Tourism Kelowna boss leaving town
Nancy Cameron moving to Vancouver Island after 17 years as CEO of tourism organization
In the 17 years Nancy Cameron has been at the helm of Tourism Kelowna, the city has become a sophisticated wine-golf-ski-waterbeach-hiking-biking-food-shopping-and-adventure destination.
“Overall, I’m most proud of the evolution of the organization in helping generate a robust tourism economy,” said Cameron, who is stepping down as Tourism Kelowna CEO on Aug. 4.
“Marketing Kelowna to the world is challenging, but it’s also immensely fun. It’s an outstanding destination and its our job to get the word out about it.”
Cameron is leaving the organization and Kelowna to move to Nanaimo with her husband, Rick Vincent, who has been transferred there as a project engineer with Island West Coast Developments.
Their two sons are already out of the nest, one living in Victoria and one going to university in Calgary.
Cameron doesn’t have a job lined up in Nanaimo and doesn’t know if she’ll seek a job in tourism marketing there or not.
“I honestly haven’t thought that far ahead,” she said with a laugh.
“This has all happened quickly and I still have a lot going on here.”
That “going on” includes continuing to oversee the spending of Tourism Kelowna’s $3.3million annual budget to market the city as a tourist destination and final approvals for the controversial, some say inspired, move of the Tourist Information Centre from it current home in the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce building at Highway 97 and Ellis Street to the shore at Okanagan Lake at the base of Queensway Avenue.
With the Internet, GPS and smartphone apps, tourists don’t use info centres the way they used to. They don’t drop in for directions and materials at highway locations as they did in the past. They want info centres in hightraffic pedestrian areas in downtowns where they can glean inspiration for experiences.
Tourism Kelowna’s budget will jump to $4 million next year as the Kelowna hotel tax is increased from two per cent to three per cent.
The extra levy on hotel bills is seen as a userpay way of generating marketing money for Tourism Kelowna rather than hitting up local taxpayers.
The hotel tax generates 70 per cent of Tourism Kelowna’s budget, with the rest coming from membership contributions and some government grants.
“Even though Kelowna is an outstanding destination, it always needs to be marketed and the messaging has to be kept up,” said Cameron.
As such, Tourism Kelowna heavily promotes the city in the rest of B.C., Alberta and Washington state.
Travellers in those close-in markets may already know of Kelowna, or have visited here already, but need reminding of what’s new and why they should visit for the first time or again.
Tourism Kelowna also has targeted marketing programs across Canada, the U.S. and around the world.
Tourism Kelowna also has big online and social media presence to tap into the millennial generation, which is made up of avid travellers.
Almost two million people a year visit Kelowna and tourism is one of city’s biggest economic generators spurring $1.25 billion worth of spending annually.