By Jaime Polmateer
Tourism Wells Gray will benefit from a grant provided by Community Futures that will go toward the tourism organization’s marketing plans for the year.
The $15,000 donation came after local consultations following last year’s wildfires when Community Futures learned the degree tourism in the area had been impacted.
Community Futures is an organization throughout rural BC with a mandate for small business and community economic development.
Stephanie Molina, marketing manager for Tourism Wells Gray, said some of the consultations focused on marketing and bringing more visitors to Wells Gray Country, which would in turn bring in added revenue across the local economy.
“We’re really excited and grateful to receive $15,000 and we have quite the list of initiatives that we’ll be using the funds for,” Molina said.
“We’ll also be using some of the funds to augment a digital campaign we have planned for later in the summer—we’re really trying to focus on the shoulder season of the fall.”
Molina explained “shoulder seasons” are the times that land on either end of the main tourism season, which for Tourism Wells Gray happen to be spring and fall.
This summer is looking promising from a tourism perspective, she added, so the grant will help her organization’s digital campaign target additional key markets, some outside Canada, like the U.S., markets in Europe and as far away as Australia.
Some of the funding will also go to the Wells Gray Park Visitor Centre after it went through a six per cent drop in activity after the wildfires.
“They’re still the busiest in B.C., despite the drop, but the funding will help with some new displays for the front of the visitor centre, which will help especially for the hours they’re closed, because people arrive at all times of the day,” Molina said.
Another plan Tourism Wells Gray has for the grant is to bring a travel trade specialist from the Thompson-Okanagan Tourism Association to teach any interested local businesses how to work with travel companies.
Businesses in the community can learn how to sell products and experiences wholesale, which Molina said can have a positive impact on the volume of sales businesses have as well as the types of markets and areas they can reach.
“Some other things we’ll be working on with the funding is social media and brand training for operators; we’ll be bringing in another specialist to do training so people will have their google listings up to date, will know how to manage TripAdvisor profiles and basic tips for their social media accounts,” she added.
“We find that some businesses do this really well and some may need a helping hand and that’s certainly an important touch point on the path to purchase for visitors.”
Wells Gray Tourism generally operates on a modest budget, so the $15,000 grant is significant and Molina said the organization wants to use it as efficiently as possible.
Another thing the funds are earmarked for is raising awareness and promoting a few events being held over the summer.
Some of the events include a disc golf tournament, wilderness and survival training at Wolf Wood Survival School, a kayak festival as well as just making sure visitors and tourists know of some of the recreation happening in the area so they can take part.
“The last one I’m really excited about is a partnership with tourism Kamloops; we sometimes host different travel companies or media and on June 20 the first direct flight from Toronto to Kamloops will be arriving,” she said.
“Air Canada has offered to set aside some seats for Toronto media like the Globe and Mail and the National Post and they’ll be doing a tour in Kamloops, Sun Peaks and up to Wells Gray, so some of the funds will be used to host that media group here to see a few of the highlights in the area and hopefully cover them for the Ontario press.”
All in all Molina said the grant was positive news for Tourism Wells Gray and will make a big difference in achieving its marketing goals, which should have an impact right into the 2019 season.