GROWTH in the ski market, city stays, rail tours, and land packages combined with Alaska cruises, have helped to improve British Columbia’s performance from the UK this year.
Tourism British Columbia says international travel to the province grew nearly twice as fast as overall travel to Canada in the first nine months of 1999 and UK overnights showed a 12.3% rise.
Geoff Sturgeon, market development manager Europe for Tourism British Columbia, said: “The growth in the ski market has certainly helped – not only due to the popularity of Whistler but also those ski resorts in the interior, which are getting a lot more exposure in the UK.
“But we have also seen a steady increase in summer business due to our strong marketing partnerships with tour operators. Driving this is the inclusion in programmes of Rocky Mountaineer Railtours’ product and more pre and post-tours in BC for Alaska cruise clients. This has helped to broaden the variety of product and reduce the age of the customer. More tour operators are featuring add-on activities, which has created a demand for guest-ranch stays, hiking, kayaking and whale-watching. They are also packaging more motorhome-based holidays.”
Sturgeon said Canada’s West Marketplace had drawn a record number of BC sellers – up 9% to 149 – which had exposed a lot more niche product that would not necessarily be represented at larger events.
He added that the smaller special-interest receptives had finally got their product export-ready, were confident about meeting the needs of the client and were now able to discuss net rates with operators.
In the UK market, Tourism BC is a strong supporter of the Canadian Tourism Commission’s national TV and print campaign. It starts next week.
Sturgeon said: “We want to play our part in creating a bigger awareness of Canada as a travel destination, and we need to help push that.”