Penticton aiming to fill out events calendar
Filling the calendar and building the city’s brand are among six principles now enshrined in Penticton’s new event hosting framework.
The plan, which builds off a 2010 sports tourism strategy, was approved by city council unanimously at its meeting Tuesday.
Much has changed in the 14 years since the original strategy was created, said Jeff Plant, the city’s sport and event supervisor, including Travel Penticton taking responsibility for meetings and conventions and OVG360, which operates the South Okanagan Events Centre complex, handling stadium events.
“The City of Penticton has undertaken parallel work in the events sector, but does not currently have an events strategy,” said Plant during his presentation to council.
The new framework is based on six principles: fill the events calendar; balance the genre of events; refine the process; build legacies, champion the environment; and build the city’s brand.
The city has already committed to providing approximately $1 million in grants to various events in each of the next five years, according to Plant’s report. The largest annual commitment is $410,000 for IRONMAN Canada.
The strategy also notes such big events are created four ways: building it, buying it, bidding on it, or bringing it from somewhere else.
Coun. Amelia Boultbee suggested more focus on building and bidding.
“I’m opposed to the $400,000 that we’re paying IRONMAN, for instance,” said Boultbee.
There were no estimates provided Tuesday of how much economic activity taxpayers can expect in return for their financial support of events. Plant himself acknowledged such numbers -- even those derived from industry standard models -are “notoriously debatable.”
“The value of that for us is not in the absolute value of the (economic impact) that’s generated but it’s the fact that the process is apples-to-apples comparison for events,” explained Plant.