(File photo)

 

Sophie Gray

Local Journalism Initiative

Tourism associations across the South Okanagan are forming an alliance to better tackle the future of tourism in the area which relies on heavily on visitor dollars each year.

Destination Osoyoos, the Oliver Tourism Association and Travel Penticton, along with tourism organizations from other South Okanagan and Similkameen destinations, announced last week that they have come together to form the South Okanagan Tourism Alliance. 

The aim of the alliance is to bring together resources and information from each community to plan a marketing campaign for a post-COVID-19 world, said the press release announcing the new alliance.

Ian Lobb, tourism director at the Oliver Tourism Association, said he’s excited about the alliance for when the time comes to welcome visitors to the Okanagan again.

“We have so much commonality between the South OK, (with) all the different communities that are there. It gives us an opportunity to share that information, pool our resources, whether that be information of funding, anything we can do to sort of help create a voice for messaging when this is through,” he said. 

Lobb believes that there will be a movement back to “load up the station wagon or the Volkswagen Van” type of tourism because families will feel safer road tripping in the Okanagan than flying internationally. 

But the newly formed association wants to make it clear that this planning is for the future, and has no intention of bringing people to the Okanagan right now.

“It’s not just for right now, it’s for when things start up again. But also, long-term side, it will help us I think collectively support four seasons in the valley,” said Lobb.

He said all the tourism associations involved in the South Okanagan Tourism Alliance are closely following recommendations by provincial health authorities and have no intention of launching marketing campaigns until the time is right. For now, said Lobb, they are focused on supporting local businesses and those within small communities while they continue to strategize for the future.

“It’s not about saying ‘Oliver is open for business right now.’ I think first and foremost and for all of us really, we’re trying really to work locally right now and really focus on each community,” said Lobb. “And then realizing when the time is right, not now, but when the time is right, say OK let’s open up outside of our town, let’s move from there to sub-regionally, let’s move to regional, so forth.”

Tourism impacts a large portion of the economy in most communities in the Okanagan, with many poised to face hard times due to lost revenue this summer under COVID-19 restrictions. Although there is no concrete end date to the message of essential travel only, Lobb said he and the other members of the alliance have a plan to safely bring British Columbians back to the region when it is safe to do so.