Promoting Prince George as a place to hold a convention is among the items the city can look forward to as the result of a new tourism strategy unveiled Tuesday by the provincial government, says jobs, tourism and innovation minister Pat Bell.
He said the mandate of the team hired to market the Vancouver Convention Centre has been broadened to try and sell other convention centres across the province to prospective customers.
"For a lot of people, coming to Prince George may be a good fit for them but up until now that responsibility has fallen to Initiatives Prince George to market," Bell said.
The strategy also calls for "focussed marketing" on six sectors where B.C. has a natural competitive advantage and one of them is touring vacations, which Bell said is northern B.C.'s "bread and butter" during the spring, summer and fall.
The same approach will be used to promote skiing and snowboarding, aboriginal tourism and eco-tourism, which Bell said are also strengths for northern B.C.
And, under the "world class" experiences aspect of the strategy, Bell said there will be a push for a trails strategy.
"This speaks to snowmobiling, to backcountry skiing, to hiking, those sorts of experiences," Bell said. "Those are very positive on the participation scale in terms the exit interviews that we've done for people coming to B.C. on vacation."
The provincial government spends $52 million a year on tourism marketing. Bell said that total will be held steady and noted it's twice as much as was spent in 2001.
"I don't think we necessarily need more money, I think we just need to make sure that we're marketing the most effective way that we possibly can," Bell said.
Add on the budgets for the regional associations and the local destination organizations and the total rises to over $100 million - and that's not including tourism operators themselves, said Bell.
"One of our objectives through this plan is to make sure we're all working together in marketing our product," Bell added.
Northern British Columbia Tourism chief executive officer Anthony Everrett said the strategy "brings more clarity and focus" to what the provincial government is doing. The regional associations will continue with their marketing initiatives, particularly within B.C. and the neighbouring provinces and states, he said.
Tourism Prince George chief executive officer Aidan Kelly could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
