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Nanaimo expecting overflow tourism as Victoria hotels fill up for summer

Tourism Nanaimo reports to council on plans and expectations for coming season
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Tourism Nanaimo anticipates the city could see an overflow of visitors who would have otherwise gone to Victoria or Tofino as those communities see accommodations filling up. (Nanaimo Bulletin photo)

Tourism Nanaimo is optimistic about this summer season based on what operators reported last year and because of an expected overflow of visitors intended for Victoria or Tofino.

During the city council meeting on Monday, April 25, Tourism Nanaimo’s interim executive director Jenn Houtby-Ferguson provided council with a tourism update, as well as a brief on preliminary market research findings. She also stood in for Dan Brady, executive director of the Nanaimo Hospitality Association, to provide the association’s activity update and performance report.

“The key findings from that was that Nanaimo was a ‘gateway’ or ‘stop’ – people weren’t coming here to stay. And we want to shift that. We want to shift from being a gateway to being a destination for travel,” she said.

Efforts to develop a distinct identity for the city might include “embracing the history” and “sharing the uniqueness” of the community, she said, with emphasis on the mining history and working port downtown.

Houtby said many tourism operators reported that July and August last year were “among the strongest ever,” despite COVID-19 travel restrictions.

“We recognize that international visitation was down, but we did see a lot of domestic visitation and we saw a lot of folks from other parts of the Island – other parts of British Columbia visiting our community. And that’s extremely positive. We expect that to continue,” she said.

Future market research priorities would also focus on figuring out who the city’s visitors are, and if those visitor profiles have changed as a result of COVID-19. Houtby-Ferguson said the organization plans to use the data to inform campaigns for this and future years.

She said goals for the municipal and regional district tax plan, commonly referred to as the hotel tax, include “increasing overnight visitation, supporting product development, developing industry partnerships, the marketing of public relations, community pride and accountability.”

In reference to what else Nanaimo’s visitors are looking for, she said an aspect she is proud of is the organization’s continued focus on accessibility assessments.

READ MORE: No cruise ships scheduled to come to Nanaimo this year

When asked by Coun. Ian Thorpe if Nanaimo is being considered “the centre of a wheel” as a place for visitors to stay while exploring other parts of the Island, Houtby-Ferguson confirmed the idea was something the NHA was doing as a strategic priority for the summer.

“Tofino and Victoria are already at a place where they can’t accept additional visitors at this time. People can day-trip from Nanaimo – we’ve re-positioned some of our itineraries to help people understand what can they see on the way,” she said. “They could stay in Nanaimo and hopefully that would mean that they would extend their stay in Nanaimo. So instead of being here, let’s say for two or three nights, perhaps they might be with us for seven nights. And they could use Nanaimo as their jumping-off point.”

READ MORE: B.C. tourism sector targets ‘Mission Possible’ during virtual conference


mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com

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Mandy Moraes

About the Author: Mandy Moraes

I joined Black Press Media in 2020 as a multimedia reporter for the Parksville Qualicum Beach News, and transferred to the News Bulletin in 2022
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