Tourism Whistler announced an organizational restructuring this week to take full advantage of the synergy among complementary departments.
The Market Development and Media Relations departments are being reorganized into North American Destination Awareness and International Destination Awareness departments. Synergies between Central Reservations and Information Technology will be developed, and Member Communications and Member Assessments will work more closely together.
The restructuring was done "in order to continue to reflect the dynamics of our business environment and to structure ourselves optimally to deliver maximum results for our membership," Suzanne Denbak, Ppresident and CEO, wrote in a letter to members.
"These changes stem from our culture – our collective desire to continue to improve," Denbak wrote. "Tourism Whistler has been tremendously successful in the past and now we are evolving to ensure that we build on this success.
"As well, these changes have been carefully constructed keeping in mind, not only what is best for the organization, and our membership, but also our commitment to offer growth and development opportunities to our staff."
Barrett Fisher, currently Vice President, Marketing and Sales, will become Vice President, Marketing Strategy and Business Development when she returns from maternity leave. Fisher will be responsible for North American and International Destination Awareness, Brand Marketing and the Meetings & Incentive Experience. Her responsibilities will also include new business development opportunities such as the continued evolution of Tourism Whistler’s Internet presence, strategic partnerships, linkages to grow e-business opportunities, the development of e-permission marketing, resort-wide air and activity bookings, and any other strategic business opportunities. As well, Fisher will spearhead the strategic use of market intelligence to grow business for Whistler and to effectively position all of Tourism Whistler’s product and service offerings. She will also address the many resort-wide issues that require lobbying, such as access, border issues, highways and bridges.
Connie Rabold will become Director, Communications and Destination Awareness North America, while Roz Casey will become Director, Destination Awareness Overseas. The new structure recognizes the synergies that exist between media relations and market development within a geographic market. Destination Awareness managers will be responsible for creating awareness of Whistler in their market using all the tools available to them, including media relations, tour operator relations and co-operative opportunities with industry partners.
Jill Greenwood will become Director, Brand Marketing, responsible for working with Alan Rice, Manager, Research and Market Intelligence and Patricia Koshure, Manager, Brand Advertising & Promotion.
Tourism Whistler is putting greater emphasis on research and customer profiling to create unique and targetted marketing plans. While traditional media will continue to play an important role, there will be increased emphasis on the use of Internet, with permission marketing and e-business partnership opportunities playing a significant and growing role.
Diane Mombourquette also takes on greater responsibilities, as Director, Business Operations. In addition to her responsibilities for human resources (to be renamed Employee Experience) and for finance and information technology (to be renamed Financial Services and Technology Services respectively), Mombourquette will take responsibility for Member Experience (formerly Member Communications), and for the Reservations Experience (formerly Central Reservations). This reorganization will allow the synergies between Information Technology and Central Reservations and between Member Communications and Member Assessments to be developed and maximized.
Marion Anderson will continue as Manager, Reservations Experience and Shannon Story as Manager, Member Experience, reporting to Mombourquette.
Doug Stackhouse will become Director, Facilities and Events Experience and in addition to his current responsibilities for Facility Operations (including renovation plans for the Whistler Conference Centre), Telecommunications, and Distribution, will take responsibility for the execution of all Tourism Whistler Festivals and Events.
Dianne Diamond, Manager, Festivals Experience, will report to Stackhouse.
The position of director of golf will be renamed director, golf experience. Recruiting for the position is underway.
