!

"Eat here and get gas"


Thats kinda catchy and has multiple meanings. It should be posted an every welcome to PG sign, at every major airport in Canada and the Lonely Planet guide.

Sounds like something the new communications fairy at city hall could come up with.