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Whistler proud of WinterPride

Proclamation, Ski Out and March define 20 year celebrations of gay ski week
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Rainbow Connection This year's WInterPride celebration included the first Pride parade through Whistler Village. photo by Joern Rohde, wpnn.org

As gay ski week evolves with the changing times, organizers are looking for ways to entice gay men and women to Whistler. And they may need help.

WinterPride, Whistler's annual gay ski week, is facing the same challenges other events are struggling with these days: more competition, a tougher time getting sponsorship dollars, and, particular to this event, a changing world that is embracing gay culture more and more, offering more choice to gay travellers than ever before.

Times have changed in the 20 years that gay skiers have been coming to Whistler.

If it takes public money to keep gay ski week coming back and keep it successful, Whistler's mayor for one is willing to put money on the table.

"I personally think there is value in keeping the week," said Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden at the close of the 20th anniversary of WinterPride.

The week stimulates the local economy to the tune of several million dollars, according to figures from the organizers, as an estimated 2,500 come to Whistler to take part in the parties, the après, the skiing and the host of other activities in the resort.

"I would not be adverse if there was a request for a modest amount of RMI monies to assist with some of those logistical issues," added the mayor.

She of course needs the support of her council before doling out the Resort Municipality Initiative funds — $7.5 million last year in provincial money designed to bolster tourism in the resort.

An official request for public funding has not been made by Pride organizers but Dean Nelson, the CEO and executive producer of Alpenglow Production, which puts on the week, said it's challenging to put on the annual event given that the organizers rely on just ticket sales and sponsorship to balance the budget.

He will be putting together an action plan for the coming year that could include a request for public funding.

"That's a huge consideration for us because we've been doing it on our own dime for the last 20 years and... I don't know if they (resort partners) really understand the full value that we bring to the resort," said Nelson.

He points to the work that he and his colleagues do to promote the resort throughout the year as well as gay ski week. They push Cornucopia to food and wine lovers and the film festival to movie buffs.

In April he will be in South Africa for the Mr. Gay World competition in Johannesburg, again serving as an ambassador for Whistler.

"We visit over ten Prides a year and we're always promoting the destination throughout the year, not just that one week," said Nelson. "We're always doing a lot of cross promotions."

While the numbers aren't yet tallied for the 20th gay ski week, Nelson is confident they're higher than last year.

Sean Kearns, president of GW Travel and Cruise, who sold GayWhistler.com to Nelson in 2010, knows all about what's required to put on a successful gay ski week in Whistler.

Kearns, who ran the successful gay travel website GayWhistler.com, stepped up to the plate in 2006 when it appeared gay ski week, then known as Altitude Week at the time, was going to fall apart at the last minute.

He spent the ensuing four years developing a sound business, working to pay all the bills ahead of schedule. And in 2010 he sold it to Nelson.

The challenges ahead for WinterPride, as he sees it, are that the world is a much different place than it was two decades ago. At that time, places like Colorado, which had a gay ski week in Aspen, were taking away gay rights.

Now, the world is a changing place — gay people can travel where they want, travel with straight friends, travel on gay cruises.

"The younger generation has no need, no want of it," said Kearns, of a gay specific ski week. "And Alleluhia, I praise that to the end because that's what we've been fighting for."

Kearns popped by the festivities in Whistler last week and noticed that there were few people in their twenties or thirties taking part. It was an older demographic.

"We are very successful in retaining our guests," said Nelson. "We need to be really out there and attracting more blood into the resort."

While Joe Rachert, who was involved in gay ski week in the early years, agrees that there is more choice in the gay market, he said the event is also expensive.

"If you're 25 years old and you just finished university and you've got a job that pays you $35,000 a year, going up for a week to Whistler, even a weekend in Whistler... it's an expensive little weekend," said Rachert, who came on Thursday for the last weekend of Pride.

"I think younger gay guys would be interested if it was a little more affordable but it's just the way Whistler is."

Nelson, in speaking to guests from Belgium, said they each dropped $10,000 to come on their Whistler holiday this week. Despite the costs, international guests were up, he added, for the weeklong event.

Public funding could offset some of the high prices of tickets and make the event more accessible, said Nelson.

Of all the events throughout the week, from the DJs and the après parties to the iconic Snowball bash and the endless skiing, it will be the event that cost the least that will stand out forever in Nelson's mind.

That was the Pride ski out and march through the village culminating in the Pride Proclamation delivered by the mayor before hundreds of WinterPride participants packed into the lobby of the conference centre Thursday.

"It was really exciting actually," agreed Wilhelm-Morden.

The reception, she added, was very warm and she shook hands and hugged several people who told her how welcome they felt in Whistler.