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Media eye turning to Vancouver, Whistler Games

Tourism Whistler mission to Beijing makes contacts
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Next In Line Mayor Ken Melamed, pictured here with Vancouver's Mayor Sam Sullivan, also was present during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Photo submitted.

One of the chief selling points of the 2010 Games in the 10 years since Vancouver and Whistler won the Canadian rights to bid for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games has always been the international exposure the Games would bring to the province, and the boost it would provide to tourism, conference business, and industry.

With the Beijing Games wrapping up and the Vancouver Games next on the calendar, Tourism Whistler says that exposure is now a reality — the media is on its way and is looking for stories in the buildup to 2010.

TW recently sent a three-person delegation to Beijing to make contact with international media representatives and Olympic sponsors, help the Vancouver Organizing Committee promote the 2010 Games, and get a sense of how the resort can capitalize on the opportunities.

The main message that TW took away was that the media and sponsors tend to focus on the next Olympics, and that coverage of Vancouver and Whistler is about to ramp up. And while a lot of the focus is on the Games and athletes there is a lot of opportunity to promote the host communities as destinations.

“We’re already starting to see a big jump in the amount of coverage we’re getting, and we’re also encouraged by what we’re seeing in terms of who is doing the coverage, groups that haven’t had a large presence here like BBC and NBC,” said Casey Vanden Heuvel, director of communications at TW. “We’re also encouraged by the stories that they’re interested in covering. They want people stories and human interest, and the people of Whistler are a great subject and one of our strengths. They want to know more about the Peak 2 Peak Gondola, and stories about First Nations, and we’re in a great position to give them those stories.

“In China, where they have 5,000 years of history, they decided instead to focus on the here and now and focus less on the past,” he added. “They wanted to show the world that they’ve arrived, and how modern they are, so it was a bit of a coming out party for them on the world stage.

“For us, the opportunity is to show that while we’re still quite young we do have this history. We have these young athletes that are going to be competing here on their home turf. There are some great stories to tell the world.”

Tourism Whistler is working with Tourism Vancouver, Tourism Richmond, Tourism B.C. and the Canadian Tourism Commission to present a unified front when dealing with international media and telling the Games story. They recently launched a website at www.destination2010.ca that includes photos, video, story leads, Games facts, and the history of host communities, and promoted the site to media groups at Beijing.

Breton Murphy, manager of corporate and member communications at TW, says that they got the best response when they could tell media something about the Games that they didn’t know or expect. One of the stories that raised eyebrows for media in the U.S. and the U.K. that know Whistler for its skiing is the fact that Whistler now draws more visitors in the summer months with activities like mountain biking, golf and hiking.

“They didn’t know that, and it really got their attention,” said Murphy. “That opened the door to tell Whistler’s summer story as well, and I know that some of the media I spoke to are going to be here next summer.”

Tourism Whistler’s primary goal was to connect with accredited media in Beijing, major broadcasters and national newspapers, but they also spent some time speaking to unaccredited media — a larger group of journalists that work for regional networks and newspapers, magazines, or across a wide range of media including the web. At any given time Vanden Heuvel said there were 50 accredited media at the main press centre, and 500 unaccredited media. Part of that had to do with the fact that most of the accredited media had their own facilities in Beijing.

But while the TW mission spent most of their time promoting the resort, they also had to address some of the negatives perceived by the media — namely the cost and availability of accommodation during the Games. While VANOC is responsible for housing the accredited media, Tourism Whistler is helping to find places for unaccredited press. Murphy acknowledged that it is difficult right now to find those beds, but was confident that more beds would open up closer to the Games when property owners lower their expectations — similar to what happened at previous Games in Torino and Salt Lake City, and at hotels in Beijing, where rooms were priced at $700 a night a few months ago but were available for under $200 a night during the Games.

“We think as we get closer to the Games more property owners will look at what VANOC is offering and decide that it’s a pretty good deal after all,” said Murphy. “There will be a premium, but it’s less than some property owners may be expecting right now. There was a rush to book places, but that’s calmed down a lot recently.

“Basically they are looking for a place to work, and a place to sleep, and we are confident we’ll be able to provide that.”

Media outlets that can’t find places in Whistler will likely stay in Vancouver. However, Murphy is confident that they will still spend a lot of their time in Whistler, and at least a few days here while covering major events. More than half the medals will be awarded in Whistler, which is hosting most of the outdoor Olympic competitions.

Tourism Whistler already tracks its coverage in the media, and estimates that the value of that coverage is the equivalent of spending millions on advertising. Recently the value has been pegged at $18 million a year, but that is set to grow substantially after Beijing.

The next step for Tourism Whistler is prepare for the World Press Briefing in Vancouver and Whistler in November, which will host 200 to 250 international media. The briefing is the only opportunity for some journalists and news outlets to orient themselves with the Games venues, and get the information they need to plan their coverage for 2010. It will be the first time that most of the media representatives will visit Whistler, and TW believes that the event will spin off a lot of coverage.

While Murphy and Vanden Heuvel met with media, Lynn Chappell, manager of partnerships and promotions at Tourism Whistler, focused on Olympic sponsors that will have a presence in Whistler and Vancouver during the Games. She met with 10 major sponsors, including Visa, Coca-Cola, Omega, 3M, Panasonic, and Johnson & Johnson to get an idea what they require and how many VIPs they will be bringing to the Games.

Like media, Chappell says that sponsors tend to work from Games to Games, and are now focusing their attention on Vancouver and Whistler. Official sponsor visits are already underway.

While the Olympic sponsors already spend millions of dollars every year to be official sponsors, Chappell learned in Beijing that they spend far more than that to capitalize on the opportunity.

“The sponsors are already setting up in Vancouver, and have been invited up to Whistler to experience our side of the Games firsthand starting this September,” she said. It’s already happening, and it’s happening really, really fast.”

Each sponsor has a strategy they will activate during the Games, but that follows guidelines set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC also has a strategy to deal with any guerilla marketing by non-official companies that attempt to piggyback on the exposure of the Games.

As well as having a marketing presence, Olympics sponsors also bring thousands of VIPs to the Games to experience sporting and cultural events. While most of those VIPs will be based in Vancouver, “all of them will at some time make the trip up to Whistler, and some of them will probably stay here for a few days. That’s fine for us because we’re literally talking about thousands of people,” said Chappell.

In Beijing, there were more than 10,000 VIPs. Coke alone had over 1,600 VIPs.

“They will go to the sporting events, but they also went on trips to the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City. That’s great news for Whistler, because they’ll want to go skiing and take tours. There’s a lot of opportunity before, during and after the Games.”