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Vancouver is the competition

Less than half of Whistler’s room inventory has been contracted for February 2010 but anyone holding on to their condo and expecting to cash in nearer to the Olympics is dreaming. And more importantly, they may be damaging Whistler’s reputation.

Less than half of Whistler’s room inventory has been contracted for February 2010 but anyone holding on to their condo and expecting to cash in nearer to the Olympics is dreaming.

And more importantly, they may be damaging Whistler’s reputation.

That was the blunt message presented at a special accommodation forum hosted by Tourism Whistler last week.

It’s not that there aren’t rooms in Whistler during the Games; it’s that the rooms aren’t available at prices sponsors, national Olympic committees (NOCs) and governments are prepared to pay. And if these organizations can’t find appropriate accommodation in Whistler during the Olympics they will stay in Vancouver.

“In Whistler, we think we’re special and different, but we’re finding we’re just like every other Olympic host community,” Tourism Whistler President Barrett Fisher said to the approximately 60 people who came to the Wednesday evening session. “We’re waiting and we’re missing the opportunity. We’re not different, from an Olympic perspective.”

And Whistler’s opportunity to secure sponsors and NOCs is closing rapidly. By September — October at the latest — these organizations will have finalized their budgets and made their accommodation arrangements for the 2010 Olympics.

“The groups contracting the largest number of rooms have set budgets and they have to plan ahead,” Jodi Westbury of Tourism Whistler told the audience.

Whistler has already lost some Olympic sponsors to Vancouver, corporations who have chosen to book all their accommodation in the city during the Games and commute to Whistler for specific events. February is high season in Whistler and off-season in Vancouver, so rates are lower in the city. But that distinction may be lost among Olympic sponsors and NOCs.

There is also a danger that Whistler may be perceived as gouging.

VANOC worked with Tourism Whistler and Whistler’s accommodation sector to establish a pricing formula for the Olympic period. That formula averaged the rates in February 2006, 2007 and 2008 and added a 15.8 per cent premium, an inflation factor and a fee for VANOC’s accommodation service. VANOC’s lowest contracted rate in Whistler is three times its lowest contracted rate in Vancouver.

There are organizations willing to pay VANOC’s rates, but VANOC and Tourism Whistler can’t get enough owners to commit their properties.

“The lack of available inventory is the biggest problem,” Westbury said.

She outlined “the waterfall effect” that can result from a lack of available rooms:

• NOCs may base their operations in Vancouver, which means they are unlikely to participate in Whistler’s proposed neighbourhood of nations;

• A number of provincial governments are interested in sponsoring Live Sites in Whistler, but won’t do so if they don’t have accommodation to host VIPs;

• To date there have been no takers for Whistler’s commercial space matching program. Anyone that signs on to the program also needs accommodation in Whistler.

Fisher said Tourism Whistler has sent letters and brochures to its more than 7,000 members, most of whom are property owners, to try and explain that the market for Olympic accommodation will peak this summer, but the message isn’t getting through.

“The order of business will soon be descending, rather than ascending,” she said.

There will still be accommodation available, and people making accommodation decisions, right up until the Games — as there is at every Olympics — but it will be a descending order of business. The rates VANOC has guaranteed media, NOCs, sponsors and others won’t increase.

The experience of previous Olympics shows that as the accommodation supply declines and the Games get closer, people’s willingness to pay remains the same.

Westbury said Tourism Whistler’s vision for 2010 was twofold: to maximize the media opportunity — including a bustling village, Live Sites and positive images — and to maximize business opportunities, which were defined as 95 per cent occupancy and a commercial sector that had adjusted operations to leverage opportunities.

A typical February in Whistler sees about 78 per cent occupancy, but at the moment known occupancy for February 2010 is at 46 per cent. Full service hotel units are at 59 per cent occupancy while only 30 per cent of non-hotel units are known to be occupied in February 2010.

By contrast, Vancouver hotels are at about 80 per cent occupancy for the Olympic month.

Among the groups VANOC is still seeking accommodation for in Whistler are accredited media, the people who will be sending images and telling the story of Whistler to people in other markets.

Another group that needs rooms is the volunteers that will be helping stage the Games.

The urgency of getting accommodation sorted out for the Olympics extends well beyond the February 2010 Games period. Winter Olympic hosts typically see room numbers and skier visits decline during an Olympic year as people avoid the area, feeling it will be chaotic and full of construction people preparing for the Games. Park City, for instance, was down 17 per cent during the winter of 2001-02 when it hosted the Olympics.

Inghams, one of the U.K.’s largest tour operators and a large supplier of Brits to Whistler, has told Tourism Whistler that they need rooms and ticket rates for 2009-2010 by September of 2008 in order to address this “Olympic aversion”.

Given the present state of the U.S. and Ontario economies, inflation fears and the increasing costs of travel, there is reason for concern about the coming winter of 2008-09. And if the Olympic accommodation issue isn’t sorted out in the next couple of months, Whistler could be facing two consecutive winters of below normal visitor numbers.