Better signs may attract tourists

Peachland should be more than a pit stop for travellers, members of the town’s tourism committee believe. The town of 5,500 people has one strip mall, anchored by a gas station and grocery store, on Highway 97. But its downtown core, with a variety of shops and restaurants on Beach Avenue, has little visibility from the highway. “There needs to be better signage directing people to downtown,” the town”s tourism promotion committee says in its most recent report. “The business signage on the highway is not comprehensive and some of it is out of date, with old signs.” Committee members, led by Coun. Pam Cunningham, suggest the municipality look at installing some kind of eyecatching electronic signage along the highway, similar to those that direct highway travellers into the downtown areas of Summerland and Lake Country. Despite its idyllic setting along the shore of Okanagan Lake, tourism-related projects in Peachland have had something of an uneven history in recent years. A paddle festival lasted only one year, a scarecrow festival lasted two years, an Oktoberfest festival was cancelled before it began due to poor ticket sales, and a Long Table festival planned for this August has already been cancelled. Local residents Bruce and Linda Lea Klippenstein recently approached the tourism committee to ask its support for Lake Okanagan Ogopogo Marketing Society, described as a way to proÀt from the legendary serpent. “The Klippensteins have done a great deal of work on their project, however we felt the idea had not been developed enough to support at this time,” tourism committee members say. Ideas being considered include proclaiming the town to be the Canadian home of icewine.