Flashback
- From the 1st Air & Marine Tourism
Conference
by Air HIghways and BC Scene Magazine,
Vancouver, BC
Hotel and Tour Packaging
by
Kevin Walker
 I
grew
up cleaning swimming pools and making
beds, as far back as I can recall, it was
part of my upbringing. I remember a time
18 years ago, when my father, grandfather
and myself were all sharing desks at the
same hotel. The significance of this, is
that family hoteliers today seem to be
somewhat of a dying breed, as hotels are
more and more becoming corporate
entities." In addition to the Oak Bay
Beach Hotel, Walker is owner and General
Manager of Pride of Victoria Cruises.
Launched in 1983, the company operates two
45-passenger whale watching and dinner
cruise boats that sail to the Gulf Island
and San Juan Islands. "It's how we
strategized to advance our interests at
the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, and was a real
opportunity in the early 1980s," he added.
"At
the time, it wasn't really in vogue for a
hotel to participate in a consortium of 4
different companies involved insoft
adventure.Adventure Tourism has since
grown a life of its own, and now we find
tourism buffs very interested in exploring
Eco and Adventure Tourism. It was a
radical new thought, yet we could see the
change taking place in the hotel
marketplace in Victoria, where our Oak Bay
Beach Hotel once shared exclusive rights
to the upper end trade with the Empress.
We recognized the need to do something a
little bit different to allow people to
identify us as an exciting accommodation
experience."...
Putting
it all
together:
As several new upscale hotels entered the
market, Pride of Victoria launched a
modest dinner and luncheon cruise
operation, with a few cruises a day just
for room guests. A year later, Clipper
Navigation began offering a fast catamaran
service between Victoria and Seattle,
which led to the birth of a local
consortium. Kevin's proposal to the 3
companies was as follows. "We've got a
great accommodation spot, you've got the
transportation, and we also have a soft
adventure component we'd like to tag
on.
If we tie
in a rental car company, we've really got
an opportunity for a complete package for
our traveling public". So, they all put a
few thousand dollars into the pot and
launched a successful campaign. It was the
first time the hotel had diligently linked
itself with other companies having
different interests from those of a
hotelier. "That foundation is what we've
built today's success upon," he said.
Walker and partners then created similar
partnerships with airlines, rail tour
companies and attractions. He confirmed
that a very high percentage of today's
customers are now packaged travelers, who
know that one call to a 1-800 line sets
them up for a beautiful 3 or 4 day
vacation.
Views
on the
industry:
The British Columbia & Yukon Hotels'
Association represents over 600 hotels,
which as Walker added, "includes
everything from the CP Waterfront Center,
Hotel Vancouver, Empress, Lakeland Hotel
in Burns Lake, Hudson's Bay Hotel in
Smithers, Inn of the South in Cranbrook,
Penticton Inn, Fairmont Hot springs and
others. Some might say its a very eclectic
mix of accommodation products. I've just
returned from a 5 week tour of BC and the
Yukon, and it's quite a challenge to
address the specific and quite diverse
interests of our hotel members. Part of my
strategy in getting to know them, is to
tour the entire province, meet with
hoteliers and hear their views. I have
some fresh ideas of what is really taking
place in the hotel sector and I must
conclude that this is an industry that is
clearly in transition.
Government
just doesn't get
it.
Tourism, the greater industry we are all a
part of, is clearly becoming a focal point
of job creation and economic growth in the
province. Yet tourism is a product that is
so hard for people to clearly understand.
When I say people, I speak of the many
publics we are addressing as a hotel
association. First of all, government has
a terribly hard time to understand this
thing called tourism. Governments
historically, readily understand a
resource based industry, such as logging,
where we're hauling trees down off the
mountains, turning them into 2x4s, houses
or whatever else we might build. That's a
very easy industry to
identify."
On
selling
tourism:
"What are we really selling when we're
selling tourism? Is it good times, perhaps
rest and relaxation, or maybe we're
selling adventure?" As Walker added, "It's
difficult to hold this product up and say,
"this is what we produced today for our
investment of effort, time and money. So
one of the first challenges we face in the
tourism industry is to be understood by
our colleagues and recognized as a viable
alternative to the creation of jobs, and a
good solid economy for the years to come.
That is clearly where we're headed, and
we're privileged to be part of the
process. I think its very necessary at
symposiums like this, to pause and
consider where we're at in the evolution
or transition our economy is leading us
through."
Terry's
tale hits
home:
His name was Terry and he pulled me aside
just after they'd taken their wedding
vows. "Kevin," he said, "I understand
you're in the tourism industry, I want to
talk to you about it. I've been logging
and working in the Burns Lake mill for
over 20 years, and I see myself retiring
from this industry. I asked myself, why do
you want to talk about tourism? I've got
three boys. I've been thinking about these
guys, and I'm not going to give up my job
at the mill for them. I don't think
anybody else at the mill is going to give
up their jobs. What are my sons going to
do when they start looking for a job? I
hated to have to send them down to
Vancouver when they love it up here. Quite
frankly I don't know anybody that can
track moose and bear like my boys. Do you
think there is an opportunity? Can I get
plugged in somewhere that we could start
operating some business where my boys can
be the guides?
"Terry,"
I said, " you need to link up with
somebody that's already tapped into that
market. We've got Europeans by the tens of
thousands, who want to buy a product like
that in Northern British Columbia. Guys
like you are what those wholesalers are
looking for, because you're really the
experts. And what better experience for
our room guest from Germany have than to
meet a born and raised twin brother 18 or
19 years old who's been tracking moose for
the last 10 years near Tweedsmuir Park.
The most wonderful thing about this, is
that all they really want to shoot is
their cameras, and they'll take home an
experience they won't soon
forget.
We are
trying to get Terry linked in so that
there can be some opportunity for his
boys. And I would suspect there are
thousands of these highly skilled
individuals looking at tourism for their
future. As an industry, the hotel business
is primed and ready to linkup with air
carriers, and marine transportation
carriers. We've been working very closely
with BC Ferries. One hotelier in Kamloops
said to them, "You've got to get another
ferry running between Prince Rupert and
Port Hardy. What interest would you have
in ferry way up in that part of the
province.? Let me educate you. I have tour
wholesalers wanting to move bus loads of
Europeans through the interior of BC
circling up to Rupert, back across along
the islands to Port Hardy, and we can't
get them on the ferry, there isn't enough
capacity."
As
an industry we're looking at the
infrastructure and that means
transportation needs, and we're looking at
convenient ways of packaging these
products, linking various product sectors
into one travel experience for the public.
I'm committed to that as our goal as an
industry over the next few years. And I'm
sure that will continue on into the new
millennium and I appreciate that there are
so many of my own colleagues sharing those
same goals.
Kevin
Walker
Kevin
Walker is Past President of COTA (Council
of Tourism Associations) and Past
President BC & Yukon Hotels' Ass'n.
Mr. Walker was a speaker at Air Highways
Air & Marine Tourism Conference. Our
site is proud to carry COTA
News
Reports
to the industry.
Coming in this space: Kevin Walker's
Comments on the state of Tourism in
British Columbia from recent media
interviews and talks at the BC Yukon
Hotels Association Convention and the BC
Business Summit, which was attended by our
editors. In this same edition is Mr.
Walker's personal story
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