Tuesday November 5, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 4:16 pm | Updated at 4:53 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Destination Greater Victoria (DGV) has launched their 2025-2035 Destination Master Plan.
About 175 people from the local and regional business and tourism communities attended the official unveiling at the Delta Ocean Pointe this morning.
“The plan presents a bold vision for the visitor economy and is a comprehensive road map designed to guide the sustainable development and future growth of the region’s visitor economy over the next 10 years,” says Astrid Chang, Executive Director, Corporate Communications and Community Relations, DGV, who emceed this morning’s event.
The goal is to develop a “competitive, robust visitor economy”, she told the audience today. That achievement needs to “align with community values”, she said, as well as developing amenities “that locals can also enjoy”.
The visitor economy contributes $2.5 billion to the economy, says DGV CEO Paul Nursey. That includes 25,000 jobs. “It’s pretty significant.”
Board Chair notes pivotal moment:
Today Chair of the DGV board, Chris Watson, said to the crowd that “today marks a pivotal moment in DGV’s journey”. He described the 10-year master plan as both “ambitious and achievable”. He hopes the plan will help “Greater Victoria maintain its position as a premiere global destination destination” for visitors from around the world.
Watson hopes to see enhancement of Greater Victoria’s “appeal” while preserving its “unique cultural and natural heritage”. Fostering economic growth is a key plank of the master plan as well as creating jobs and improving the quality of life of residents.
Watson says the DGV board will provide “support and guidance” to the leadership team. He says the reorientation of serving the tourism sector began “even before the pandemic”. That seems to indicate that a flagging visitor economy was already noticed and a source of concern.
“To think strategically and anticipate future trends has been instrumental in shaping this master plan,” the board chair said.
Watson manages the Best Western Plus Carlton Plaza Hotel in downtown Victoria.
Key findings:
The plan has identified key findings, goals, and initiatives including proposed projects to enhance tourism infrastructure, sustainability efforts, and community collaboration.
Key findings that were highlighted today Paul Nursey, CEO, Destination Greater Victoria and discussed by the panel, were:
- the size of the Victoria Conference Centre (smaller than in other mid-size cities across Canada);
- the need for more hotels downtown and in the surrounding area;
- grappling with attraction/activity schedules related to later day-time arrival of cruise ships at the Inner Harbour;
- the cost and availability of housing for workers in the tourism sector.
Strategic goals & initiative:
“Greater Victoria is globally recognized as a must-see destination that delivers world class experiences while thriving in alignment with local community values and the nature environment,” says Nursey.
He told the crowd today that in 2020 he made a hard long-pondered decision to committing to the value of sustainability.
The 2025-2035 Destination Master Plan released today by Destination Greater Victoria identifies strategic goals and initiatives related to tourism infrastructure, attractions and experiences, stewardship and placemaking, connectivity and mobility, and sustainability and innovation.
Some noteworthy points include wanting to ensure that the Royal BC Museum remains int he Inner Harbour (there is a Collections Building under construction in Colwood in the west shore set to open in 2027); increasing the size of the Victoria Conference Centre; developing additional meeting, conference and hosting facilities; attracting or developing a signature annual winter event (to boost visitors in the off-seasons); and developing a regional event strategy.
As part of developing the master plan, open houses were held across the region, resident surveys and industry surveys.Over 300 people participated in the process. Town halls were held across the region, and customer feedback was invited.
More hotel rooms needed:
About 800 to 1,200 more hotel rooms are needed in the downtown Victoria area; that would be about eight to 10 new hotels, said Nursey today. “It’s not a monumental task, we can chip away at this deliberately. We just need a bit more certainty in the process,” Nursey told Island Social Trends today.
DGV has a 30-page hotel prospectus that provides a lot of information to prospective hotels to “help them make their investment decision”, he says.
“There’s quite a bit of interest in the pipeline,” says Nursey. “And now it’s about navigating through the municipal process to make things a little more efficient.” That’s mostly in Victoria and Saanich locations, says Nursey.
“We work with all the municipalities. Those (Victoria and Saanich) are our two core funders,” said Nursey.
Mayors at the podium:
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto today emphasized the importance of “listening to our Indigenous partners”.
- Alto says there are challenging decisions ahead. She concurred with the DGV stance that the Inner Harbour area of downtown Victoria is “iconic”. She says that “intentionality” is required in order to maintain the Inner Harbour as a key aspect of tourism in the region.
- “We all have issues with the conference centre,” said Alto, noting capacity limits. “But it’s such a core resource for us,” she said.
- She likes the tone of focussing on “experiential opportunities” in the tourism plan together with paying attention to the “quality of life of the people who live here”. She finds the overall plan to be inspirational rather than tactical.
Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock today opened his remarks by thanking the work of long-time Saanich Councillor Susan Brice as a long-time member of the DGV board. He noted that the Inner Harbour is indeed featured in the DGV marketing but that “there is so much more” that is “the attraction for people to come and spend time in the capital”.
- “We are a destination of choice in terms of sport and recreation, and enjoying the incredible natural beauty of this place,” said Murdock. How do we continue to highlight that, he purports. Sport tourism should be cultivated as a “rich opportunity” and Murdock hopes to see infrastructure development to attract new events.
- “The Gorge Waterway is a little bit farther up the harbour. We’re thrilled to see a study area for the Gorge,” said Murdock, describing that area as “rich in opportunity that is so-far under-explored”. Tourism potential is high for the Gorge area which Murdock says will foster return-visits by tourists.
- Murdock also emphasized the importance of building more hotels. The need for more traditional full-service hotel capacity “is well recognized in Saanich”. He hopes that future hotels “will accommodate families, sports teams, and visitors that are eager to experience all that our community has to offer”. He says that Saanich would be “a welcome home to a future hotel in our region”.
Cruise ship challenge:
The cruise ships are arriving much later and that is a challenge,” says Nursey. We’re trying to collaborate with the Harbour Authority to make some innovations and some short-term programs.
“That has definitely had an impact. Ships are arriving later due to environmental concerns — they have to burn less carbon,” Nursey explains.
DGV has about 60 members businesses on the west shore. “We certainly promote all of our members on the west shore on an ongoing basis, year-round,” says Nursey. “There is interest in the entire region as a whole,” he says.
Panelists:
The panelists at today’s discussion about the tourism economy were:
- Dave Cowen, CEO, Butchart Gardens
- Kathy Whitcher, Executive Director, UDI Victoria
- Elizabeth Brown, CEO, Victoria Airport Authority
- Bill Lewis, General Manager, Magnolia Hotel & Spa
Industry leaders and stakeholders attended today’s session including the mayors of the two key municipalities that contribute to Destination Greater Victoria, i.e. Mayor Marianne Alto with the City of Victoria and Mayor Dean Murdock with the District of Saanich.
MLA-elect Grace Lore was in attendance; her local riding is Victoria-Beacon Hill which encompasses most of the area that Destination Greater Victoria engages with in the visitor economy.
Others in the audience included Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Bruce Williams; District of Saanich Councillor Susan Brice; Keith Wells, Executive Director, Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Commission; Gareth Rees, Director of Strategic Relations, Rugby Canada; and Kyara Kahakauwila (former Metchosin councillor) who has a tourism-related business.
DGV seeks collaborative development as tourism continues to play its role within Greater Victoria’s long-term economic health.
During 2023 DGV did public engagement with stakeholders and an online public survey. Nursey gave a shoutout to Jeremy Loveday, Graham Wallace and Astrid Chang for their work on assembling the master plan.
About the organization:
Destination Greater Victoria (Greater Victoria Visitors and Convention Bureau) has proudly served as our region’s official, not-for-profit destination marketing and management organization for half a century.
“As we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2024, we continue to work hand-in-hand with nearly 1,000 businesses and municipalities in Greater Victoria to promote, enhance, and manage our vibrant destination,” says Chang.
DGV looks forward to another 50 years of supporting the visitor economy that brings vitality to the Greater Victoria region on South Vancouver Island.
===== RELATED:
- Destination Greater Victoria seeks visitor economy boost with 10-year destination master plan (November 1, 2024)
- IMPACT Sustainability Travel & Tourism Conference coming up January 2025 (September 20, 2024)
- New tourism flavour trails reach into west shore (August 20, 2024)
- Destination Greater Victoria wins international sustainable tourism award (June 19, 2023)
- 10-year Greater Victoria tourism strategy in the works (June 14, 2023)
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