Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Tourism Whistler officials strategizing on growing all-season visitors and global brand

Annual general meeting for Tourism Whistler focuses plan and sees new board members elected

Despite amazing snow levels Whistler's room nights fell eight per cent this season in the post Olympic year.

But Tourism Whistler officials expect the summer to be up by one per cent.

"We are anticipating at the end of this winter season that we're presently in, to be down eight per cent in room nights, that is not good news but we would like to hope that we're meeting the bottom of that trough," said Tourism Whistler president and CEO Barrett Fisher at the organization's Annual General Meeting last week.

"Looking at summer, last summer was down two per cent and we're anticipating this upcoming summer to be up one per cent."

Tourism Whistler's extensive research shows travellers to the resort in summer are more regional and Canadian than winter, making that season more stable. Winter has traditionally been more reliant on the destination market, making it more susceptible to the turbulence of currency and international economic crisis.

Downturns in U.S. and U.K. markets are intrinsically linked to winter's poor showing. However, Fisher called the Canadian and Australian markets Whistler's "bright lights," with triple digit growth coming from down under. Secondary markets have been defined as Mexico, Germany, Japan and Alberta, but with the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that economy isn't as dependable as it has been in previous years. New visa requirements for Mexico have hindered any business coming from the south, but Fisher said the tertiary markets of Brazil and New Zealand are showing promise. The emerging markets of China and India are also being targeted, with cultural specialists working on country specific branding to generate traffic.

To help draw those markets and tap remaining travellers, Tourism Whistler is expanding its primary product offerings beyond the traditional skiing and snowboarding, golf, hiking and mountain biking the resort is known for. With the European market in mind they've put marketing energy towards Nordic skiing in the Callaghan Valley and are working with the RMOW and third-party groups to promote the arts, culture and heritage, sport tourism and health and wellness.

"This is really core to our unique point of difference and now that the Games are over, the opportunity to have a greater focus on festivals, events and animation will be an important value added for our guests," said Fisher.

"When you look everywhere, it's no longer in wintertime about skiing, it's about sun. It's about the capacity in Mexico, in Hawaii, in Vegas - those are destinations that we're up against so it's no easy job, we obviously have our work cut out for us. It's about finding creative ways to continue to grow our awareness."

Conference business has been on the decline since the economy tanked, as companies eschew the perception of blending work with pleasure by not holding meetings at high-end resorts. The trend is slowly reversing, and TW has secured four high-profile corporate events already this year that will account for 3,600 room nights. For privacy reasons, company names cannot be released.

While disappointing winter room night numbers reflected larger global economic trends away from travel, Whistler's primary marketing and sales organization has identified priorities to improve room night numbers, fiscal perception and take back control over the roller coaster ride the resort's been on for the past few years.

Its key strategy - finding a way to drive guest traffic to Whistler during all seasons while maintaining the resort's global recognition - is a constantly evolving blueprint.

"Our Board of Directors sets priorities on an annual basis and we do have the same priorities of growing brand awareness, closing the sale and improving member engagement to increase alignment and support for 2010 and 2011," said Fisher.

"New for 2011 is the priority of growing our funding. Our funding has continued to grow year after year after year but we are going to go into a bit of a funding crunch looking forward."

About 72 per cent of Tourism Whistler's annual budget goes towards marketing and sales of the resort. The next biggest chunk of change - 16 per cent - goes to administration, but the board has shaved that by 10 per cent over the past year to funnel funds to marketing.

"Certainly our goal is to put as much money back into marketing and sales as possible," continued Fisher.

Since 2003, TW's marketing and sales expenditures have grown 53.4 per cent, money not only generated through core member contributions, but through sponsorships, incremental funds gained from tourism agencies and the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) and access to the two per cent hotel tax. Now more than ever those funds need to work to generate guest visits to the region.

At the Tourism Whistler AGM, three directors were elected or acclaimed to the board. Duane Hepdich of Guestfolio secured the position of Commercial Director with 507 of the 1,194 votes cast. Rick Clare of Whistler's Foto Source/Coast Mountain Photography received 327 votes; Annique Aird of Scandinave Spa received 186 votes and Wayne Katz of Gone Bakery/Moguls/Zogs received 174. With no competitors, incumbent Brenda Baker reclaimed the seat of Multi-Managed Lodging - Benchlands. For the final spot of Singled Managed Lodging - Small Director, incumbent Saad Hasan of Lodging Ovations won with 100 per cent of the 1,261 votes cast. For the first time in two decades, Rick Clare will not sit on the board. Clare is a long-time local business operator who has served on the Tourism Whistler Board of Directors for 24 years - 11 as chair.

"Rick has dedicated many years to the organization and to Whistler," said Hasan, who serves as the board vice-chair.

"I thank Rick for his commitment to Tourism Whistler and to the resort. He has been a tremendous supporter, a valuable leader and a tireless advocate. He has spent many hours of his personal time working for the benefit of Whistler."

Board chair Roger Soane was out of town for the AGM.

The meeting also culminated with a vote on a bylaw amendment with regard to the process for voting for the position of TW's Director of Large. In the past, this vote has been conducted with a system of weighted votes, depending on the number of properties owned by each member. The bylaw amendment would see the weighted vote system replaced with a one vote per member system. There were 131 votes cast with 121 in favour of the bylaw amendment and 10 opposed.