Happy kids make for happy parents, and one of the happiest places in Whistler for 15 days during the Christmas break was the Whistler Holiday Experience.
Held at the Whistler Conference Centre, there was a room filled with bouncy castles and slides, a miniature golf course, a games room with air hockey, pool, ping-pong and hockey nets, video games and more. There were also special events, like the arrival of Santa Claus, and arts and crafts events co-hosted by the Whistler Arts Council.
The event ran from Dec. 17 to Jan. 2, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It was closed on Christmas Day and on New Year's Eve day as the space was readied for First Night celebrations and the teen-only MuchMusic Video Dance Party.
Watermark Communications once again produced the event and President Sue Eckersley said it was likely the busiest yet. This is the first year that they've officially counted people at the door, but overall she says there were more people.
"We only counted people coming through the front doors... but in the 15 days we were open there were just over 15,000 people," she said. "On a non-busy day it was around 800 people, and on busy days we got up to 1,500.
"The word is out among tourists and locals."
The Whistler Holiday Experience was created five years ago after a particularly wet holiday, giving people with children a dry place to go. The next year the Resort Municipality of Whistler collaborated with Tourism Whistler to fund and staff the event, hiring Watermark Communications to run the activities as well as the First Night celebrations.
Eckersley said all of the feedback was positive. The two complaints they did receive were about one kid who somehow managed to turn all the lights off for about three seconds, and the other was that the drinking water was too cold.
Most visitors and locals appreciated having a place where their kids could run around and have fun.
"I really believe it's a good use of the hotel tax," said Eckersley. "At least 50 per cent of the people there were tourists. In the mornings we'd see a lot of locals, but in the afternoon after the mountain closed it would be all tourists. There were a lot of languages spoken, and a lot of people from the States. People were saying; 'hey, this is an important reason why we come to Whistler.' One parent from Texas told me they made sure this was going on before they booked their holiday vacation."
That said, Eckersley believes it's important to review the event every year to ensure that the resort is getting value. Going forward, she says she has spoken to several sponsors that are interested in helping to the support the event. There could have been a sponsor for this year if there wasn't a conflict with an Olympic sponsor. However, she said, even with a partner the event will likely require some funding from the hotel tax.
"It's public money and it needs to be reviewed, whether it's from the hotel tax or the regular tax," said Eckersley.
However, if the municipality, Tourism Whistler and other stakeholders are going to continue supporting the event, she said they would ask for three-year commitment.
"Certainly it's growing, and if the intention is to execute it next year and build it even bigger we're ready to invest in some new equipment," she said. "We do invest in equipment every year, but next year we would be ready to invest in more bouncy castles, more game tables and extras.
"We sporadically did arts and crafts this year and that was a big hit. "Sometimes the view of the Holiday Experience is that it's an opportunity for kids trapped in smaller hotel rooms to run around and go crazy, but I was surprised by all the kids that wanted to be involved in arts and crafts. For example, we did gingerbread cookies on three different occasions and that was pretty enticing for kids. There was origami, hat making and the Whistler Arts Council also did lantern making, which went well."
Most of the activities target kids 12 and under, although Eckersley would like to investigate whether there was anything they could do to hold the attention of older kids between 12 and 16.
"I don't know if there's a need, but I think that's something we should assess," she said. "We did see teens come in and use the pool tables and air hockey, or play Wii, but they would come in and spend an hour - not a long time," she said.
Eckersley would like to see the event get bigger in the future, both for tourists and the community.
"We need to be transparent and cognizant where the money is going, but I think we make a good case that this is something valuable to both visitors and the community, and I like to think that the resort sees that."
First Night was down slightly from last year. While advance ticket sales were the strongest they've been in eight years, the cold kept a lot of people away on New Year's Eve. The indoor conference centre activities and arts and crafts were busy, and people did brave the cold temperatures to watch the outdoor music, but Eckersley said overall the numbers were down.
"It was our coldest First Night in eight or nine years..." said Eckersley. "A lot of people did come out and stayed by the fireplaces. Our advance sales were considerably higher than usual, but I think the cold impacted the 'night of' sales."
The one exception was the MuchMusic Video Dance Party, which was closed to anybody younger than 13 or older than 18.
"The MuchMusic party went off, and with the youth of this community in particular," she said. "We had over 1,000 coat checks at the Conference Centre. The coat checks were mandatory for youth, and the people working that night say about 80 per cent of coats were from teens. That would mean 800 kids at the dance party, and from what I saw everybody was having a lot of fun, it was a really good atmosphere."
