Gail Scott, Destination Osoyoos managing director, introduced a draft plan to promote tourism and economic development at the recent DO AGM. (Richard McGuire photo)
Destination Osoyoos (DO) will be turning its attention to affordable housing and downtown revitalization.
A new DO board voted to establish task teams to look into those two areas at a board meeting following the organization’s annual general meeting last Thursday.
Another initiative to look into using electric vehicles to transport visitors and local residents was defeated.
“I’m disappointed,” said Gail Scott, DO managing director, who put the electric vehicle idea forward. “It wasn’t voted as a highest priority. The highest priority certainly is housing and downtown revitalization first. They didn’t say it wasn’t needed. It’s just not right now. We can only do so much.”
Scott wanted to look into the viability of having two 12-seat electric shuttles to take people through the town as well as having an electric car-sharing pool offered through the major resorts.
The housing task team will be jointly led by builder Len McLean and new board member Chad Jensen, of South Okanagan Concrete Products.
The downtown revitalization task team will be headed by new board member Michelle Quail, from Osoyoos Credit Union.
The housing team will be looking at resorts like Whistler and Canmore to see how they deal with housing for workers in the hospitality industry, Scott said.
“They have made it work very successfully,” she said. “We should not be operating at 75 per cent level for these hotels in the middle of summer. We should be operating 100 per cent. We were operating at 75 per cent because we can’t hire the staff because they can’t get into housing.”
Scott said she’s excited that Quail, business development officer at the Osoyoos Credit Union, has joined the board, calling her a “firecracker.” Quail spearheaded the “Trick or Treat Mainstreet” event last Halloween.
“She brings a wealth of experience, a wealth of energy and she knows all the businesses,” said Scott. “So I’m really looking forward to working with her. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to keep up with her.”
The AGM, attended by about 30 people, saw two new directors elected to fill the places of two directors whose terms were up for renewal.
Jensen and Quail were newly elected from five candidates and they replace Annina Hoffmeister and Richard Cooper.
Scott also presented a PowerPoint at the AGM outlining DO’s background, structure and funding, as well as a draft five-year strategic business plan.
The plan identifies several tourism segments for DO to pursue. These include media familiarization (fam) tours aimed at key media from target markets such as Vancouver and Calgary, destination weddings, Chinese tourists, fishing and motorcycle tourism.
Scott said DO has already been working to promote Osoyoos as a wedding destination and generated 200 leads from bridal shows in Calgary and Vancouver.
“We also recognize that motorcycle touring has huge potential,” Scott said. “That’s because of the baby boomers retiring early and they’ve got a fair amount of money to purchase wonderful toys. It’s a big market and we’re not the only ones to know that. The Pacific Northwest knows that and we’ve got probably some of the best touring routes you could find in Canada that run down through the Pacific Northwest and up through Vancouver.”
Route 97 is especially popular for motorcyclists, she said.
DO will focus its tourism attraction on target markets of Vancouver, Seattle and Calgary as well as Asia as an international market, capitalizing on the dollar exchange rate advantage for U.S. tourists.
“We are starting to see an increase in our Chinese visitors into Osoyoos,” she added, noting that DO has been doing Chinese language marketing, some of it directed at Chinese media in Vancouver.
DO, however, isn’t just focused on tourism, and Scott emphasized the importance of economic diversification.
The new directors bring experience that will help to develop other types of business opportunities, she said.
As well, the town has chosen Martin Connolly for a non-paid, volunteer position as an economic development voting director on DO from the town, Scott said.
Connolly has 33 years of experience in economic development, working with Western Economic Diversification Canada at the federal level.
Don Brogan was re-elected as chair of DO’s board at the AGM and Rob Rausch was re-elected as vice chair. Peter Bueschkens replaces Paul Scanlon as treasurer.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
