VISITING WRITER/PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKE IN OSOYOOS CELEBRATIONS
At right, Mhairri Cuthbert and Curt Woodhall, of Arrivals Travel
Destination Osoyoos hosts familiarization tours (‘FAM’ tours) throughout the year for a large number of visiting travel tour operators and travel media – and the latest media FAM tour showed off Osoyoos at its celebratory best!
DO hosted Arrivals Travel writer/photographers Curt Woodhall and Mhairri Cuthbert for four days, including the Canada Day Cherry Fiesta parade, events and massive fireworks show for which it’s so well known. The pair, who have toured more than 20 countries and who provide captivating stories and compelling photography to magazines and other travel media, were on assignment to do a feature on Osoyoos for BC Living magazine.
DO Executive Director Jo Knight says Woodhall and Cuthbert spent June 30-July 3 in this South Okanagan resort town seeing and enjoying all that it has to offer – including the Cherry Fiesta, winery tours, waterskiing, dinner at a number of local restaurants, a visit to the local brew-pub, and even a look-see at the unique telescope-equipped Observatory B&B. Like everyone, they loved the fireworks, writing: “They were awesome, as good as Vancouver’s Symphony of Fire...”
Knight was able to interview the two for a segment on CIRO 106.5 FM – Osoyoos’ community information radio station. And, she says that, as often happens when people visit, the two became so enamoured with this South Okanagan resort town that they have vowed to come back every summer to keep on top of what’s new and exciting.”
PHOTOGRAPHY IS UNDERWAY FOR THE 2011 VISITOR GUIDE
DO never stops its production work on materials and initiatives aimed at promoting Osoyoos to the world. Pictured above, veteran Okanagan-based photographer Don Weixl and MJO Communications account manager Diana Byskov, recently helped to co-ordinate the photographing of 32 area people who will be the community ambassadors, known as the Faces of Osoyoos, featured in the 2011 Osoyoos Visitor Guide, on the DO website, and in other materials and campaigns promoting tourism for Osoyoos. This year’s ‘Faces’ group even includes Leon the Gopher Snake, a star of the snake shows at the nearby NK’MIP Desert Cultural Centre.
DO Executive Director Jo Knight sends out a special thanks to all the ambassadors for taking the time to come out and represent their community in this way. And, she says, next year’s Visitor Guide will be better than ever. “Our goal is to increase the value of our Guide by listening to the visitors themselves, so we are adding two new features and expanding on our popular features!”
CIRO RADIO INCREASING ITS PROGRAM OFFERINGS
Again this year, CIRO 106.5 FM provided a simultaneous broadcast of the musical score which accompanied the spectacular Osoyoos Canada Day fireworks show. Ken Repkow, of the Master Factory Studio, composed and engineered the music to accompany the fireworks produced by Frank Zandvliet. Photo by the Ace Film Company
CIRO 106.5 FM – the radio station operated by Destination Osoyoos to provide community information to visitors and residents – is now three years old, and it continues to increase and upgrade its program offerings.
The station – approved by the CRTC in mid-2007 to offer community information and to maintain its frequency for emergency broadcasts if necessary – offers hours of recorded interviews and information focused on the community, region, and the Province featuring attractions, information services, and events. 
DO Executive Director Jo Knight and IT & CIRO Technician Keith Calder produce CIRO’s programs which include interviews with local pioneers, musicians, poets, business people, and spotlights on upcoming events and special activities – and which have even included an interview with B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell.
Knight notes that two of the latest feature interviews have been with Bob Etienne, interpreter with the NK’MIP Desert Cultural Centre, and Jessie Martin, a fishing expert who thinks Osoyoos Lake is a great fishing spot and who also hosts a regular monthly fishing show on CIRO Radio called The Avid Angler.
Knight says CIRO is now looking at expanding its programming line-up and is exploring sponsorship opportunities with local businesses. “We want to keep improving our line-up of current, accurate information on CIRO, and do it in an entertaining way.”
Some of CIRO’s interviews and other programs are now also being provided as podcasts on the DO website. People who are organizing local events or who have interesting community-related information to pass along are invited to contact Keith Calder at CIRO 106.5-FM – at 250-495-5070 (ext 204) or kcalder@destinationosoyoos.com.
D.O. GETTING GREAT NEW IMAGES TO PROMOTE OSOYOOS
At right, Allen Jones, of the Ace Film Company.
Many people know Osoyoos is gorgeous – but Destination Osoyoos wants everyone to know! It is determined to show the scenic wonders of this South Okanagan resort community off far and wide in order to help attract visitors.
DO took a great step forward in that effort earlier this month when it arranged for renowned photographer, director and videographer Allen Jones, president of the Ace Film Company, to spend more than a day in town shooting top-quality images of local events and attractions. The goal was to build up a quantity of exciting new still photographs for DO’s publications, website and online image bank, and high-definition video footage for a revision of the Osoyoos promotional video.
DO made the most of an opportunity extended by the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) and the Ace Film Company to have Jones capture images of Osoyoos. TOTA has commissioned Ace Film to shoot footage of locations throughout the Thompson Okanagan region – and communities that want to can book Jones for additional filming in their areas, at a lower cost than would otherwise be available. A number of communities have taken advantage of the offer.
WORLDHOST TRAINING CONTINUING TO BE OFFERED
Destination Osoyoos continues to arrange for the offering of the renowned WorldHost customer-service training programs for businesses in the hospitality and tourism industries. Courses offered locally include Foundations of Service Excellence, Sales Powered by Service, the Ambassador Workshop, Services Across Cultures, and Customers With Disabilities.
DO is currently scheduling workshops for the upcoming months. For more information about the workshops, contact Jo Knight, DO Executive Director, 250-495-5070 or jknight@destinationosoyoos.com.
PROFILE – D.O. BOARD SECRETARY-TREASURER PETER BUESCHKENS
Peter Bueschkens
Peter Bueschkens is a veteran hotel manager who brings decades of tourism-related experience and a passion for Osoyoos to the Destination Osoyoos Board of Directors.
Born in Victoria and raised in North Vancouver, Bueschkens knew early on that he wanted to work in the hospitality industry. With that discipline not being offered in Canadian universities in the early 1970s, he went to Germany where he earned a BA in Hotel Management and worked as an apprentice.
In 1974 he returned to Canada, working first at the famed Banff Springs Hotel. For the past 35 years Bueschkens has held increasingly senior levels at a number of major hotel properties. He worked at the downtown Vancouver Holiday Inn (Harbourview), was manager of the Regent Hotel in Victoria for a number of years, and oversaw operations for West Coast Resorts’ five floating salmon-fishing lodges in the Queen Charlotte Islands and Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. More recently, he managed Manning Park Lodge and ski area.
In 2007 Bueschkens moved to Osoyoos to become General Manager of the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites. “I’ve been an Osoyoos fan for many years, and bought a house in town long before moving here. Who doesn’t love Osoyoos? It’s an awesome place!”
Bueschkens not only thrives on directing a major property in this booming South Okanagan resort community, he also loves it because it’s a great place to pursue his recreational activities. “I’m an outdoors enthusiast – skiing at Mt. Baldy and Apex Mountain, fly fishing and hiking.” He is proud of the fact that his hotel sponsors the now-annual Osoyoos bass fishing tournament every September, and notes that it is a growing attraction. He is also an active local Shriner, helping to raise money for the B.C. Children’s Hospital and the Portland Children’s Burn Unit. And he sits on the Osoyoos Tourism Advisory Committee (TAC), which provides input on spending of the approximately $200,000 Osoyoos receives each year from the 2% Additional Hotel Room Tax (AHRT) levied by local accommodations.
Bueschkens got involved with Destination Osoyoos because he feels strongly about the organization’s key role in helping all Osoyoos businesses join in the effort to promote tourism for this community. “DO is important to all of us because it’s going to be the catalyst for launching awareness.” He is glad to see a number of the managers of local accommodations now on the Destination Osoyoos board, noting they all see the need to work together to promote travel to town.
“The real thrust of what I see is that we’re not competing with each other – we’re competing with other destinations. We want people to come here instead of Las Vegas or Vancouver – we want them to ‘stay and play’ here.” And Bueschkens says that since it offers just about everything for visitors – including eco-tours, golf, hiking, parasailing, wine, and sightseeing – Osoyoos isn’t a tough sell. But he believes that to take local tourism to the next level, all local businesses must see their role in the promotion effort.
“We have to encourage all of our stakeholders to participate, including the smaller businesses, because everyone is connected to our tourism-based economy,” Bueschkens says. “We need all the local attractions to take part in promoting all the things we have here that will attract people to come to Osoyoos.” He is confident that DO can help to bring about this co-ordinated and more effective effort. “That’s where it’s going, and it will come.”
PROFILE – D.O. BOARD MEMBER CAM BISSONNETTE
Cam Bissonnette
Having lived in Osoyoos for most of his life and being involved in two of the town’s most visible businesses, Cam Bissonnette knows Osoyoos as well as anyone. The new member of the Destination Osoyoos Board of Directors got involved with DO because he wanted to bring that knowledge and love of his hometown to the community’s tourism promotion effort.
Born in Vancouver, Bissonnette was a young boy when his parents moved the family to Osoyoos in 1978 to take over the local Husky House gas station, restaurant and truck stop on Highway 97. In the mid-1980s the family sold that business and entered the duty-free business which was just getting started across Canada. In 1986 they opened the Osoyoos Duty Free shop at the Canada-U.S. border just south of town.
Bissonnette says his parents and others across the country “created the duty-free industry to keep money in Canada and employee people.” The stores sell a wide variety of goods – including brand name fashions, jewellery, leather goods, crystal, wine, spirits, perfumes, and a range of electronic and photographic merchandise – with no duty or taxes applied. Canadians entering the U.S. may bring up to a certain value of the duty-free goods back into Canada without paying duty or taxes on them, depending upon the length of stay out of the country.
Bissonnette took his schooling in Osoyoos and then in 1993 earned his Marketing Diploma from what was then Okanagan University College, in Kelowna. He immediately brought his skills back to the family business, going to work full-time work at the Osoyoos Duty Free shop. His family also owns the Duty Free shop at the Kingsgate border crossing, south of Cranbrook. He became very involved in Canada’s national group – the Frontier Duty Free Association – which represents 36 duty free stores at the border, at airports, and some major product suppliers. Bissonnette has served on the Association’s executive, helping to represent the interests of the industry when government considers the various regulations that govern it.
Bissonnette and wife Kelsi are both involved in the Osoyoos Golf & Country Club, and Kelsi owns and operates the local company Breathe Studio, a full-service yoga, pilates and core cycling facility located in the Main Street retail space at Watermark Beach Resort. Their children – Liam, 10, and Sophie, 7 – are both involved in hockey, and Bissonnette sometimes helps with the coaching.
He says that early this year, when the Destination Osoyoos mandate focused more on tourism promotion, he became interested in getting involved. “I’m in a tourism-based business, and Osoyoos has been great to my family. You want to help out, and I hope I am bringing something to the table.”
CHECK OUT D.O. & OSOYOOS TOURISM ON FACEBOOK!
Catch the latest buzz about what’s happening on the Osoyoos tourism scene by checking in with the Destination Osoyoos site on Facebook. DO’s CIRO Radio & IT Technician Keith Calder updates the Facebook pages frequently with new photos, event notices, newsy tidbits, and links to related activities and organizations. Check it out at: facebook.destinationosoyoos.com
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