Gail Scott was a recent guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Osoyoos. (Richard McGuire file photo)
Osoyoos needs to diversify its economy away from dependence on tourism by seeking other industries including manufacturing.
That’s the message delivered by Gail Scott, managing director of Destination Osoyoos (DO) in a recent talk to the Rotary Club of Osoyoos. Scott assumed her role at the end of April.
“To be a healthy community you should never put all your marketing efforts into just one industry sector,” said Scott, who has worked as a community economic development professional for more than 25 years in both the government and non-government sectors.
The tourist industry in Osoyoos was hurt by the economic downturn of 2008-09, Scott said, because people were more cautious about spending their money on hotels and dining out when the economy was slow.
This left Osoyoos vulnerable, she said.
“You have to have more balance,” said Scott. “It’s a healthy way to approach community growth.”
This message at first glance might seem surprising coming from the managing director of an organization best known for trying to attract visitors to Osoyoos. However, it reflects a broadened mandate for DO to promote economic development within the town.
It also reflects Scott’s own professional background, in which she worked to diversity the economy of such communities as Kamloops and Olds, Alta.
Scott remains committed to tourism, but she’s looking at ways to promote it during the off-peak shoulder season when there are fewer visitors to Osoyoos.
Her suggestion that Osoyoos should pursue manufacturing drew a few skeptical comments from Rotarians after she left, but Scott defends the idea.
“There’s different kinds of manufacturing,” she said after the meeting. “They all don’t have to be noisy or creating some kind of emission. There’s manufacturing of baby food, for example, that doesn’t cause any of that.
“You have to look at the types of businesses that would be appropriate to try to attract. We don’t want to attract any smokestacks. We don’t want to attract things that are not going to be appealing to our community, but certainly you would not turn around and ignore good-wage creating jobs and diversification so that you don’t have all your eggs in one basket.”
Scott is preparing for a strategic planning session in September when DO’s board will discuss economic development along with various community stakeholders.
The session will use an experienced facilitator and will look at what DO has been doing to market the community. Participants will also brainstorm about potential economic development projects.
“Strategic planning is basically looking at what your strengths and opportunities and weakness and threats are and being able then to go through those and prioritize what are the most important for the community,” she said.
DO will invite representation from such stakeholders as the Town of Osoyoos, Osoyoos Indian Band, the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen and the South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce at the strategic planning session, Scott said.
Among other initiatives that Scott spoke about with Rotarians is her talks with Budget Car Rental aimed at setting up a car rental location in Osoyoos.
Without a regular day-to-day transportation system, people flying to the area through Kelowna often experience transportation difficulties, she said. A rental company wouldn’t necessarily attract more visitors to Osoyoos, but it could encourage people to stay longer, she said.
“We have found that one of the things visitors are telling us is it would be nice if they could rent a car and they could go and look at more things,” said Scott.
People might be more inclined to extend their stay at Osoyoos resorts if they could do circle tours to other places such as historic sites at Greenwood or Midway, she said.
DO is also discussing the possibility of organizing events to attract more visitors during the shoulder season, Scott said.
Among ideas being considered are a rib cook-off festival and an expanded oyster festival to include other kinds of seafood.
Oysterfest currently attracts visitors in April. Other food festivals could be held in such months as November or March, outside of the peak tourist season, she suggested.
DO is also looking at ways to promote Osoyoos for destination weddings and doing more to attract snowbirds from other parts of Canada during the winter months.
“We’re very busy during the high season … but in November through to the end of April or May it’s much quieter for us,” said Scott, adding that destination weddings and snowbirds can be attracted during those quieter months.
“We are trying to attract residents of Canada that may not be ready or wanting to go over the border for five months.”
People may just be seeking a better climate, but they may have health or insurance reasons for not wanting to cross the border, she said.
While tourism and agriculture are important to the local economy, Osoyoos must try to be more than an event community, Scott said.
“There has to be a diversification that allows our highly skilled young people … to live in the community where they grew up,” she said. “They can’t live here if there aren’t job opportunities. We have to create some kind of diversification that makes it attractive for people of all ages and supports the education levels and training that our young population has today.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
