NEW ‘GUNLESS’ DVD PROMOTES OSOYOOS

The stunning images of Osoyoos hills and desert, captured last summer for the comedy western movie ‘Gunless’, are no longer just being seen by feature filmgoers in big-screen theatres.  They have now moved right into people’s homes, showing in close-up high-definition just how beautiful this South Okanagan resort area really is.

Destination Osoyoos Executive Director Jo Knight says last week’s release of ‘Gunless’ on widescreen DVD takes the movie’s promotion of Osoyoos to a new level.

“The filming of ‘Gunless’ in Osoyoos in the summer of 2009 was a fantastic experience,” Knight says.  “It brought millions of dollars into our local economy – to local hotels, building material suppliers, restaurants and many other businesses.  It also raised our profile as a highly desirable movie location – with gorgeous scenery, skilled film crews, and great local partnerships that can really help film productions when they’re here.”

Knight says the showing of ‘Gunless’ in movie theatres this spring created a lot of promotion for Osoyoos as a tourism destination – and release of the DVD will now boost the community’s profile to an even greater degree.

She says not only is the Osoyoos landscape featured in the film – the DVD also contains a number of “featurette” mini-films, including one showing impressive footage of Osoyoos and area, and another showing a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of ‘Gunless’ in the hills just west of town along with comments about working in the locale by writer/director William Phillips and stars Paul Gross and Sienna Guillory.  “On top of that, the Osoyoos: Canada’s Warmest Welcome logo is right there on the cover of every DVD, and Destination Osoyoos (DO) receives a thank-you credit at the end of the movie.”

Knight notes that, as the Osoyoos area’s “destination marketing organization”, DO partnered with a number of organizations and local businesses to help the production of ‘Gunless’ run smoothly.  She credits the Okanagan Film Commission with doing the excellent scouting and advance work which attracted the film to Osoyoos.  Once ‘Gunless’ was set for shooting in Osoyoos, DO helped arrange accommodations for the 100-member cast and production crew, found space for some of the set-assembly work, and provided additional area publicity during filming and at the time of the feature film’s release in April.

“It was exciting for me to attend the Vancouver film premiere and to have DO play a major role in organizing the community’s premiere of the movie at the Oliver Theatre this spring,” Knight says.  “It is gratifying to see the benefits that came to town during filming, and we will continue to see the tourism marketing benefits for months and years to come, thanks to the DVD.”

In ‘Gunless’, a notorious American gunslinger, the Montana Kid (Paul Gross), is on the run from bounty hunters in the 1880s and finds himself in the tiny western Canadian town of Barclay’s Brush, unable to find a pistol for a gunfight.  Gross told media during filming that the Osoyoos location was perfect for the kind of hot, dry look the moviemakers wanted in ‘Gunless’. “It’s one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and I'd come back here in a heartbeat," Gross said.

‘Gunless’ was produced by Rhombus Media and Brightlight Pictures, and is distrubed by Alliance (Universal).  An online review by the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell notes that ‘Gunless’ has “a sublime soundtrack by Blue Rodeo stalwart Greg Keelor and evocative lensing by cinematographer Gregory Middleton, who makes mountainous Osoyoos, B.C. (where the movie was filmed) look like a scene from a John Ford movie.”  Another review, by Bruce Kirkland in the Toronto Sun, says, “the high-definition Blu-ray showcases how gorgeous Gunless looks ... the high plains desert location, on a British Columbia ranch in Osoyoos, is strikingly fresh, and the production design is startling.”
 

 

LOCAL WORLDHOST CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING CONTINUES

DO Executive Director Jo Knight provides courses for local businesses through her PADDLEOUT business, as part of DO’s delivery of Tourism BC’s renowned customer-service training program, WorldHost.
-----------

As the delivery organization for Tourism BC’s renowned WorldHost customer-service training program, Destination Osoyoos continues to ensure that businesses throughout this South Okanagan resort community provide Canada’s Warmest Welcome to visitors and residents alike.

DO Executive Director Jo Knight says that through her company, PADDLEOUT, she provides training to local business employees in a range of WorldHost courses – including Foundations of Service Excellence, Sales Powered by Service, the Ambassador Workshop, Services Across Cultures, and Customers With Disabilities.  She notes that WorldHost is recognized internationally as offering first-class set customer-service training, not just for tourism- and hospitality-related businesses, but for all types of businesses.

“We just offered another Ambassador Workshop for local people on August 14,” Knight says.  “It’s up to all of us to deliver on Osoyoos’s promise to offer Canada’s Warmest Welcome,” she adds.

Knight says more WorldHost courses will be offered in the fall, and she invites interested company owners, managers or employees to find out more by calling her at 250-495-5070 or jknight@destinationosoyoos.com.

 

 

VISITOR CENTRE STAFF EARN CERTIFICATES

Destination Osoyoos and BC Visitor Centre @ Osoyoos staff continually maintain a high level of training and professionalism, taking courses and attaining levels of accreditation in the tourism industry.  Most recently, Visitor Centre Manager Millie Jarrett (left) and DO Executive Director Jo Knight (right), toasted summer Visitor Experience Specialists J.T. Khaira and Tina Schulte with local sparkling fruit water for the summer staff members’ successful completion of their Tourism Counsellor Certification.

 

 

CREATION OF NEXT TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PLAN SET TO START

With Osoyoos’s first three-year Tourism Market Development Plan (2008-10) set to end on Dec. 31, Destination Osoyoos is wasting no time in launching a consultative process aimed at developing the next plan.

DO has announced that a workshop will be held Sept. 21 to give a major kickoff to development of the second three-year Tourism Market Development Plan, to cover 2011-13.  To add depth and continuity to that process, it will be led by Jennifer Houiellebecq, who led development of Osoyoos’s first plan three years ago when she was a Tourism BC consultant.  She is now Industry Development Specialist for the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA).

DO Executive Director Jo Knight says the workshop will be attended by the full DO Board of Directors, as well as by members of the local Tourism Advisory Committee and representatives of the three main funders of DO – the Town of Osoyoos, the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen, and the NK’MIP Resort Association.  Close to 20 people will attend the consultation and plan-development meeting.

“We want to be proactive and develop the next Tourism Market Development Plan in close collaboration with all of our partners,” Knight says.  “In the past three years, based on our first plan, we have made great progress marketing Osoyoos as an attractive destination.  Now it is time to consider how we can build on that foundation with a new strategic plan that will help us use our resources wisely and effectively.”

The initial 2008-10 plan, unveiled in the spring of 2008, set goals to increase tourism and make Osoyoos a more popular year-round resort area for visitors from around the world.  It has helped to guide the use of annual revenue generated for Osoyoos tourism marketing by the the two-per-cent Additional Hotel Room Tax (AHRT) levied at Osoyoos accommodations since December 2007.

The first Tourism Market Development Plan was created with input from local tourism stakeholders.  It stated that Osoyoos must develop meaningful tourism experiences which respect the area’s natural and cultural heritage, and its economic health, aesthetics, and quality of life. Its initiatives included building awareness of the community’s new brand (Osoyoos: Canada’s Warmest Welcome), generating more media exposure for Osoyoos as a resort destination, and positioning Osoyoos as a destination of choice for meetings and conferences.

 

HARVEST TIME IN OSOYOOS!

As fall approaches, the orchards of Osoyoos, such as this pear orchard on the northern edge of town, are yielding their annual bounty.  Peaches, pears and all varieties of apples are reaching harvest time – a delight for both tourists and residents!

 

OSOYOOS WORKING ON TWO PILOT PROJECTS WITH TOTA

Destination Osoyoos is taking an active role in helping the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) as it works on a number of initiatives to move the industry forward throughout the region.

DO has been involved at the leading edge of two TOTA pilot projects – the Community Unique Features Inventory and the Value of Tourism project.  DO Executive Director Jo Knight says both initiatives are proving to be very worthwhile.

In the Community Unique Features Inventory, DO has been working with Simone Carlysle-Smith, TOTA’s Community Development Specialist, to develop a template which will help communities to list their unique features for use in branding, visitor guide content, media story ideas, web content, and regional profiling.  “For example, two of our unique features include that Osoyoos is home to one of the warmest lakes in Canada, and home to more than 100 at-risk species which live in a desert,” Knight says.

Osoyoos is also involved in the early stages of TOTA’s ‘Value of Tourism’ initiative, working with Industry Development Specialist Jennifer Houiellebecq to develop an inventory of tourism-related products in the community.

 

REFRESHED D.O. WEBSITE COMING THIS FALL

The tourism scene keeps evolving and developing in Osoyoos, and as a result, DO has begun the process of refreshing its website.  In the near future, changes will reflect not only DO’s more focused mandate on tourism marketing, but also its close partnership with tourism-related businesses and organizations in the community.  There will be extensive updating of images and written  material throughout the website.  Watch for the changes later this fall!

 

BOARD PROFILE – PAUL SCANLON, DIRECTOR

If it’s true, as many believe, that tourism development in Osoyoos is at the stage the booming resort community of Whistler was at 10 or 15 years ago, then Destination Osoyoos recently added the perfect person to its Board of Directors.

Paul Scanlon, Hotel Manager at the Watermark Beach Resort, has years of experience managing major resort properties in Whistler, and has a clear vision for what he believes Osoyoos needs to do to develop its tourism industry and its economy.

Born and raised in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, at a young age Scanlon gained work experience in many of the basic jobs at hotels – including night manager, night auditor, and working banquets.  Though he took some courses in criminology at Kwantlen College and Simon Fraser University, he realized his interest was in hotel management, so he completed the two-year Hospitality Administration program at Vancouver Community College.

Scanlon right to work as Guest Services Manager on the pre-opening team at the Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside resort.  Within a few years he was Director of Operations both for that property and the Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre.  And, a couple of years later, he opened the Nita Lake Lodge, at Whistler, as Hotel Manager.

“It’s nice to have both the theoretical training from college and the practical knowledge from my work experience,” he says.

The Watermark position came at just the right time for Scanlon, his wife Michelle, and their two sons Hudson, 5, and Hayden, 3.  “We love the Okanagan and had the idea of ending up in Osoyoos, and even bought into a vacation home near Fintry about four years ago,” Scanlon notes.  With his boys just ready to enter school, the Watermark position was perfect when it was offered to him in the spring of 2009.

Scanlon and family moved to their new home in nearby Oliver in March 2009 and the Watermark Beach Resort opened in late October, on the long-vacant site of the old Osoyoos fruit packinghouse, in the heart of downtown.  At the moment, when the self-professed workaholic isn’t on-site making sure the Watermark is operating at peak performance, Scanlon enjoys his time with his family.  He knows “the Osoyoos area offers everything”, and in the future he wants to take advantage of his great new location.

Based on his years of experience at Whistler, Scanlon knows that three main things need to happen for Osoyoos to develop its tourism sector and its economy – co-operation among the accommodators and tourism businesses, increasing potential visitors’ awareness of the destination, and developing the shoulder seasons.

He believes DO will play a key role in ensuring that potential tourists in key markets like the Okanagan Valley, the Lower Mainland, and the Prairies gain a growing knowlege about the great experiences and amenities offered in Osoyoos.  This will include a real push to promote travel to Osoyoos in the shoulder seasons of May/June and September/October.

Scanlon says that, while in some ways the resorts and hotels in Osoyoos are competitors for business, “we are also partners, and we will all succeed together.  It’s really about the destination.”  For that reason, he sees his joining the DO Board of Directors this past March, along with his involvement on the local Tourism Advisory Committee (TAC), as a positive move.

Scanlon is convinced that more co-operation by the hoteliers and the entire local tourism industry will help to address and solve some of the issues facing the town – such as transportation challenges, affordable housing, the needs of transient agricultural workers, ensuring that Osoyoos has amenities and competitive tourism products for visitors, and that the town is safe for everyone.

“It’s not all going to happen overnight.  There’s a bit of work to do, but we’re definitely going in the right direction.”

 

BOARD PROFILE – TODD MALLEN, DIRECTOR

One of the newest resort managers in Osoyoos, responsible for overseeing the area’s largest luxury accommodation property, brings more than 20 years of resort experience in the Okanagan Valley to the Destination Osoyoos Board of Directors.

Shortly after Todd Mallen was appointed General Manager of Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort in March, Destination Osoyoos drafted the seasoned hospitality professional to add his expertise to the leadership of the area’s destination marketing organization.

Mallen is a second-generation hotelier with an extensive background in condo-resort-hotel management and a passion for exceptional customer service.  He was born in Ontario, raised in western Canada, and graduated from a two-year Hospitality Management program in Saskatoon.  In 1987 he joined the staff of the Lake Okanagan Resort, near West Kelowna, and in 2001 he was named its Resort Manager.

In 2009 Mallen joined Bellstar Hotels & Resorts, the operator of Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and other luxury condo-resorts in western Canada.  Until his appointment to head up Spirit Ridge, he served as Interim General Manager for Bellstar’s properties in the Canmore, Alberta area.  At Spirit Ridge, Mallen oversees operation of a full-service, 4.5-star, 226-unit property with amenities on-site and in the surrounding NK’MIP Resort area including swimming pools, restaurants, a winery, golf course, spa, First Nations cultural centre, fitness centre, marina, and conference facilities.

Mallen is excited to be in Osoyoos and on the DO Board, helping to shape the area’s tourism marketing.  “I bring my experience from being involved in the tourism industry for many years, and my understanding of the Okanagan – including its seasonality and its many wonderful opportunities,” Mallen says.  “I would like to see us focus on developing the shoulder and off seasons, looking at more ways to attract conferences and retreats and seminars to Osoyoos.”

He and wife Leslie have two teenage daughters, Lindsay and Kelsi.  Mallen is an avid golfer and enjoys living in “wine country”.