Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce has seen some growth in marketing dollars that are made possible from the Revelstoke Accommodations Association (RAA) to help promote our community has a holiday destination.
Since the inception in 2008, the RAA provided $187,223.00 to the table to help draw more awareness to our ski hill and excellent extra curricular activities. As of 2017, that dollar amount has shot up and over $700,000. That is a difference of over $500,000 between 2008 and 2017. These dollars are what allow for the tourism sector of the chamber of Commerce reach the arm out beyond the walls of the Interior and stretch the word of our community not only nationally, but internationally.
Who are we targeting to visit our slice of heaven? Primarily in Canada, those living with British Columbia and Alberta are who the Chamber zero in on. Heading south, the areas of focus in the United states are Washington, Oregon and California. Secondary campaigning is headed east to Ontario, Saskatchewan and Quebec City.
When it comes to travel, all walks of life find their way to Mackenzie Avenue to take in the small town charm, but who are these travellers? The Chamber focuses on active Millennials who are key winter travellers and for Zoomers (Active Baby Boomers) for shoulder season as well as the summer months.
Since the inception of the ski hill, the main focus was the high octane, high impact thrill ride destination place to be. While that is still designed for a certain target audience, the Chamber is also considering those that like to casually enjoy their surroundings with nature walks, bird watching and just overall a leisurely trip in the mountains.
Executive Director of the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce Jana Thompson stated that “Our visitors centre is seeing increase month after month and averaging 8% increase a year, including our shoulder seasons. Phone calls and emails have already begun for this summer and we expect it to be busier than last year. We have no reason to believe it won’t be.”
Last year marked Canada’s 150th Birthdate and Canadian citizens were all issued a free pass to all the major National Parks. Revelstoke saw an increase of visitors because of these passes, the good news with that is the Federal Government did a lot of advertising of the parks and drew a lot of awareness to our cozy little corner.
“Canada 150 really boosted us, it was very busy and we fully expect to be busy this summer because of the awareness of last year.”
While the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce has gone through numerous changes over the past 20 years from a mainstay focus on retail shops in the downtown core to tourism of today, Thompson wants the community to know the Chamber is here for the locals.
“We want to promote and uplift businesses. If they have an event going on, let us know. We can help spread the word, if their is a community event, bottle drive, kids activity, soccer tournament, these actives are welcomed on our free community calendar.”
Thompson went on to share that the Chamber is here to represent the people of this community and act on their behalf on a Municipal or Provincial level about concerns that that one may have about the betterment of society and the community.
The Revelstoke Current utilizes the Chamber of Commerce Events Calendar. If you have any event in our community that you would like on the Chamber/Current events page, please email: Events@revelstokechamber.com
