D.O. MARKS NEW START AT 2010 AGM
Destination Osoyoos used its 2010 Annual General Meeting on March 5 to mark a fresh start for itself and for tourism marketing aimed at attracting travellers from around the world to this scenic South Okanagan resort town.
Outgoing DO Chair Derek Noske told the AGM, held at the Watermark Beach Resort, that the organization now has a new three-year contract, a new mandate, a new executive director, a new Board of Directors, and a new governance structure – all making it more than ready to move forward with a number of initiatives to boost the community’s tourism sector.
Noske said that, as a result of its new 2010-12 partnership agreement with the Town of Osoyoos, the NK’MIP Resort Association, and Area A of the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS), Destination Osoyoos will focus on tourism marketing, while the Town will take over the economic development function which DO formerly handled.
He also noted that for the next year Destination Osoyoos will also continue to provide visitor services at the BC Visitor Centre @ Osoyoos, under the terms of a five-year contract with Tourism BC which extends to March 31, 2011.
A key feature of the new-look Destination Osoyoos is a governance structure which will provide for all tourism-related businesses or organizations in the area to be DO “stakeholders” – making them eligible to take part in DO programs and vote for the members of its Board of Directors. He estimates there are more than 150 eligible stakeholders.
“The stakeholder model brings Destination Osoyoos even closer to the community and gives our tourism sector direct input on all of the important issues we deal with,” Noske said. “This – combined with our new partnership with the Town, NK’MIP Resort, and the Regional District – makes Destination Osoyoos a much stronger organization.”
He added that one sign of this closer relationship is the fact that DO’s new 2010-11 Board of Governors is made up of representatives of the local tourism sector. It includes: Don Brogan, Chair (Walnut Beach Resort); Mohamed Awad, Vice-Chair (Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort); Peter Bueschkens, Secretary-Treasurer (Holiday Inn); Derek Noske, Past Chair (Orca Pacific Management Consultants); Gayle Cornish (Osoyoos Museum); Paul Scanlon (Watermark Beach Resort); Rob Rausch (Wakepilot Wakeboarding); and Jason Parker (McKinney Creek Adventures). One more member will be named in the near future.
At the AGM, Noske distributed a report highlighting DO’s achievements in 2009. It served just over 50,000 visitors and its new website recorded three million hits. Accomplishments in 2009 included: helping to attract the filming of a major motion picture; promoting more shopping at local stores; supporting a number of conferences and special events; operating the community/visitor FM radio station and increasing its content; directing high-profile Osoyoos tourism marketing at major televised curling events; co-sponsoring the successful Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Festival & Auction; promoting Osoyoos as an increasingly popular fishing destination; hosting visiting travel media and tour operators; and helping to manage the local 2% Additional Hotel Room Tax for tourism marketing.
Noske introduced Jo Knight, the recently appointed new DO Executive Director, to the AGM. He also thanked retiring DO directors Chris Jensen, Alison Anderson-Gilmour, Lucky Gill, Chris Bower, Robert Linttell, Alina Lovin, Terry Deol, and Ron Stephens and presented them with large mounted aerial photographs of Osoyoos as thanks for their service. Chris Jensen was singled out for his long-time service to the Board by being appointed an Honorary Lifetime Director.
Outgoing Destination Osoyoos Chair Derek Noske emceed the 2010 AGM.
Long-time DO Board member Chris Jensen was thanked and recognized with a large photo-plaque and an honorary life membership in Destination Osoyoos.
The new 2010-11 Destination Osoyoos Board of Directors includes, from left: STANDING: Derek Noske, Past Chair (Orca Pacific Management Consultants); Peter Bueschkens, Secretary-Treasurer (Holiday Inn); Don Brogan, Chair (Walnut Beach Resort); SEATED: Mohamed Awad, Vice-Chair (Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort); Gayle Cornish (Osoyoos Museum); Paul Scanlon (Watermark Beach Resort). MISSING: Rob Rausch (Wakepilot Wakeboarding) and Jason Parker (McKinney Creek Adventures).
Destination Osoyoos staff are raring to go as the 2010 season gears up. From left are: Visitor Experience Specialists Karen Wagner and Kelly Paziuk, Executive Director Jo Knight, BCVC@Osoyoos Manager Millie Jarrett, and IT & CIRO Technician Keith Calder.
Participants at the 2010 Destination Osoyoos Annual General Meeting heard that the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) is taking an energetic new approach aimed at turning the region into one of the leading travel destinations in the world.
TOTA CEO Glenn Mandziuk, former CEO of Destination Osoyoos, was keynote speaker at the DO meeting. He described how TOTA has increased its research and industry development activities and is working to stay on top of changing trends – such as travellers’ increasing demand for niche-market activities, “short-break” holidays, high-quality services, Internet-based information, and lower transportation costs.
Mandziuk also said there is a need to educate the public and decision-makers about the importance of tourism. “There is a low understanding of the high impact of visitor spending,” he said – pointing out that travellers inject $600 million per year into Kelowna’s economy in direct and indirect spending, helping to support about 9,000 jobs.
The TOTA head says the Thompson Okanagan region was well-represented in B.C.’s tourism high-profile advertising during the recent Olympics, and he believes the Olympics and that marketing “will have a tremendous impact” on tourism for the province and the region.
Mandziuk told the AGM that Noske is “a true leader for tourism in the Thompson Okanagan” and, in appreciation, he presented the DO Board Chair with the gift of a stay at the Alpine Meadows Resort, near Clearwater.
TOTA CEO Glenn Mandziuk gave the Destination Osoyoos AGM an insight into tourism marketing at the regional level.
D.O. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JOINS IN OKANAGAN SHOW AT OLYMPICS
Destination Osoyoos Executive Director Jo Knight joined other tourism and economic-development officials from the Okanagan at a Feb. 18 news conference and business reception in Vancouver, designed to promote the Valley to an international audience at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The event, organized by the Okanagan Valley Economic Development Society, was held at the B.C. Media Centre at the downtown Robson Square site. International media got a good look at business and tourism opportunities in the region, with more than 100 Valley business people present to meet reporters as well as federal and provincial officials. A total of 200 people attended.
“It was a tremendous opportunity to showcase Osoyoos and the whole Valley to media at the Olympics,” Knight says. “It was a high-profile chance to market our destination by promoting media stories and investment.”
The Okanagan Valley reception at the 2010 Olympics attracted 200 people.
As part of her work at the Olympic reception promoting Osoyoos as a place to visit and invest, DO Executive Director Jo Knight made sure that attendees saw a display of products from the Osoyoos-based natural skin products company, “Smudge Body”.
Celebrity Chef Ned Bell, from the Cabana Grille in Kelowna, helped to show off the culinary delights of the Okanagan to media, business representatives, and Olympians!
THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT WAS STRONG IN OSOYOOS
Ever since the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay passed through Osoyoos on Jan. 24-25, the town – and Destination Osoyoos – displayed high spirits for the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Here, DO Chair Derek Noske and his wife Eileen try their hand at carrying one of the official Torches.
OSOYOOS BEST WESTERN EARNS ‘4 KEYS’ FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
An Osoyoos hotel has scored high marks in an international rating system for environmentally conscious accommodations.
The Osoyoos Best Western Sunrise Inn recently earned ‘4 Keys’ in the U.S. and Canadian Green Key Eco-Rating Program – showing a major commitment to reducing waste and conserving energy. The Best Western is a southwest-style boutique hotel with 66 guest rooms and suites, high-speed internet, an indoor pool, whirlpool, fitness room, 50-person meeting room, and restaurant.
Co-owner Lucky Gill says she has been making changes for four years to make the Sunrise Inn a ‘green’ hotel. Four keys is a high rating in the Green Key Program, in which 5 Keys is the top score. Gill says she hopes to achieve that level later this year.
The program states that 4 Keys means a hotel “has shown national industry leadership and commitment to protecting the environment through wide-ranging policies and practices. Gill says her hotel has converted to digital control of its air conditioning, has changed to energy-saving lightbulbs, has installed low-flow shower-heads and toilets, instituted a paper recycling program, and with guests’ permission only launders towels and sheets every two days.
“I am an environmentally friendly person. I hate wasting things. We wanted to do this because saving the environment is important for our kids and for the future of our planet,” Gill says. On top of that, she says good environmental practice is good business, since many people and organizations now choose to stay only in green hotels.
Best Western Sunrise Inn co-owner Lucky Gill proudly displays the ‘4 Keys’ plaque her hotel has earned in the Green Key Program.
READERS NAME OSOYOOS A TOP RV DESTINATION
Destination Osoyoos and BC Visitor Centre @ Osoyoos staff are delighted at the recent news that their Centre and their community got extremely high marks in the latest RVwest Magazine Reader’s Choice Awards.
Osoyoos scored at or near the top in no fewer than three categories in the online and print magazine’s fourth annual opinion survey of top RV destinations in Western Canada and selected U.S. states – including Arizona, California and Texas.
In the magazine’s ranking system of first, second, third and fourth place – designated as medals at the platinum (first), then gold, then silver, and then bronze levels – RVwest readers awarded Osoyoos a gold medal in the Favourite Visitor Information Centre in B.C. category, surpassed only by the Visitor Centre in Golden.
The community of Osoyoos took top spot – platinum – for Favourite Overall Lake or Waterfront Destination in B.C., beating out Shuswap Lake, Okanagan Lake (at Kelowna), and Lake Koocanusa (in East Kootenay).
And in the Favourite Snowbirding RV Destination in B.C., Osoyoos was the only community not on Vancouver Island to take honours – getting a silver medal, coming in behind Nanaimo and Qualicum Beach/Parksville.
RBC THANKS ITS OLYMPIC TORCHBEARERS
The Olympic Torch Relay through Osoyoos and Oliver in late-January was a huge event for the area – and with RBC being a corporate sponsor of the national Relay, a number of staff members from the area’s RBC branch, in Oliver, proudly ran with the Olympic Flame.
RBC Branch Manager Stacey Watson says that, in recognition, her branch hosted a reception on Jan. 23 at Tinhorn Creek Winery to celebrate and thank staff for their involvement. Watson notes, “The torchbearers were chosen for their pledge to make Canada a better place.”
She adds that about 35 local RBC clients and dignitaries attended the fun event – including Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells, Oliver Mayor Patrick Hampson, area MLA John Slater, members of the Osoyoos Olympic Torch Relay Task Force, and Destination Osoyoos Executive Director Jo Knight.
The area RBC event celebrated its staff involvement in the Olympic Torch Relay as it went through the South Okanagan. Joining RBC-sponsored Paralympian and community ambassador Andrea Holmes (third from left) around the Olympic Torch are Oliver branch RBC staffers, from left: Marlene Miller, Gurjit Aujla (torchbearer), Paula Martins (torchbearer), Stacey Watson (RBC Branch Manager), and Nancy Bath. Photo by Norm Watson
OSOYOOS HAS HAD A “CANADA’S WARMEST WELCOME” WINTER!
The winter of 2010 has been exceptional, even by balmy Osoyoos standards – truly living up to its reputation as “Canada’s Warmest Welcome”. In early March, golfers are enjoying summer-like conditions on the two courses in town – the 36-hole championship Osoyoos Golf & Country Club and the 9-hole desert executive Sonora Dunes Golf Course. In fact, Sonora Dunes, pictured above on March 5, has been open throughout the winter, closing only for periods of cool weather and snow in December and January. On March 5, under sunny Osoyoos skies the temperature hit 14.4 degrees Celsius and golfers were in their shirt-sleeves at Sonora Dunes. The course’s new managers, Greg and Mary Bourne, note that winter discount rates are in effect until March 31 and low shoulder-season rates run April 1-May 14. More information is available at www.sonoradunes.com or 250-495-4653.
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