ComObje PrepCom April

ox Vallctives,

ared foox Vall

1, 201

ley VisStrate

or: ley Eco

1

itor Seegies, a

onomi

rvices and Tac

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Strategctics

lopmen

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Table Executive

 1.  Intro

2.  Key 

3.  Obje

4.  Strat

5.  Tact

5.1 

5.2 

5.3 

5.4       

5.5 

 AppendiAppendiAppendiAppendiConsultinAppendiAppendi 

 

of Cont

e Summary ..

oduction and

 Issues from S

ectives ..........

tegies ..........

ics ................

New Visitor 

Tourism Pro

Industry Dev

 Marketing C

Research an

x 1:  Notes fx 2:  Exampx 3:  Comoxx 4:  Comoxng), July 200x 5:  Ministrx 6:  Comox

tents

.....................

 Methodolog

 Situation Ana

.....................

.....................

.....................

 Centre and V

ducts and Pa

velopment Sp

Communicati

nd Evaluation

 from Planninles of Mapsx Valley Advax Valley Heri07 ry of Financex Valley Econ

 

.....................

gy .................

alysis and Pla

.....................

.....................

.....................

 Visitor Servici

ackaging Spe

pecific to Vis

ons ...............

 Specific to V

ng Session a and Visitor anced Sportitage Experi

e Tax Bulletnomic Deve

2 

......................

......................

anning Sessio

......................

......................

......................

ing Tools ......

ecific to Visito

itor Servicing

......................

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in, March 20elopment Br

Comox V

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on .................

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or Servicing ..

g ...................

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ing ...............

older Call  Materials Workshop Retructure and

010 rand Develo

Valley Visitor 

.....................

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eport, Octobd Concept R

pment Prog

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1‐A

......................

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ber 19, 2010 Review (Tra

gram 

ategy 

Apr‐11 

....... 3 

....... 6 

....... 8 

....... 9 

..... 10 

..... 15 

..... 16 

..... 24 

..... 27 

..... 30 

..... 31 

0 ct 

 

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   Appendix 3:  Comox Valley Advanced Sport Tourism Workshop Report, October 19, 2010     

ADVANCED SPORT TOURISM WORKSHOP REPORT

COMOX VALLEY OCTOBER 19TH, 2010

Table of Contents SPORT TOURISM BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................... 2

Defining Sport Tourism ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Building Sport Tourism ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Provincial Sport Tourism Resources ................................................................................................................ 4 Advanced Sport Tourism Workshop ................................................................................................................. 4

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF SPORT TOURISM ..........................................................................5 ALIGNING THE GOALS OF SPORT ORGANIZATIONS, TOURISM BUSINESSES .............................................5 AND OTHERS ........................................................................................................................................................5 TRENDS IN SPORT TOURISM..............................................................................................................................6 CATEGORIZING SPORT EVENTS .......................................................................................................................6

Sport Event Classification – Character and Sport Purpose .............................................................................. 7 Sport Event Classification – Other Purposes .................................................................................................. 10

SPORT DEVELOPMENT – THE CANADIAN SPORT FOR LIFE MODEL .......................................................... 12 THE STAGES OF HOSTING SPORTS EVENTS ................................................................................................ 13 THE BIDDING PROCESS ................................................................................................................................... 14

Bid Classifications ........................................................................................................................................... 14 Calendar, Rotation and Timing ....................................................................................................................... 15

OPTIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE FOR SUCCESSFUL SPORT TOURISM............................ 16 Budget and Resources ................................................................................................................................... 17 Department of Municipality ............................................................................................................................. 18 Standalone Organization ................................................................................................................................ 19 Department of Tourism Organization .............................................................................................................. 20 Options for Organizational Structure Conclusions .......................................................................................... 21

COMOX VALLEY ADVANCED SPORT TOURISM WORKSHOP NOTES ........................................................... 22 COMMUNITY BENCHMARKING EXERCISE ................................................................................................................. 23 BREAKOUT GROUP EXERCISES ..................................................................................................................... 29

Sport Events Previously Hosted/Secured ....................................................................................................... 29 Local Sport Event Hosting Capacity ............................................................................................................... 38 SWOT Analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats ............................................................... 49 Goals for the next 12-18 months .................................................................................................................... 51

SUMMARY OF COMOX VALLEY SPORT TOURISM ACTION ITEMS ................................................................ 53

APPENDIX 1: KEY SUCCESS FACTORS AND CASE STUDIES CREATED EVENT – KARATE CHAMPIONSHIP WORLD POLICE AND FIRE GAMES IN BC ST. CATHARINES SPORT TOURISM GRANT CASE STUDY

APPENDIX 2: CHARACTERISTICS OF SPORT TOURISTS BY SPORT

2

SPORT TOURISM BACKGROUND Sport t ourism is one of the fastest growing segments in Canada’s tourism industry and m any British Columbia communities are r ecognizing the pot ential eco nomic and social benef its that sport t ourism can provide. Sport tourism is a very significant element in the tourism world, and has become a h ighly competitive ni che t ourism busi ness. As i nterest and par ticipation i n sp ort grows within t he l eisure industry the desire of people to travel to compete in or to view sporting events has grown significantly.

3

Defining Sport Tourism Sport tourism is defined as any activity in which people are attracted to a particular location as a sport event participant, an event spectator or to attend sport attractions or sport-related business meetings. Sport tourism visitors travel more than 80 km to reach the host community and/or stay overnight. The tourism industry in British Columbia has developed into a major generator for the province’s economy, generating $13.2 billion in provincial tourism revenue in 2007. BC residents make up more than half of all visitors to British Columbia, with the rest of Canada and the U.S. each accounting for twenty percent of visitors. Statistics Canada reports Canadians take about 12 million domestic person trips a year to attend sports events. The Canadian Sports Tourism Alliance identifies 200,000 events held in Canada. Sport tourism accounts for approximately 2.0 to 2.5 percent of tourism revenue in British Columbia, with a value of about $300 million.

Building Sport Tourism Building sport tourism can be achieved through hosting more events; hosting larger, higher profile events; and increasing tourism expenditure during events. “Getting more tourism benefit” out of existing events is often possible, as many existing sports events may have little tourism content. Adding tourism information to the event packages and marketing events as tourism experiences can be rewarding. Attracting provincial or local events can be very beneficial for a specific community, but there is less net return at the provincial level from such activity as these events may rotate around different venues within BC. The provincial economy benefits most when communities attract national or international events that increase visitation and expenditure from across Canada, the U.S., or overseas. These events are often larger and higher-profile, also creating non-economic benefits for the community. Whichever strategies a community focuses on, building sport tourism requires co-operation between the different partners, and ensuring facilities and human resources match event needs. Suitable facilities are a pre-requisite for attracting and hosting events. The more high profile the event, the more developed facilities may need to be, although some sports’ needs are basic. Assessing the level of competition that can realistically be hosted is essential. Each sport will know competition requirements for their sport and which of the community’s facilities meet those standards. Thinking about opportunities in existing facilities may open up new ideas or created events. In most cases, sport tourism makes use of what exists, as building new facilities purposely for events seldom makes economic sense (except for mega events such as the Olympic Games). If sport tourism is to succeed in a community, it must move from a single event focus to a focus on a stream of events. Human resources have to be sourced in new and more creative ways, since the existing volunteer base is often already taxed. Communities developing sport tourism need to think creatively, to involve volunteers differently and to build paid employment so that necessary skills and experience cumulate, laying the base for taking on increasingly higher calibre events. Event managers may have the potential to handle “non-technical” facets, with sport volunteers and officials focusing on running the actual competitions.

4

Provincial Sport Tourism Resources The Tourism BC as part of the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Investment is working to further develop sport tourism in BC through a number of programs which aim to educate BC communities about the significant economic and social value of local sport event hosting and to promote BC as a premier sport hosting destination. The sport tourism initiatives respond to the Province’s objective to maximize the long-term tourism benefits of hosting the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, enable communities to participate in the business of sport tourism and increase tourism revenues to communities over the longer term. This is a list of some of the province’s key sport tourism resources:

• Hostingbc.ca • Community Sport Tourism Workshops • Community Sport Tourism Development program • Sport Tourism Guide • BC Sport Tourism Events Marketplace • BC Sport Tourism Network • Sport Tourism Community Legacy Award • Sport Facility Image Partnering Project • BC Night

For more information visit: www.tca.gov.bc.ca/industryprograms/BuildingAndGrowingYourBusiness/Community_Tourism_Programs/SportTourism.htm.

Advanced Sport Tourism Workshop The Advanced Sport Tourism Workshop is offered to communities that have experience in sport tourism and could benefit from the latest industry research and a brief assessment of their sport tourism assets and experience. The full-day workshop expands on the offerings of the introductory workshop and provides recommended actions for the community over a 12-18 month period to continue to grow sport tourism locally.

Topics covered include: • Sport Tourism industry overview • Why grow sport tourism locally? • Community benchmarking • Community sport event hosting process • Community sport tourism inventory • Local sport event hosting experience • Community sport organizational capacity • Community SWOT • Goals and recommended actions for next 12-18 months

5

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF SPORT TOURISM British Columbia recognizes that sport events create opportunities that combine economic development for the tourism sector, sport, and social legacies.

• Economic development– Tourism-related revenue is normally the largest portion of the economic impact of an event. This includes accommodation, food and beverage and other spending. Direct event revenues include admission fees, sponsorships, on-site sales and for the largest events, television rights. Indirect and induced economic activity includes people and businesses re-spending revenue from an event in the community. Sport tourism can stimulate participants and their families to return for a future vacation or future event. Sport events also offer the potential for regional identity enhancement, in which a successful event links the host community with imagery of healthy living, achievement and the outdoor environment.

• Sport system development – Increasing the infrastructure of sport facilities, officials and coaches, as

well as the capacity of athletes to achieve their potential.

• Social and community legacies– Including youth development, increased fitness levels and health, community and cultural celebration. Sport links cultures and countries. Hosting international sport tournaments is not only good for tourism, but also good for cultural relations, our place in the world and positive community change. Sporting events can also be designed to be environmentally and socially sustainable.

ALIGNING THE GOALS OF SPORT ORGANIZATIONS, TOURISM

BUSINESSES AND OTHERS The partners required to host sports events and build sport tourism include different people and groups in the community. All may be interested in sport hosting, but have different objectives: aligning these disparate goals is important for success. In most cases, there will be three or four different viewpoints:

• The tourism community is business and revenue focused, e.g., “heads in beds”. They are keen to support ventures that will bring more business to the community and to develop new tourism niche markets.

• The sport community is largely volunteer-run by people interested in developing their sport. It includes

local clubs, provincial or national sports bodies, schools/colleges, and sports for persons with a disability. They are interested in great tournaments from a technical viewpoint and in sport development, especially for youth. They are interested in better facilities and equipment and their community’s image and profile within their sport. In most sport events, the efforts and the expenditures are made by the sport sector and the revenues flow to the tourism sector. Sport people often do not see themselves as part of the tourism industry and may not know how to share in the revenue generated.

• The business community wants to bring more people into the community and to enhance its image and

potential to host more events. Local businesses can benefit from sport events in and beyond their local community.

• The municipal government wants to see success in their community. Municipal governments aim to

achieve a balance between the recreational needs of the local citizens and the social and economic benefits of sport event hosting. It is important that the benefits from each event get communicated to the general public.

6

Sport is very important to tourism and tourism is very important to sport. Sport events can play a significant role in generating tourism activity, with positive economic and social benefits for a community. Sport tourism is increasingly being recognized as a productive focus for tourism and general economic development. Events have traditionally been organized by sport organizations for purely sport purposes and maximizing the tourism benefits has often not been a major consideration. Sport tourism benefits are sometimes lost or not maximized because the linkages between the sport and tourism sectors are not well established. A similar challenge faces the tourism sector. Many of the benefits of sport events accrue to tourism businesses, accommodation providers, transport operators, retail outlets and restaurants. Many groups do not know they can benefit significantly from sport event activity. Educating sport and tourism on the benefits that each can attain through sport tourism is critical, as is establishing alliances, sharing information and identifying the opportunities for tourism and sport when they form a strong partnership. TRENDS IN SPORT TOURISM Strong trends are changing sport tourism:

• Global recognition of sport tourism as a valid industry segment • Increasing organization of this industry segment – In Canada, in BC and in its communities, sport tourism

is becoming more organized and structured. • Recognition of the sector’s potential for growth, while some other sectors face decline • Demographic growth in the baby boomer and echo generations • Rising women’s participation in sport, a dramatic change over the last 20 years • Globalization, sponsorship, and technology. At its highest levels, sport is now truly global, with major

sponsorship revenue. • Created events. Communities with sport tourism experience are recognizing the potential for creating their

own events, designed to fill gaps in a calendar or capitalize on a specific opportunity. • Social and environmental values. Sport events can make a statement and build partnerships with social

causes and environmental stewardship. CATEGORIZING SPORT EVENTS Sport events are often categorized to aid planning, given their wide variety. Events can be categorized in numerous different ways, each of which can be useful at different stages. This includes segmentation by type of event, scope and prestige, size/complexity, location policy and bidding process. To be successful, community hosting strategies almost always include a mix of various events. Rarely can a community focus only on a few larger high-profile events. For every very large event, there are hundreds of smaller sport events. Committees evaluating bids will often look for experience on smaller events before granting a community a larger, more prestigious event. Given the benefit to sports development from event hosting, many of the sport groups in a community will want to host events for its own sport. Multi-sport games may require local experience in hosting numerous different sports. Annual sport events also grow from small beginnings if successful, and become a major event over time. Events can of course simply be categorized by size and scale. In the “bid” section later, a four-level classification is described from Level 1 (local) to Level 4 (International). A small local event can usually be created and

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handled by a small community group without any assistance. A larger, higher profile event will require more money and time from a broader set of stakeholders and greater resources to prepare. Another useful categorization focuses on the character and purpose of events. Sport tourism activity can be usefully classified to identify:

• Championships: Properties “owned” by the provincial, national or international sport governing bodies. Often the culmination of a season’s sport activity, championships may be permanently located in one region, or may rotate or circulate between locations.

• Tournaments: Are often “owned” by local organizations, sport organizations, or other. They are

generally held in the same place at the same time every year.

• Games: These are multi-sport events. Some are organized by governments (e.g., BC Games), while others are the properties of separate organizations, e.g. the IOC or the North American Indigenous Games.

• Camps: While many events are about competition, camps are about athlete training.

• Courses: Sport organizations train athletes, coaches, and officials of all levels.

• Conferences and Meetings: Sport arranges many conferences, meetings, and annual general meetings,

sometimes in conjunction with major sporting events.

• Professional Sports: Tend to serve a local market for spectator entertainment. Within an overall tourism plan, sport tourism can be used to strengthen lower demand periods. Sport is year-round and sport tourism can build low or shoulder seasons, depending on the sports pursued, or stimulate demand in quieter weeks or weekends. Sport tourism can produce significant room bookings during event periods, although it may be lower yield (i.e. lower revenue per person), especially for youth or local or provincial level events. International and professional events can be decidedly high yield. Within the bounds of the priorities of sports organizers (which are often youth focused), one can encourage the types of sports and events that attract similar types of people that are identified as “target groups” for the tourism sector. Many sport events require some kind of bidding process. A bid committee will plan the event in its early stages. The “Bid Book” or package explains the plans for hosting (to include technical information about facilities, hosting athletes, coaches and officials, security and transportation) and information about the community, its hotels, and attractions.

Sport Event Classification – Character and Sport Purpose a. Mega Events

Very large and high profile games and events, including at the apex, the Olympic and Paralympic Games can yield billions of dollars’ worth of media coverage, prestige and economic impact for the host, but require a significant capital investment. The Federal Policy on International Sport Events identifies three types of International events eligible for support, the larger of which would fall into the “Mega” category:

• International Major Multisport Games - Large multisport games governed by an international sport franchise holder with links to sports' International Federations, for example: the Olympic and Paralympic Summer and Winter Games; the Commonwealth Games; and the Pan American Games.

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• International Single Sport Events. These events are governed by a sport's International federation or

regional/continental counterpart, e.g., World Championships and World Cups. Events may range in size and complexity from small to large.

• International Multisport Games for Aboriginal Peoples and Persons with a Disability.

b. Games

Games are multi-sport events. These can be very large due to the number of sports being hosted at one location at the same time. These can be directed by governments (e.g., Canada Games and BC Games), or by separate organizations, e.g., the IOC or the North American Indigenous Games. Relatively few events are games, although their size makes them attractive targets. In BC, the BC Games Society helps arrange Winter Games, Summer Games, Seniors Games, Disability Games and Northern Winter Games, every year or second year. The Winter and Summer Canada Games each rotate to BC approximately every 40 years. Other games can be for specific groups, e.g., the Police and Fire Games or social/sport events for cultural groups. The World Masters Games is one of the world’s largest participation sport events. Hosting games often requires a wide range of suitable venues, as many sports featured are “mandatory”, and given their size, experience hosting major events and a breadth of sport events may be advantageous. c. Championships

These are single-sport properties with rights held by the respective sport organization, where a championship tournament is often the culmination of a season’s sport activity. These are often referred to as “the provincials” or “the nationals”. The winner of the championship may qualify for the next level, e.g., the BC girls’ softball champions qualifying for the nationals or the Canadian national curling champions qualifying for the world championships. Many championships are arranged by school and university/college sports associations. Adaptive/ disability/ wheelchair sport events are growing in importance in BC’s sport calendar. The format of the event and the location will be decided by the provincial, national, or international sport governing bodies. Depending on the event, securing such events may be very competitive, or a PSO may have difficulty each year finding willing host communities. There is usually a preference to hold the championships in different regions from year to year, to stimulate interest in different regions and access new host community volunteers and resources. Community sport groups will be very familiar with the championships for their sport, with the priorities of the organization awarding the hosting rights, and with the key individuals taking such decisions. d. Tournaments

Tournaments are other events, usually for a single sport. Whereas a championship is “owned” by a sport governing body, tournaments can be the initiative of any organization choosing to initiate them. Many are arranged by local sport organizations, but they may also be sponsored by a school, church or temple, or a pub, for example. They are generally held in the same place at the same time every year and can become a familiar part of the sport’s and a community’s annual calendar. Thousands of other annual bonspiels, Canada Day weekend ball tournaments and other events have become regular fixtures in their respective communities. Tournaments may be competitive, but are often as much participation and recreation-focused as results-oriented. Participation-focused events can be very attractive tourism generators, as high participation equals high visitation. While some youth events may involve lower yield “four to a room” accommodation or even billeting, they can also bring the families of participants and pre-post event vacations. Adult participation events can also be the stimulus for a longer trip, e.g., adding a fishing trip onto a ball tournament visit. Some are traditionally marked by extensive after-hours entertainment and indulgence.

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Sport organizations may arrange an annual tournament as a fundraising initiative, to help subsidize its year-round sport program. Tournaments may be scheduled on holiday weekends, when regular league competition is on hiatus and players are available for a long weekend of travel and sport, for example a Christmas hockey tournament, Labour Day softball invitational or Thanksgiving soccer tournament. These can be attractive tourism opportunities, as such weekends may have less business travel. e. Training Camps

Championships, tournaments, and games are often competitive events, but competition follows athlete development and training. National or provincial teams with athletes living in different cities are brought together on regular schedules to train and work together with each other and with coaches. In addition to such training arranged by technical directors of governing bodies and high performance teams, training camps may be more individual. Commercial summer hockey camps may offer additional training for youth players, and these can be packaged as part of a vacation for the whole family. Such camps may take advantage of good facilities during the off-season when their capacity for special events may be greater. Most sports have regular training camps at the provincial and national level. The location of training camps is dependent on services and facilities available, costs, the location of the coach, and the number of athletes in a particular community. For example, if the coach and large proportion of athletes are located in northern BC, it is likely that the training camp would be located there as well. f. Development Courses

Sport organizations train athletes, coaches, and officials of all levels. While many of these courses happen locally, especially for entry-level, courses for higher performance athletes and coaches may involve travel and overnight stays. “Out of town” coaches may travel to a larger centre for such a course, or an instructor may travel to another area to train local coaches. g. Conferences

Sport organizations arrange many meetings and conferences, sometimes in conjunction with major events. Annual General Meetings of PSOs or NSOs bring sport leaders and organizers from across the province or across Canada, as do meetings of sport technical staff. Trade shows or exhibitions may be involved with such meetings. In addition to the immediate tourism benefit, these can also be opportunities to introduce decision-makers to facilities and future hosting opportunities in the community. Selection of a community for a conference is often connected to where the sporting event is taking place or where the sport’s leadership resides.

h. Professional Sports

Very much part of sport tourism, professional sports teams tend to primarily serve a local market with spectator entertainment. They also bring visiting teams to town, but this is balanced by their nights spent on away games. While visiting team fans may accompany their team’s visit from their home town, these are generally limited in numbers, apart from major events, the Grey Cup as an example. Professional sports may have more impact in attracting visitors from smaller markets without a franchise to the larger community, similar to arts and culture events attracting visitors to a major city for concerts or museum exhibitions. Professional sports attracting major spectator audiences are very limited in BC, especially outside the City of Vancouver. Communities need to think out involvement with professional sports, which may often support other aspects of a sport hosting strategy rather than being its centre-piece.

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Sport Event Classification – Other Purposes

Sports-related events may be very useful tourism opportunities, even though sports competition or sports development are not their prime purposes. The categories following may overlap with the above classification and with each other. a. Cause related

Sports events may be designed primarily to promote a charity or to raise money for a specific cause. Examples include the Gretzky & Friends golf event and the Altamira Golf Classic, or a 24-hour relay race. Many major events have a fund-raising or charity component, be it a 50:50 draw or the charitable activities in every PGA tour stop, but this category is for events where charity is a primary purpose, often accompanied with participant enjoyment and entertainment. b. Media events

A few events are created mainly for broadcast audiences and derive their main income from broadcasting rights. Examples would include boxing events, the X-Games or “Skins” golf. Although spectators will be present, this category is designed to appeal to TV audiences. They can also have a positive influence on a destination’s awareness and image as a sport destination, depending on the size of the audience. For example, awareness of the quality of golf courses, the scenery, or other attractions of an area could be communicated to a wide golf tourism target audience through two days of TV coverage. c. Showcases

Sport showcase events would be designed to highlight the profile of a sport and improve a community’s image and influence in that sport, e.g., internationally. Examples include the World Gymnaestrada and World Disability Athletics. Such showcases might increase interest in a sport, or show a community is suitable for hosting future high-level championships. d. Spectator Events

Sport tourism involves tourists watching events as much as it does playing in them. Professional sports are driven by spectator revenue and media broadcasting rights, and the sponsor interest thus generated, with very few participants. These events are very similar to major music concerts, and may be “sport-based entertainment” rather than sport, of which “Wrestlemania” events are perhaps a classic example, as are celebrity sport events. Relatively few amateur events draw large spectator audiences, with school basketball finals one of the most prominent. Such spectator events are only potential tourism activities if they attract visitors who stay overnight or travel from over 80 kilometres. The tourism potential is for out-of-town visitors to travel to the city from nearby communities to watch a specific spectator event, as they may for a regular professional sports team league game.

e. Created Sport Events

Many events in this section can fall into a general category of “created events”. In addition to events held for other purposes, a sport event may be created by a community, facility, or corporation primarily for commercial or tourism purposes. A large venue or facility may find it has a quiet period, or it regularly has unused capacity at one time of the year, and might create an invitational sports tournament to fill that capacity, or arrange with a promoter to stage a sports event or a hockey club to hold an off-season training camp. An event might be conceived ahead of a championship as a “test event” to prepare and train for the championships. A community or tourism body could initiate events to fill hotel capacity during the off-season. A hotel or pub could sponsor an adult tournament to drive business to its rooms and bars. In this sense, a created sports event can be part of commercial or city economic development. For example, the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler which has become a major tourism generator.

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f. One–Off Events

These events are created for one-time staging, usually linked to a special celebration and /or created to leverage a current issue. Examples include the Canada/Russia Hockey Series in 1972 or the Bobby Riggs vs. Billy Jean King tennis match. Sport event organizers might plan such an event to mark a community’s 100th anniversary, a sport club’s 50th anniversary, the opening of a new facility, or accompany a major non-sport or cultural event.

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SPORT DEVELOPMENT – THE CANADIAN SPORT FOR LIFE MODEL Sport bodies become involved in sport hosting as part of their activities to promote their sport, increase participation, and help their athletes attain excellence. First and foremost, sport bodies are motivated by sport development, and they are involved in sport hosting primarily to help them achieve this development goal. Sport development in Canada is increasingly becoming guided by the “Canadian Sport for Life” Model, (CS4L) also referred to as “Long Term Athlete Development” (LTAD). About thirty sports have or are working on an LTAD development program for their sport, all of which are built on the same principles, primarily that a strong sport system:

a. promotes healthy living though “active for life” involvement, and b. promotes excellence and high performance achievement for those who strive to attain it.

While this model is still being developed for over 50 sports funded by Sport Canada, and local sports groups may not yet be familiar with or applying it, awareness and adoption of its principles are increasing, especially among PSOs or club technical staff. An understanding of this model is useful for discussions with sports groups, and can be a requirement for hosting grants. The foundation of the CS4L model is that development is athlete-centred, with seven stages corresponding to children's and athlete’s physical and mental development. It is a training, competition, and recovery program based on developmental age – the maturation level of an individual rather than chronological age.

At the youngest ages, children need to develop “physical literacy” to give them fundamental skills important for all sport, health, and life. Sporting events up to about age ten (different sports vary) are likely to be non-competitive participation “festivals”, rarely with overnight travel. In early teenage years, competitive events are introduced, but the purpose is still development, using competition to help hone skills. A very tiny fraction of athletes will then progress to the “Training to Compete” and “Training to Win” stages, terminology which involves national team calibre athletes and those preparing for this level. This is designed to produce competitors and gold medals for Canada at Olympic Games and world championships. The provincial Hosting BC program only makes grants available for national or higher calibre events falling into the “Training to Compete” and “Training to Win” stages.

Almost all adult and most youth sport tournaments and events are in the “Active for Life” segment, which focuses on health, fitness, recreation, and personal growth among participants who are not on a “national team” track. However, this national sport-planning framework does not mean that the millions of sport participants are not as focused on playing and winning their events as the hundreds of Olympic athletes are.

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THE STAGES OF HOSTING SPORTS EVENTS Hosting sport events should be conducted within the context of an overall sport tourism and hosting strategy and plan, which will give a structure and focus to future initiatives, while keeping in mind that every once in a while, it may be advantageous to pursue opportunities that may fall outside the strategy. For example, there might be a sport that is lower down on the list of priorities but there might be a dedicated sport group that is passionate about the sport, is well connected, and has a good chance of attracting a key sporting event – in this instance, it may be worthwhile for the community to support such an initiative. This section provides a brief “key point” summary overview of the main stages in sport event hosting. 1. Developing a sport tourism strategy to grow sport tourism by:

a. Increasing the tourism benefit of existing events; b. Supporting existing events to sustain them and help them grow larger or achieve higher value; c. Targeting and attracting new events.

2. Determining how to organize to bring community partners together to develop sport tourism, reflecting the diversity of partners to be involved, their priorities and the need for them to coordinate and harmonize their distinct skills.

3. Identify events and categories to be considered and researched, including a scan of facility and human

resource requirements and capability. The database of potential events should consider the characteristics of different sport tourism audiences, whether they can be matched with the characteristics desirable to the tourism industry, sport groups and local government, and the economic, sport development, and social benefits resulting from each event. Media coverage, facility legacy, off-season timing, and contribution to the municipality may also be factors.

4. Select new target events or priority categories for which the community has appropriate facilities,

appropriate tourism infrastructure and capabilities, and human resources and expertise so it can reasonably expect to be a strong candidate and be able to host an event very effectively.

5. Initiate plans to secure available events, submitting bids as required. While events staged by a local

sport group or other local body can be readily initiated by the community itself, large events and championships typically involve a bidding process among competing communities, so that bid books have to be prepared and submitted.

6. Plan and manage these events to meet and exceed the requirements of the athletes, event property

owners, and local stakeholders within required timelines and budget, including finding funding from competitors, gate receipts, granting agencies, sponsors, and other revenue sources.

7. Review the event and assess its success in meeting the goals, especially regarding:

a. Economic Development: increased financial return to host communities and the province, including tourism revenue generated;

b. Sport System Development: increasing capacity within the community and BC’s sport system, especially athlete development;

c. Social and Community Development: the host community benefit from sport group capability to host future events, increased community pride and improving facility infrastructure.

. This situation analysis will review each of these stages in detail. This overview of sport event hosting finishes with a review of the bidding process, as the bidding processes for each event can be very different, and can help determine priority events for a community.

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THE BIDDING PROCESS Most large sport events, especially championships and games, involve some kind of bidding process. Rights holders use this approach to be transparent in its awarding of events and to be fair to all interested communities. In most cases a rights holder will have a set of bid guidelines that outlines the necessary requirements of hosting its event including facility infrastructure, the financial and human resource requirements, and the length, competition format and number of participants to be expected. A community bid committee will be required to respond to the request for proposals, and to meet these bid guidelines. It is important to understand the size and type of events that are realistic to bid for and host in a community. Which sports have the best fit with the community? What age or demographic? Which events bring the best opportunities for sport development? Which ones fit best with a long-term strategy of building toward a major single or multi-sport event bid? This will be achieved with an event database that can be cross-referenced and compared to an infrastructure and capacity inventory of the community. There are various types of events and various costs associated with bidding on each event. From a tourism perspective, there may be as much or more value in hosting larger regional/provincial events as there is in hosting some smaller national and international events (as national and international events may not be necessarily larger than some regional and provincial events). Events geared toward younger participants may result in travel with parents and family members, yielding greater economic impact. At the other end of the scale, there are obvious benefits that come from many larger events. A breakdown of the bid classifications indicating the realm of opportunities, costs, and commitments required for bidding on various classifications follows:

Bid Classifications Bids are classified into four “levels” ranging from local to international events. This often does not correlate with size or even economic benefit, as a World Championship for a small sport may generate less economic benefit than a provincial hockey tournament, but the higher the level, the more prestige, and the greater the breadth of media coverage and attention that will likely accrue to the host community. As a community progresses from lower levels to national and international events, issues such as transportation, sponsor expectations, security, and protocol become much more important. Level 1 Bids – Local/Regional. A local/regional event can be competitive or non-competitive. Almost all local events would not need a bid, simply being hosted by a local sport group. A provincial sport organization may look for bids for the regional playdowns for its provincial championships, e.g., BC Figure Skating’s Division Sectionals Competition. A regional event can vary in its size and scope depending on the sport. Level 2 Bids – Provincial. A provincial championship is the next step up the ladder in progressing to larger events. The size of the event again depends on the sport. The event could be a single-sport championship, such as the BC Minor Hockey Provincial Championship, or multi-sport Games such as one of the BC Games. A provincial championship may be much larger than some national championships with greater economic benefit to the community. The size will depend on the number of divisions, male and female, different ages, and participants per group, which vary widely. Level 3 Bids – National. National championships range from very large and high-profile events such as our country’s only multi-sport event, the Canada Games and the well-televised Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s curling championship to much smaller sporting events at adult and junior levels. National championships range in size and spectator draw. The size and prestige of some events can make them hotly contested, and their scale can make them large undertakings. In some cases, a fee for bidding and sanctioning is required, and host communities may be required to make financial guarantees. For example, the Canadian Figure Skating Championship requires the host to provide up to $75,000 towards the event in cash or in-kind services. In some such cases, a letter of intent and guarantee of funds may be enough to secure an event. Most other national championships have less hosting competition, with lower budget requirements and less media attention.

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Level 4 Bids – International/World. World or international events can be multi-sport or single sport. These can be huge or very small, and bring major exposure to the city, including major TV and media coverage. Correspondingly, the costs associated with some of these events at the bid stage can be very high. For example, a World Junior Hockey Championship bid can require a guarantee at the bid stage of up to $12-$15 million, requiring substantial financial assistance from municipal, provincial, and federal governments. The rights holder must receive its full amount of funding, regardless of the financial outcome of the event, even if the event runs at a deficit. An international or world bid can range anywhere from $10,000 to $30 million for an event such as the Olympic Games, and in most cases the dollars to host the event must be guaranteed at the time the bid is submitted.

Calendar, Rotation and Timing Not every event is available to a community every time it is held. Determining which events are available is required to focus attention on those a community has a realistic chance to win the rights to hold. Some events are “permanent calendar”, i.e. they are always held in the same location and timing. Part of the international calendar for a particular sport, for example, Wimbledon, the Kentucky Derby or the Masters Golf event are not available to anywhere else. Other events are on a “circulating calendar” schedule. They are held at specific times on a regular schedule, but the location circulates between different communities. Examples include the Olympic and Paralympic Games, FIFA World Cup, BC youth provincial baseball championships or a school sport association’s regional playdowns. In some cases, the event is on a predetermined rotational cycle. A Canada Games is awarded to a province/territory on a fixed rotational schedule. There may then be a competitive bid process to select which city within that province will be awarded the Games. The Sport Leadership Conference awards its event by selecting a city traditionally on a rotation from east to central to western Canada. Other games and tournaments may be available to any community each time it is held. A provincial championship may be open to any municipality in BC. A bid evaluation committee will review all submitted bids, and then determine which community wins the rights to each games. While the event may be open to any community each year, some governing sport bodies may have a preference to circulate games between regions every few years, to ensure that the benefits of hosting, promotion of the sport and access to different volunteer groups can be shared across the jurisdiction. A capable community in a region which has not hosted a championship for the sport in a few years might enjoy an advantage if it decides to throw its hat in the ring. Finally, different rights holders solicit bids and decide on a host community at varying lengths of time ahead of the event itself. Larger events tend to solicit bids earlier than smaller: international further ahead than local events. Enquiry to the responsible sports body will yield the bid schedule for games and championships. Timelines vary from the Olympic Games schedule being set seven years ahead to less than a year for some provincial events. Even a national sport organization may have available opportunities for some championships within the next year or two.

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Tips when bidding for an event - Build positive relationships with your community’s local sport leaders and the event right holder - Research specific sporting event needs before preparing a bid - Create, collect, update, and consolidate common information required for bids Bid requirement example: Taekwondo Canada (to be used as general guidelines and ideas for future bids) 1. Host Committee Information 2. Venue Site Information 3. Accommodation Information and Rates 4. Transportation Information 5. Legacy Plan 6. Maps showing proposed venue, hotel(s), and airport 7. Preliminary Budget 8. Association President Support letter Bid scoring example: Cross country ski (to be used as general guidelines and ideas for future bids)

Leadership & Admin – 25% Technical Considerations – 30% Participant Support – 20% Legacy for Host Region and Sport – 25%

OPTIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE FOR SUCCESSFUL SPORT TOURISM This section provides an overview of the different organizational structures that BC communities might consider for sport tourism. It examines the different models such as department of municipality, standalone organization, or department of tourism organization. The information presented here is intended to help communities make informed decisions on the best organizational structure for sport tourism. As sport tourism, the bringing together of sport and tourism, is a fairly new concept, it is expected that organizational structures for sport tourism will continue to evolve as communities adjust their organizational models to meet their needs. The models presented in this section are all viable options, with the choice dependent on the specific needs of a specific community. Eleven communities were interviewed in January and February 2009 to understand the organizational structure they used, how it evolved, the advantages and disadvantages of each model, and advice about organizational structure for other communities.

Communities Interviewed Size of Community Organizational Model

Abbotsford, BC 123,864 population (2006) 471 accommodation rooms plus 121 being completed

Tourism organization

Brantford, ON 90,192 population (2006) 513 accommodation rooms Municipality

Burnaby, BC 202,799 population (2006) 1,100 accommodation rooms Tourism organization

Edmonton, AB 730,372 population (2006) 12,000 to 13,000 accommodation rooms Tourism organization

Halifax, NS 372,679 population (2006) 7,000 accommodation rooms

Part of crown corporation that operates venues (Trade Centre Ltd.)

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Hamilton, ON 504,599 population (2006) 1,000 accommodation rooms plus 2,000 dorm rooms in summer

Tourism organization that is a department of the municipality

Kamloops, BC 80,376 population (2006) 3,000 accommodation rooms Municipality

Kelowna, BC 106,707 population (2006) 4,000 accommodation rooms Standalone organization

Prince George, BC

70,981 population (2006) 1,830 accommodation rooms plus 200 being completed

Tourism organization that is a department of a municipally owned corporation

Victoria, BC 78,057 population (2006) in Victoria proper, over 300,000 in Greater Victoria 7,000 accommodation rooms

Standalone organization

Winnipeg, MN 633,451 population (2006) 6,600 accommodation rooms Tourism organization

Budget and Resources Budgets and resources for sport tourism organizations vary widely but the most successful ones tend to have at least one full-time staff person plus budget for bids, marketing, and sales. A start up sport tourism organization might begin with a $100K budget that includes one full-time staff member, ramping up to $150K, and then building to $300K or more if sport tourism is a major focus for the community. A common refrain among the sport tourism organizations interviewed is how tight their budgets are.

Community Organizational Model

Annual Budget Budget Allocation and Source Staff Resources

Abbotsford, BC Tourism organization

$11K + staff

$11K for marketing and promotion. Funded by tourism organization.

3 staff-part of time on sport tourism

Brantford, Ont. Municipality $74K

80% staffing, 20% printing, advertising, training, travel.

Funded through municipal budget but required to raise $6K in revenue through website accommodation program, public 50/50 draws, etc.

1 staff, 9 member advisory board

Burnaby, BC Tourism organization

20% of Tourism Burnaby budget

Up to 3% of sport tourism budget is allocated to bids.

Funded by tourism organization. 1 staff

Edmonton, Alta.

Tourism organization

$100K + staff

$100K for marketing and bid costs. Base funding from tourism organization.

Can ask municipality to help fund bids. 1 staff

Halifax, NS

Part of crown corporation that operates venues (Trade Centre Ltd.)

$400K

50% staffing, 25% bids, 25% other including event execution.

Funded by crown corporation, occasionally charges for services to outside agencies.

3 staff

Hamilton, Ont.

Tourism organization that is a department of the municipality

$175K

Staffing, marketing (sales calls and trade shows), and grant program (up to $1K for events).

Funded through municipal budget for base operations. Funding for bids comes from Destination Management Fund.1

2 staff (2 sport tourism coordinators)

1 Hamilton’s Destination Management Fund (DMF) is a 3% hotel tax that is optional for hotels. The fund is administered by a DMF committee.

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Community Organizational Model

Annual Budget Budget Allocation and Source Staff Resources

Kamloops, BC Municipality $300K

Bid presentation budget $10K (2 bids/year), $60K given out in grants, rest for staffing, marketing and promotions.

Funded through municipal budget.

2 staff (1 senior person plus one support person)

Kelowna, BC Standalone organization $135K

50% staffing, less than 5% bids, rest for marketing, brochures, website updates, guide for hosting events.

Funded by tourism organization and municipality. May receive funds for major bids.

1 staff

Prince George, BC

Tourism organization that is a department of a municipally owned corporation

$85K current budget

80% staffing, 20% for bids and marketing.

Funded by municipality, UBCM, and other grants currently, with plans to be funded by the tourism organization through the 2% hotel tax.

1 staff

Victoria, BC Standalone organization $100K

50% staffing, 50% bid costs, marketing, and sales.

Funded by members. Office space and support provided by members.

1 staff

Winnipeg, Man. Tourism organization

Not provided Not provided.

1 staff with others from organization to work on bids

Department of Municipality Description The sport tourism bodies for Brantford, Hamilton, and Kamloops are all part of their respective municipalities. Hamilton’s sport tourism body is part of Tourism Hamilton, itself a department of the municipality. Brantford’s sport tourism person, while part of the municipality, takes direction from an advisory board to ensure support by the overall community e.g. hotels, restaurants, other businesses, sport organizations, media, community groups, and the general public Advantages Advantages of having the sport tourism body within the municipality include:

• Access to municipal facilities and parks and recreation crew for sporting events. • Access to municipal resources to assist with sporting events. • Access to Mayor and Council to support bids. • Access to local sport organizations through their use of municipal facilities.

Disadvantages Disadvantages of having the sport tourism body within the municipality include:

• Difficulty in adding staff due to cost of unionized city staff. • May have a greater orientation toward recreational programs for residents and thus reluctance to

interrupting these programs for sporting events. • May not have a preference for local sporting events with minimal tourism benefit versus larger, national

and international sporting events that generate more tourism benefit (either in the form of tourism revenue or destination awareness and reputation).

• Coordination with tourism organization and tourism businesses could be a disadvantage.

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Recommendations If a community decides to set up its sport tourism body as a department of a municipality, the community should consider:

• An advisory board that includes a broad cross section of stakeholders involved in sport and tourism, such as the local tourism organization, hotels, restaurants, local sport organizations, municipal parks and recreation representative, representative from non-municipal facilities, etc.

• Ensuring the sport tourism staff have good access to parks and recreation staff and resources. • Ensuring the sport tourism staff have good access to the local sport organizations. • Ensuring the sport tourism staff have a good understanding of the tourism or economic side of sporting

events such that they are able to work with the tourism industry to optimize the economic benefits of sporting events.

Standalone Organization Description The sport bodies for Halifax, Kelowna, and Victoria are all standalone organizations. Halifax’s sport body is part of the provincial crown corporation that operates venues. Kelowna’s sport body is a partnership between the municipality and the tourism organization. Victoria’s sport body is a member-based organization comprising representatives from the tourism organization, Canadian Sport Centre Pacific, municipalities, universities and colleges, and others. While these are all standalone organizations, their respective structure and history are all different. A General Manager heads up Events Halifax, a business unit of the provincial crown corporation, Trade Centre Limited that operates venues/business units such as World Trade & Convention Centre in Halifax, Halifax Metro Centre, Exhibition Park, and Ticket Atlantic. Events Halifax focuses on attracting large cultural and sporting events to the province, so is not exclusively focused on sport. Events Halifax is moving to a more formalized partnership with the municipality, city tourism organization, and the provincial ministry responsible for tourism and amateur sport. Sport Kelowna is a partnership between Tourism Kelowna and the City of Kelowna. The one staff person is paid by Tourism Kelowna, with office space provided by and located in the municipal offices. SportHost Victoria is a not-for-profit society that is funded and governed by members comprising representatives from Tourism Victoria, Canadian Sport Centre Pacific, City of Victoria, universities and colleges, and others and is intended to present a coordinated approach among the 13 municipalities making up Greater Victoria. The Canadian Sport Centre Pacific is a legacy organization from the 1994 Commonwealth Games. Advantages Advantages of a separate sport tourism body include:

• Streamlined organization that is able to act quickly and is not constrained by municipal procurement policies.

• No built in bias toward either the needs of the municipality or the needs of the tourism industry, as the sport tourism body is not part of either organization.

• Greater ability to include local sport organizations as part of a new standalone organization. Disadvantages Disadvantages of a separate sport tourism body include:

• Requires time and resources to set up separate organization. • May lack ability to engage municipal government. • May lack access to municipal parks and recreation facilities. • May lack ability to engage tourism organization. • The need to balance sometimes differing priorities of the tourism organization and municipality, as neither

would have control compared to the other two organizational structure options. • Potential disagreements about funding sources, as the likelihood is that this separate sport tourism body

will require at least two sources of funding, such as through the municipality and the tourism organization.

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This may also limit the total amount of funding provided, as each funding partner may not wish to “overpay”.

Recommendations If a community decides to set up a standalone sport tourism body, the community should consider:

• Building in ways of access to the municipality. The relationship with the municipality is particularly important, as it controls a large portion of facilities suitable for sporting events and municipal support is critical to bids.

• Building in ways of including the local sport organizations in the organization and ensuring good access to local sport organizations on an ongoing basis (e.g. through board structure and/or committees).

• Ensuring the board includes a broad cross section of stakeholders involved in sport and tourism, such as the local tourism organization, hotels, restaurants, local sport organizations, municipal parks and recreation representative, municipal council member of senior municipal staff member, representative from non-municipal facilities, etc.

Department of Tourism Organization Description The sport tourism bodies for Abbotsford, Burnaby, Edmonton, Prince George, and Winnipeg are all part of their respective tourism organizations. Edmonton’s and Burnaby’s sport tourism bodies have their own advisory board or committee. For others, the governing body of the tourism organizations provides the oversight to the sport tourism body. Advantages Advantages of the sport tourism bodies residing within the community tourism organization include:

• Streamlined organization that is able to act quickly and is not constrained by municipal procurement policies.

• Close ties to tourism partners and resulting ability to optimize economic benefits of sporting events. • If a community has limited resources, sport tourism can be combined with other tourism responsibilities

rather than having staff members being responsible only for sport tourism. Disadvantages Disadvantages of the sport tourism bodies being part of the community tourism organization include:

• Upper limit to funding when the tourism organization is funded by the hotel tax. This is a particular disadvantage for communities with few accommodation rooms.

• Limited relationship with local sport organizations. • Tendency to focus on larger events such as national and international events and providing little assistance

to smaller events such as provincial and regional events. This disadvantage would be exacerbated if the person responsible for sport tourism also has other responsibilities.

• Difficulty in engaging municipal government if it is not part of the sport tourism body. Recommendations If a community decides to incorporate sport tourism responsibility within the local tourism organization, the community should consider:

• An advisory board that includes a broad cross section of stakeholders involved in sport and tourism, such as the municipality (such as council member or senior municipal staff), municipal parks and recreation representative, representative from non-municipal facilities, local sport organizations, hotels, restaurants, etc. The relationship with the municipality is particularly important, as it controls a large portion of facilities suitable for sporting events and municipal support is critical to bids.

• Building in ways of including the local sport organizations in the organization and ensuring good access to local sport organizations on an ongoing basis (e.g. through board structure and/or committees). For this organizational option, significant resources may need to be put toward building relationships with local sport organizations, as tourism organizations often do not have pre-existing relationships with local sport organizations. A concern that might exist among local sport organizations is that the tourism organization may be only interested in assisting with larger national and international events due to the larger economic

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benefit and may not wish to work with the local sport organizations on the smaller events that help build organizational capability over the longer term.

Options for Organizational Structure Conclusions a. There is no best organizational structure for a community’s sport tourism body, as the three structures examined all have their advantages and disadvantages. The decision should be made based on the particular circumstances of each community and the structure that would best enable all groups to work together. b. It is important to engage the three pillars of community sport tourism: municipality, tourism organization, and local sport organizations. Each of these should have a meaningful role in the sport tourism body. The municipality’s support is essential for larger events and bids and is often the funding source for those sporting events requiring financial guarantees; the municipal parks and recreation department controls a large portion of the sporting facilities in the community. The tourism organization can help optimize the economic benefits of sporting events across the larger community. Local sport organizations are often the organizations that lead a bid for a sporting event, especially with provincial sport organizations. A sport tourism body cannot operate successfully without the active and ongoing engagement of all three pillars. c. The sport tourism body should be prepared to put significant time into coordination and communication, especially at the outset, to ensure the municipality (not only the parks and recreation department but also the municipal council and senior staff), local sport organizations, and the tourism organization are all on side and supportive. d. The sport tourism body should be provided with enough resources. What constitutes “enough” may vary from one community to another, but in most cases means at least one full time staff person and enough funds for marketing, sales, and bids. This could begin at $100K, ramping up to $150K, and then building to $300K or more for those communities where sport tourism is a major focus. These resources should be committed for at least three to five years, as results from sport tourism tend to be longer term in nature. e. The sport tourism body should be clear on its role and its responsibilities, including what it will not be doing. These will be determined by what is important to the community (e.g. athlete development, community recreation, facility development, room nights and tourism performance, etc.).

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COMOX VALLEY ADVANCED SPORT TOURISM WORKSHOP NOTES

The purpose of the Advanced Sport Tourism Workshop is to provide sport tourism stakeholders in a community with the latest information about the sport tourism industry, to briefly review the community’s existing sport tourism assets and experience to date and to begin to explore the community’s sport tourism potential and opportunities.

The following sport tourism stakeholders attended the Advanced Sport Tourism Workshop in Comox Valley on October 19, 2010: Community/Regional Participants: Brad Knight Crown Isle Steve McNamee Comox Valley Baseball Hockey and Soccer Leah Knutson Mount Washington Alpine Resort Colin Wilson Comox valley Mountain Biking Martin Ready Island Mountain Rides Randy Wiwchar City of Courtenay Len Apedaile Strathcona Nordics Linda Bridyman Best Western & Westerly Hotel and Convention Centre David Pinel North Island College Judy Francis Comox Valley Curling Club Corinne Berg The Westerly Hotel Rod May Comox Valley Curling Club Virginia Trelenberg Holiday Inn Express Wayne Harris Comox Valley Curling Club Sheila VanNus Comox Valley Regional District Pat English Sage Hills Darcy Walters Comox Valley Regional District Jim Stevenson Courtenay Rec & Comox Rec Wendy Seals Kingfisher Resort Kerry Pearce Old House Village Hotel Susan Kelsey 2010 Spirit Chair Workshop Facilitators: Caterina Papadakos Tourism BC, part of the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Investment Richard Way Citius Performance Corp

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Community Benchmarking Exercise Communities should have a firm understanding of sport tourism and its relationship to both tourism development and sport development in a community. For each of the following criteria, workshop participants indicated where they think Comox Valley is now, and where they would like to see it by 2012. The workshop participants discussed each benchmarking question, recorded their individual responses and submitted them to the facilitators. These responses have been summarized below.

Summary Table of Workshop Participant Responses

Question

Where are we now on a scale of 1-4?

Comments from workshop participants

Where would we like to be by 2012?

Comments from workshop participants

1

From Sport and Tourism to Sport Tourism: Sport and tourism co-exist in many communities as two separate sectors. Sport tourism is the process of bringing these two sectors together to create enhanced economic and social benefits to the community.

3 Tourism planning has identified sport tourism as a tourism development strategy

• Community hosted the BC Senior Games • Impression that hosting the IPC Nordic events

brought many together • Most events have been initiated and planned

by local not-for-profit organizations • Involvement with BC Senior Games • The community “maximizes” economic

benefits of events by involving tourism partners

• Large events definitely involve tourism as a partner, but the system is not inclusive for a lot of events. The rating for many events would be much lower.

• Local politicians need to see more of what is happening

• Community is active in event planning for national/international events

• Local DMO was instrumental in maximizing opportunities during the 2010 Winter Olympics

• I am in the accommodation sector and have little to no involvement in this area. I believe CVED has a plan in place – we did see some buzz from the Senior Games at the property I am at.

4 Community maximizes economic benefits in the sporting events it hosts by involving tourism organizations as partners

• Collective and coordinated approach will be more efficient and leverage benefits

• Ideally all partners would be involved – co-ordinated approach

• Seems obvious: moving toward maximum benefits! By 2010, there should be a solid and positive step toward 4. Need to become specific about what aspects of sport tourism we’ll focus on: eg. Optimize natural amenities and facilities.

• Great opportunities in all forms of events – for profit and private companies (BC Bike Race)

• Opportunity to partner with tourism and private as well as government

• Always room for improvement • Tourism base can bring together the

community – lodging, meals, facilities and promote sport events easier than just the sport facility working on its own

• Tourism component will play a bigger role in sport

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• From the group’s discussion, it sounds like there are is still a divide between the organization and tourism accommodation

• From a minor sports point of view, we have hosted an international hockey event, or at least a portion of it. But that is all. No other minor sports have hosted events because of the facility or lack thereof.

• We involve stakeholders in tourism and sporting events - support through media involvement and community involvement

• BC Senior Games had a committee for housing and some displays at registration for things to do during down time

• Our major resource as advertised is Mount Washington Ski Resort and my perspective is that they encourage people to remain there and don’t really support tourism in the valley

• Many local and provincial events – very few international/national events. Tourism is just starting to become more involved; the Olympic experience set the tone.

• We must always look to new

segments in tourism to keep our business’ sustainable. We have lost other segments ie. Leisure because of the economy.

• Maximizing dollars • Need to develop better communication

between the key partners ie. Organization, tourism (economic development) accommodation and volunteer committees

• My goal is to update and have our basketball, hockey and soccer facilities grow to the point where we can be proud to host national, international or even provincial events.

2 Organizing and Partnering: Community sport tourism happens when sport groups and tourism agencies and other related organizations work together to maximize the benefits. To make this happen requires an organizational framework through which the sport, tourism, and local government partners can work together.

1 There is no agency championing sport tourism in the community

• CVEDS has been very supportive of sport tourism initiatives coming from local groups but sport tourism per say is not on the community agenda

• Community is fragmented – no partnerships between key stakeholders in place

• Seems to be a variety of organizations, including CVEDS and volunteer-based organizations

• Central person for sport calendars? Tourism promoting calendar of local events.

• Lack of communication in community • Struggle between 1 and 2 because some

events serviced very well, others not at all • I think each individual sporting event promotes

itself and is not working as a group to promote the assets of the Valley

3 Sport tourism is a recognized and core funded program, with all key partners at the table

• This is the most important step. It will take some time to reach #4

• Economic benefits to the community • With communication and planning this

could be accomplished • Realistic goal! • Need local representative for events

and volunteer organization • Realistic goal to achieve within the

time allotted. Need partnerships with all stakeholders.

• To develop an effective strategy you require a coordinated and funded approach

• Benefits to all • Need to work towards it – can’t

happen overnight

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• I am not aware of any agency • EDS has come on board when events are

coming. We need to work harder, have an agency to get the events.

• Hotels tend to be the last to know what is going on

• It seems as if the tourism community is fragmented and communication is lacking. Maybe individual groups are doing a good job, but not united

• The word championed keeps me away from saying #2

• I don’t know of any agency that pushes sport tourism, and I don’t know why.

• Various events come from various sources – no major focus for any one agency

• If there is a sport tourism agency it is not widely known

• Most sport tourism is done by involving sport organizations – Mount Washington is probably the exception

• Sporting events are supported if large enough, with involvement of media and stakeholders. More communication between the different sectors for support and development

• It would be very useful to have a sport tourism committee to bring all players to the table and work together

• Bring all the organizations together and put a plan together

• It will take time to build • Needs to become positioned as an

intentional, economic driven plan

3 Sport Linkages: The most successful sport tourism communities understand that the key to building sport tourism is developing the capacity of the sport community to host events and leverage revenue streams.

1.5 Sport groups are at the table, but each sport is a separate entity

• Sport is fragmented as separate entities. No coordination between sports.

• #1 or #2 depends on circumstances • Most of the sport groups I work with arrange

events without any involvement from tourism • The connection has not yet been built • While sporting events receive a profile in

planning, they are not central in long term planning; especially in regards to all sports being at the table

• Hard to find sponsors for smaller events • We are all here, we just don’t share the table. • Events are being hosted in the Valley,

however they are not working with amenities

3 Sport is represented in tourism planning by a unified sport council or equivalent body

• Last step and initial priority. • It could be a reach given that it is less

than 15 months away • To move sport tourism forward in a

planned manner you need a unified body to oversee and help promote

• Trying to put together a functioning committee takes time

• Sports events need partners • A unified council would be nice • Lofty goal, but working towards it • Sports council having shared

resources and mentoring • Create efficiencies and economies of

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• Well organized, individual groups are each a separate entity

• Total disconnect between event planners and accommodation sectors

• Events are being bid on but accommodation is the last to know, no one supports each other

• As stated earlier, each sport is a separate entity instead of part of an organization working together

• No communication between sport and business

• Other than major events like the Seniors Games/Mt. Washington events, there is not much coordination between events

scale • To create a template or checklist for

planners to utilize when bidding on events

• Once we get around the same table the planning, etc. will come along

• Bring sports and tourism together • Taking small steps is the key. Need

“mechanism” to move it forward. Getting multi-sports together is a big step (other than Mt. Washington – which gets multi-sports together more often)

• Having sport represented on a board would allow the two groups to come together on a smaller scale

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4 Budget: While sport tourism probably happens in many communities without formal planning, having budget lines for staffing, administrative support, and capacity/resource development are necessary to develop a viable sport tourism sector.

1 No budget

3 Annual program funding of between $50,000 - $100,000

• If we want to move forward we need to make this kind of commitment

• We should not just “respond” • Without a budget there is no way of

getting economic help. Then your volunteer base is responsible for everything.

• It is a necessity to grow the market • Go for it! Do it right and with focus.

$100K is spent quickly, need lots of in-kind support. Build on tourism level momentum.

• Initiate the program – need start up dollars – increase in funding based on success

• Work in response to requests • No idea! All based upon individual

groups and individual events • Need to support the growth • Opportunities to develop marketing • Our role is in support on an “ask per

basis” model. There is no designated funding set aside.

• Getting some funding for hosting specifically would be a positive step. There has been money for 1 time events I in the past.

• CVEDS : no dedicated line items for sport tourism

5 Revenue Sources: While budgets are important, so is the understanding among community stakeholders of how the economic costs and benefits of sport events are

1 Partners have little knowledge of how money flows around the system

• Fragmented entities working in their own worlds

• Most organizers are aware – but beyond the organizers not many are

• This community doesn’t have a partnership • Don’t know where the dollars are • Know that it brings economic benefits but it is

not fully understood • Info may be available, but don’t know where to

3 City and tourism industry has established a revenue stream that flows back to sport event

• Need to start doing and develop expertise before moving to #4

• Need public buy-in to develop resources to then develop sport tourism

• Once we have an organization we can formulate a plan

• Everything should be open and

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distributed.

find it • Not aware of funding sources

organizers transparent

6 Tools and

Resources: Sport tourism operates more effectively where there are tools and resources available for event organizers.

2

Anything needed for sport tourism development is produced as needed

• CVEDS created a sport hosting page related to Olympic training initiatives

• When an event is decided on, the webpages etc. are then set up or information is sent out

• Each organization seeks the needed tools/resources

• Events are being held and resources are developed for each specific event

• Good at responding • Individual groups put together individual tools

and info • Resources are unknown • As we receive requests we plan and develop • Lots of info but disjointed, don’t know what is

out there at any point in time • If you ask, there may be funding in a budget

but not likely • “Hosting BC” • Have created our own materials

3.5 A full set of tools is available for any sport group bidding on or hosting an event

• Better to have a coordinated portal that can link together separate sets of info (ie. Websites)

• Economic possibilities are high. Cost/benefit analysis and economic impact studies

• 4 would be nice but 3 is reasonable • To be able to bring larger scale events

to the community, with a baseline and resources to draw from

• Time and budget to implement • Facilities synergies • Tools and support absolutely required

to encourage bidding for events • To host an event you need more than

just your volunteer base to be successful

• Fairly ambitious to have a full set by 2012

• If you want agencies to bid for events you need to have a full set of tools to work with. Many volunteers are not willing to take on the challenge of hosting events without some support.

• These events have been done successfully before, ensure what worked and didn’t work info is shared.

• It would be beneficial to everyone to have templates and budgets and contracts in place from which to draw

• Create a package ready for communities

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BREAKOUT GROUP EXERCISES Workshop participants discussed each of the following topics and their responses have been recorded below. These lists should be treated as a starting point to build from.

Sport Events Previously Hosted/Secured Below is a summary of sporting events previously hosted and secured by Comox Valley based on the information provided by community stakeholders in advance and during the workshop: Comox Valley’s Sport Event Portfolio Comox Valley, in recent years, has gained international exposure as a sport event destination through the use of its facilities to train for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. In 2010, the Comox Valley hosted the BC Seniors Games with great success. Due to the close proximity to the ocean and mountains, the Comox Valley is also the s ite of m any Adventure Races, which combine a variety of sports into one competition. Please see below for highlights of Comox Valley’s Sport Event Portfolio. World Cup 2007 and 2009 IPC World Cup Multisport 2010 BC Seniors Games Adventure Race Mind Over Mountain Snow to Surf Training 2010 National Olympic Team Training (pre Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games)

ACTION ITEM 1: Use the list of Sport Events Previously Hosted as a starting point for a record of all the sport events the Comox Valley has hosted. Use this information when bidding for events, and when getting ideas for which events to target and host. Keep the list up to date and ensure that it is accessible to all appropriate sport tourism stakeholders in the community.

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Comox Valley Sport Hosting Facilities Below is a list of sport facilities in the Comox Valley including a description. Information was provided by the community in advance of the workshop, and added to by workshop attendees.

Sport Facilities Description Sports that can be hosted at the facility

Airport Elementary Airport Elementary has an open field with a playground as well as a gymnasium.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Ultimate Frisbee Roller Derby Soccer

Anderton Tennis Courts Enclosed tennis courts with a playground. Tennis

Arden Elementary Arden Elementary has an open field, 2 softball backstops as well as a gymnasium.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Soccer Softball Ultimate Frisbee

Aspen Park Elementary Aspen Park has an open field, 2 baseball diamonds as well as a gymnasium.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Baseball

Baynes Sound

Canoe (flat water & adaptive) Kayak Stand-up Paddle Board Sailing

Bill Moore Park Bill Moore Park has 2 baseball diamonds with a field in between. On the lower field, there is an area for lawn bowling as well as a playground. This park is equipped with lighting for evening practices and games, a concession, batting cages, clubhouses for meeting and change rooms for players.

Lawn Bowling Ultimate Frisbee Baseball Football Soccer Rugby Flag Football

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Brooklyn Elementary Brooklyn Elementary has an open field, 2 softball backstops as well as a gymnasium.

Badminton Baseball Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Soccer Softball Ultimate Frisbee

City of Courtenay Lewis Centre

Offers a full range of recreation services and features including two gymnasiums, a weight room, nursery school, outdoor stage, craft room, meeting rooms, four squash courts, a climbing wall, outdoor stage, outdoor swimming pool, water wall, water park and an outdoor skatepark equipped with outdoor lighting.

Climbing Skateboard Squash Swimming Water Polo Lifeguard Competitions Fitness Training and Camps Lawn Bowling Swim Meets Tennis Baseball Softball Soccer Football Basketball

Cumberland and Forbidden Trail Networks

Hiking Biking Orienteering Trail Running BMX

Crown Isle Golf Resort Crown Isle Resort & Golf Community features a par 72, 18-hole golf course and also offers a driving range with chipping and putting greens, as well as practice bunkers. The resort also contains space for meetings, banquets and accommodation.

Golf

Coastal Trek Health & Fitness Resort

Hiking Biking Yoga Cross Country Skiing

Codes Country Lanes Bowling

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Comox Community Centre

Baseball Table Tennis

Comox Bay

This location hosts Nautical Days and other community events.

Canoe Dragon Boat Kayak Triathalon Stand-up Paddle Boarding Ocean Lifeguard Competitions and Training Sailing Rowing Parasailing

Comox Recreation Centre

This recreation centre is a multi-purpose facility, containing a gymnasium, 2 tennis courts, meeting rooms, and break-out rooms.

Basketball Dodge ball Fencing Gymnastics Karate Squash Taekwondo Tennis Weightlifting Table Tennis

Comox Valley Aquatic Centre

The Comox Valley Aquatic Centre features an 8-lane, 25m pool with seating for swim-meets and practices. In addition the facility also offers a weight room, sauna, steamroom and meeting rooms.

Diving Swimming Synchro swimming Water Polo Yoga Scuba Diving Kayak/Cano

Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds

This property consists of 40 acres of developed areas and natural park settings. The exhibition grounds are a major hub for many types of activities, including equestrian events, dog shows, curling bonspiels, summer community fairs and musical events etc. With 6 sheets for curling as well as a kitchen, bar and banquet meeting room, it’s a great location for a variety of activities.

Curling Ringette Floor Hockey Badminton Equine Dance

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Comox Valley Sport Centre

With the largest seating capacity in the Comox Valley (1500 people) this centre features: an indoor pool, a sauna, whirlpool, exercise equipment, 2 ice arenas, meeting rooms, and all-weather fields.

Athletics Broomball Figure Skating Hockey Swimming Synchro swimming Weight lifting Waterpolo Ball Hockey In-line Skating Ringette Skating Scuba Diving Kayak/Canoe Lacrosse

Courtenay Elementary Courtenay Elementary has an open field, break-out rooms as well as a gymnasium.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Soccer Dance Yoga Gymnastics

Cumberland Elementary Cumberland Elementary has an open field, break-out rooms as well as a gymnasium.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Soccer Dance Yoga Gymnastics

Cumberland Junior Secondary

Cumberland Junior Secondary has an open field, break-out rooms as well as a gymnasium.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Football Soccer Field Hockey Baseball Cheerleading

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Cumberland Recreation Centre

Cumberland Recreation Centre offers space for a variety of recreational activities for children, youth, adults, seniors and families. The centre houses a climbing wall, fitness studio, and squash court.

Climbing Squash Weightlifting Basketball

Cumberland Recreation Hall

Square Dancing BMX Cyclecross

Cumberland Village Park

Baseball Rugby Softball Soccer Horseshoe Cyclecross

Denman Island Elementary

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball

École Puntledge Park Elementary École Puntledge Park Elementary has a gymnasium available.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball

ÉcoleRobb Road Elementary

Badminton Baseball Basketball Hockey – ball Soccer Softball Volleyball

Georges P. Vanier Secondary

Georges P Vanier Secondary contains track and field facilities with spectator stands, soccer pitches, ball diamonds, a lighted sports field, and adjacent arenas.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Track and Field Cross Country Running Soccer Baseball Softball Indoor Soccer Lacrosse

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Glacier Gardens Arena

Hockey Indoor Lacrosse Ringette Badminton Curling

Glacier Greens Golf Course

An 18 hole golf course offering putting greens, a driving range, pro shop, golf clubs, cart rentals and a club house. Golf

Highland Secondary

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Soccer Slopitch Baseball Rugby

Hornby Island Elementary

This facility has easy access to the ocean for water-based activities and to mountain biking trails.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball

Huband Park Elementary This facility is close to Seal Bay Regional District’s trails and park.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball

Kingfisher Oceanside Resort & Spa

Kingfisher Resort & Spa houses a meeting space (2000 square feet), relaxation services and facilities, as well as accommodation and catering services.

Wrestling Yoga

Lake Trail Secondary Lake Trail Secondary has a gymnasium available.

Rugby Weightlifting Cyclecross Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Soccer Wrestling Football

Lewis Centre The Lewis Centre offers a full range of recreation services and features including two gymnasiums, a weight room, meeting rooms, four squash courts, an outdoor climbing wall and an outdoor swimming pool.

Swimming Water Polo Synchro swimming Basketball Volleyball Squash

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Climbing Weightlifting Softball Soccer Football Horseshoes Circus Arts

Mark R. Isfeld Secondary

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Soccer Wrestling Football Weightlifting

Miracle Beach Elementary

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Softball Soccer Rugby

Mount Washington Alpine Resort

Mount Washington is an all-season destination with accommodation available for visitors.

Alpine Ski Cross County (incl. para) Mountain Biking Freestyle Ski Snowboard (incl. para) Snowshoeing Orienteering Adventure Sport Disc Golf Mini Golf Longboarding Hiking Cross Country Running Biathalon Ski and Board Cross Big Air

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Marina Park & Comox Rotary mariner’s Pavilion

Marina Park, near downtown Comox, is a true community park used by a wide range of individuals and groups. The park features the Mariners Grand Pavilion and is the hub of waterfront recreation in Comox with access to waterfront walkways, public restrooms, the boat launch and a large children's playground.

Yachting Windsurfing Bullhead Derby Dragon Boating Ultimate Frisbee

Queneesh Elementary Queneesh Elementary includes 2 soccer fields, 2 ball diamonds and a gymnasium.

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Volleyball Soccer Softball Baseball

Robb Road Tennis Courts Tennis

Royston Elementary

Badminton Baseball Basketball Hockey-ball Soccer Softball Volleyball Cyclecross

Sage Hills Sports Academy

This is a proposed facility that would include the following outdoor facilities: 27 hole championship golf course, 6 hard tennis courts, 6 clay tennis courts, 2 paddle courts, 2 grass soccer fields, 2 baseball fields, 2 softball fields, 2 multi-purpose fields, and an outdoor track. Indoor facilities would include: 2 turf soccer fields, 8 tennis courts, indoor golf training, 2 basketball courts, 2 volleyball courts, 4 batting cages, a swimming pool, 2 squash courts, 2 racquetball courts, a strength training room (10,000 square feet), meeting rooms, a snack bar, as well as dorm rooms.

Sunnydale Golf Course Golf

Valley View Elementary

Badminton Basketball Hockey-ball Soccer Softball Volleyball

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ACTION ITEM 2: Use the sport hosting facilities chart to get a sense of what sports Comox Valley can host at each facility and use that information to discuss opportunities with facility management. Discuss sport event hosting with facility management to learn about when the facilities can be made available for events and what special rental rates can be negotiated for sport events.

Local Sport Event Hosting Capacity Workshop participants reviewed the comprehensive list of sports, indicated which facilities could host events in those sports, what the sport club capacity is to host events in these sports and any relevant notes.

Sport Facility Sport Club Capacity Notes

Alpine Ski and Para Mount Washington Alpine Resort

Strong Mount Washington Ski Club Freestyle Club VI Riders Aboriginal Snowboard Club Vancouver Island Adaptive Skiing Association

Hosted Olympic training. Private Mount Washington events include ski camps, Big Air, Skier X and Rail Jams.

Adventure/Multi-sport Races Comox Recreation Centre Lewis Centre Limited Entrepreneurs

Athletics - marathon Courtenay Recreation Centre Medium

Athletics – track and Para-athletics Comox Valley Sports Centre Strong BC Senior Games

Athletic – XC Mount Washington Alpine Resort

ATV Mount Washington Coal Hills

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Badminton

Airport Elementary Arden Elementary Aspen Park Elementary Brooklyn Elementary Brookyln Elementary Courtenay Elementary Cumberland Elementary Denman Island Elementary École Puntledge Park Elementary École Robb Road Elementary Georges P. Vanier Secondary Highland Secondary Hornby Island Elementary Huband Park Elementary Mark R. Isfeld Secondary Miracle Beach Elementary Queneesh Elementary Royston Elementary Valley View Elementary Curling Club Cumberland Recreation Centre Courtenay Recreation Centre

Baseball

Comox Recreation Centre Lewis Centre Brooklyn Elementary École Robb Road Elementary Aspen Park Elementary Highland Secondary

Medium – Strong Comox Valley Baseball Comox Mens Masters

Only community on Vancouver Island without a dedicated baseball facility.

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Basketball

Comox Recreation Centre Lewis Centre Airport Elementary Arden Elementary Aspen Park Elementary Brooklyn Elementary Brookyln Elementary Courtenay Elementary Cumberland Elementary Denman Island Elementary École Puntledge Park Elementary École Robb Road Elementary Georges P. Vanier Secondary Highland Secondary Hornby Island Elementary Huband Park Elementary Mark R. Isfeld Secondary Miracle Beach Elementary Queneesh Elementary Royston Elementary Valley View Elementary Cumberland Recreation Centre CFB Comox

Local school, youth and masters leagues

Comox Valley Masters League Comox Valley Youth Basketball League

Biathlon and Para-biathlon Mount Washington Alpine Resort Vancouver Island Biathlon Club

Have developed an International Standard Biathlon Range with automated target system. Hosted Olympic and Paralympic teams for training. Have hosted regional races and IPC World Cup in partnership with Strathcona Nordics.

Bobsleigh - Skeleton

Bocce Many locations… Kingfisher Oceanside Resort & Spa BC Senior Games

Bowling Codes Country Lanes Strong

Bowls - Lawn Bill Moore Park

Medium Comox Valley Lawn Bowling Club BC Senior Games

Bowls - Carpet Evergreen Senior Clubs

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Boxing Private Club

Broomball No interest

Canoe – Flat Water Baynes Sound Comox Harbour Georgia Strait

Weak Gaining in popularity

Canoe – Adaptive Baynes Sound Comox Harbour

Cerebral Palsy Sports Mount Washington Alpine Resort

Cheerleading Island Spirit Sports

Climbing Lewis Centre Cumberland Recreation Centre Mount Washington Comox Lake Crags

Cricket Sports Centre Track Weak Comox Valley Cricket Club

Cross Country Skiing and Para-Cross Country Skiing Mount Washington Alpine Resort

Strong Vancouver Island Mountain Sports Centre Strathcona Nordics

Hosted 2 IPC World Cups 10 year Hosting strategy

Curling & Special “O” Comox Valley Curling Club Can be done in any arena Strong membership per capita Do not have a facility large enough for

spectators to host large events Cycling - BMX Cumberland Recreation Centre Strong

Cycling – Mt. Bike Mount Washington Alpine Resort Cumberland Recreation Centre Cumberland and Forbidden Trail Networks Hornby Island Elementary

Medium United Riders of Cumberland

Provincial Races & Canada Cup – downhill and cross country BC Bike Race

Cycling – Road and Handcycling Multiple road loops (if surfaced properly) Medium

Cycling - Track

Dirt Biking Cumberland

Diving Comox Valley Aquatic Centre

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Dodge ball Comox Recreation Centre Lewis Centre Cumberland Junior Secondary

Medium

Dragon boat Comox Harbour Strong Blazzing Paddles

Gaining in popularity Part of the BC Senior Games

Equine Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds Strong

Fencing Comox Recreation Centre

Field Hockey School fields

Figure Skate Comox Valley Sports Centre Strong

Football Lewis Park School Fields

Freestyle Ski Mount Washington Alpine Resort Strong Ski X Big Air Jump Jam

Gaelic Football

Goalball

Golf

Crown Isle Golf Resort Glacier Greens Golf Course Sunny Dale Mulligans Comox Golf Course Longlands

Gymnastics-Artistic and Adaptive

Comox Recreation Centre Lewis Park School gymnasiums

Gymnastics-Rhythmic and Adaptive

Comox Recreation Centre Lewis Park School gymnasiums

Handball Lewis Park Courtenay Recreation Centre Comox Recreation Centre

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Hiking/Back Country Touring/Skiing

Mount Washington Coal Hills Strathcona Park/Forbidden Plateau

Outdoor Vancouver Island Alpine Club Strathcona Nordics Ski Club

Hockey Comox Valley Sports Centre Glacier Gardens Arena

Extremely strong Comox Valley Minor Hockey Adult Recreation Hockey

Limited to the amount of surfaces Largest minor hockey registration on Vancouver Island, and least number of ice surfaces.

Hockey – Sledge Comox Valley Sports Centre Glacier Gardens Arena Provided facilities for Olympic training

Hockey - Ball

Airport Elementary Arden Elementary Aspen Park Elementary Brooklyn Elementary Brookyln Elementary Courtenay Elementary Cumberland Elementary Denman Island Elementary École Puntledge Park Elementary École Robb Road Elementary Georges P. Vanier Secondary Highland Secondary Hornby Island Elementary Huband Park Elementary Mark R. Isfeld Secondary Miracle Beach Elementary Queneesh Elementary Royston Elementary Valley View Elementary

Judo Any gymnasium Kabbadi

Karate Comox Recreation Centre Lewis Centre Any gymnasium

Medium

Kayak - Flat water and Adaptive Kayak

Baynes Sound Comox Harbour Comox Lake Georgia Straight

Weak

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Kayak - White water and Adaptive Kayak

Baynes Sound Comox Harbour Puntledge River Browns River Oyster river

Weak Puntledge Kayak Festival

Kite Surfing

Lacrosse - Box Martin Park Indoor lacrosse arenas/curling club

Lacrosse - Field Lewis Centre Highland Secondary Valley View Elementary

Lifesaving Society Comox Valley Aquatic Centre Sports Centre Outdoor Pool

Luge

Luge – Naturbahn, Volksrodel

Mixed Martial Arts Comox Recreation Centre Courtenay Recreation Centre

Netball

Nordic combined Mount Washington Alpine Resort 1009 IPC World Cup

Orienteering Mount Washington

Outrigger Canoe Estuary Comox Harbour Strait of Georgia Baynes Sound

Gaining momentum and interest

Pickleball Any gymnasium with a badminton court Native Sons Hall Weak BC Senior Games

Pole Walking, Nordic Walking Mount Washington

Polo Exhibition Grounds

Racquetball Comox Valley Recreation Centre Courtenay Recreation Centre

Ringette Sports Centre Glacier Gardens

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Rock Climbing (Bouldering) Courtenay Recreation Centre Comox Lake Crags

Rodeo Exhibition Grounds Norwood Annual event at Norwood

Roller Skating/Blading Lacrosse Box – Highland Secondary and Martin Park

Rowing and Adaptive Rowing Estuary

Rugby Lake Trail Park Fallen Alders Park Kin Park

Scuba Diving & Snorkeling Hornby Island Various clubs

Shooting Comox Valley Fish and Game

Skateboard Lewis Centre Mark R. Isfeld Secondary Valley View Elementary

Ski jumping

Snowboard and Para-Snowboard Mount Washington Strong IPC World Cup

Snowshoeing Mount Washington Alpine Resort YETI Snowshoe Race (annual) - private

Soccer – youth, co-ed, women, men

Comox Recreation Centre Brooklyn Elementary École Robb Road Elementary Mark R. Isfeld Secondary Valley View Elementary Highland Secondary

Very Strong

1100 – 1200 registrants BC Senior Games Provincial tournaments Mini World Cup

Softball – Fast pitch – Slow pitch

Airport Elementary Brooklyn Elementary Comox Recreation Centre École Robb Road Elementary Valley View Elementary Highland Secondary Lewis Centre

Strong

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Special O Operation High Jump Provincial

Speed Skating

Sport Parachute

Squash Lewis Centre Comox Recreation Centre Cumberland Recreation Centre

Medium BC Provincials

Stand up Paddle Boarding Compass Adventure

Swimming Lewis Centre Comox Valley Aquatic Centre Comox Valley Sports Centre

Blue Devil Swim Club (medium) Sharks Swim Club (medium) Masters

Clubs not well advertised or known Regular swim meets at Aquatic Centre BC Senior Games

Synchro Swimming Lewis Centre Comox Valley Aquatic Centre Comox Valley Sports Centre

Weak Not well known – meet at Aquatic Centre

Table Tennis Comox Community Centre Filberg Centre

Taekwondo Comox Recreation Centre Lewis Centre Weak

Team Handball Cumberland Recreation Centre Medium

Tennis Comox Recreation Centre Anderton Tennis Courts Robb Road Tennis Courts Lewis Park

Trail running Mount Washington Road Runners Gut Buster Trail Run

Triathlon Comox Valley Sports Cetnre Triathlon Club Annual Trik Triathlon

Ultimate (Disc sports) Comox Recreation Centre Vanier Mount Washington

Comox Valley Social Club

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Volleyball - Indoor

Lewis Centre Airport Elementary Arden Elementary Aspen Park Elementary Brooklyn Elementary Brookyln Elementary Courtenay Elementary Cumberland Elementary Denman Island Elementary École Puntledge Park Elementary École Robb Road Elementary Georges P. Vanier Secondary Highland Secondary Hornby Island Elementary Huband Park Elementary Mark R. Isfeld Secondary Miracle Beach Elementary Queneesh Elementary Royston Elementary Valley View Elementary Comox Valley Recreation Centre Courtenay Recreation Centre Cumberland Recreation Centre

School teams Community recreation Comox Valley Social Club

Volleyball - Outdoor Standard Park Comox Valley Social Club Beach volleyball

Volleyball - Sit

Water Polo Comox Valley Aquatic Centre Lewis Centre CFB Comox

CFB

Water Ski & Wakeboard & Wake Surfing

Comox Lake Saratoga Beach

Annual Event

Weightlifting

Comox Recreation Centre Comox Valley Aquatic Centre Comox Valley Sports Centre Cumberland Recreation Centre Lewis Centre Lake Trail School Cumberland Recreation Centre

School and local camps

Wheelchair Basketball Facilities available at schools Weak

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Wheelchair Rugby

Wheelchair Tennis

Wrestling Facilities available at schools Local intramural programs

Yachting Marina Park and Comox Rotary Mariner’s Pavilion

Comox Valley Yacht Club 19 Wing Power Squadron

Yachting - Windsurf Marina Park and Comox Rotary Mariner’s Pavilion

Comox Valley Yacht Club

ACTION ITEM 3: Use the Local Sport Event Hosting Capacity chart to create a directory of your local sport clubs with contact information. The person taking the lead for coordinating sport tourism initiatives in Comox Valley can use this list to connect stakeholders and build professional contacts. Keep the contact list up to date. Use the directory of sport clubs to do a sport club audit and create Sport Comox Valley– the community’s sport council. Have 1- 2 representatives from Sport Comox Valley present at the community’s sport tourism planning discussions. Contact other local communities that have existing sport councils such as Nelson, Richmond, North Okanagan and Calgary to get some recommendations for forming a sport council.

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Tools and Resources for Sport Event Organizers Workshop participants were asked to record their individual responses to compile a list of tools and resources for sport event organizers and submitted them to the facilitators. These responses have been summarized below:

• Facility Inventory • Volunteer Database (from special events) • Comox Valley Volunteer Organization • Websites • Accommodation Inventory • CVEDS website

SWOT Analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats Below is a summary of SWOT analysis of sport tourism in the Comox Valley based on the information provided by community stakeholders at the workshop. Strengths

• Cross training opportunities (mountain to ocean) • Spa and shopping amenities • Natural wellness and alternative health services • “Soft” adventure • Agricultural and culinary destination • Quality, quantity and choices for accommodation • Nice weather • Mount Washington as a destination • Excellent golf facilities (Crown Isle) • Great mountain biking trails • Success with hosting previous events (BC Seniors Games, IPC World Cup, Olympic training, etc) • Large and experienced group of volunteers • Year-round outdoor activities • World class facilities and programs for training – Nordic, biathlon, skiing, mountain biking, etc. • Accessible by air transportation • Support of local government • Committed event sponsors and hosts • Island Highway – easy and fast transportation

Weaknesses

• Transportation • Lack of signage and marketing • Do not have a community events calendar • Lack of a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) • 3 towns, not just 1 location • Lack of communication between organizations • Lack of allocated funding

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• Ageing community • Require an economic impact study • No political champion • Lack of permanent facilities for certain sports as well as seating capacity • Lack of public land for new facility development • Weak volunteer leadership (ageing) • Time consuming and expensive to travel to the island – require ferry or air transport • Lack community sport culture awareness • No local and major corporate sponsorship • Do not have a strategy or a sport tourism association

Opportunities

• Ageing demographic – participate in Senior Games and Masters competitions or as volunteers • Create “Sport Comox Valley” • Capitalize on 2010 Legacy • Comox Valley Mountain Sport Centre • Sage Hills Sports Academy • Population growth • Airport expansion and strong transportation sector • Safe and clean environment • NIC Tourism Program review • New Visitor’s Centre • Comox/First Nations Treaty increases involvement and development of aboriginal sports • Accommodation capacity – room for growth in off season • CVED contests and marketing plan in place • Use social media as a marketing tool • Small community size makes organization easy • Prior experience hosting International events • Received international media exposure for hosting Olympic training • 10 year hosting strategy in place • Close proximity to Vancouver and Whistler

Threats

• Lose momentum and continuity due to large time lapses between events • Lack of focus on sport hosting opportunities • Location is difficult to access from mainland • Unmotivated, relaxed population • Logging threatens existing and future mountain biking, hiking and ski touring areas • Land access conflicts • Burnout volunteer community • Ageing population • Budget cuts • Competition with other communities • Lack of resources and sponsorship – funding, facilities, volunteers • Politics in sports • Lack of managerial experience and skills

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Themes After working through the workshop exercises, workshop participants identified the following themes to provide some focus for sport tourism in the Comox Valley. Items in bold were identified as the most important by workshop participants:

• Alpine to Ocean • Outdoor Adventure (Mt. Washington year-round) • Seniors • Students

Goals for the next 12-18 months Below is a summary of goals for sport tourism in the Comox Valley in the next 12-18 months based on the information provided by community stakeholders at the workshop. Items are listed in order of importance as ranked by the workshop participants. The highest priority items are in bold:

6 – months (April 2011)

• Follow-up meeting (late November)

• Circulate the Advanced Sport Tourism Workshop Report (this document)

• Circulate the Comox Valley Sport Tourism Profile

• Form a Sport Committee - liaise or join Comox Sport Valley

• Create Mission Statement and Committee Vision

• Roles, responsibilities and organizational chart

• Create inventory of all tourism and sport organizations and businesses

• Look for political support

• Forecast the Budget – discuss funding ideas

• Create Event Listing – short and long term bid options

• Media Release

12 – months (October 2011)

• Steering Committee is in place - sport and tourism partnership is formed

• Gain political support

• Implement a community engagement strategy

• Find avenues for media coverage and support (including social media)

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18 – months (April 2012)

• Sport Committee or equivalent body if formally recognized

• Funding is in place – through sport organizations and tourism sector

• Sport tourism marketing plan - target markets and strategies identified

• Community is informed and supports sport tourism

ACTION ITEM 4:

The key contacts for coordinating sport tourism in the Comox Valley identified at the workshop were: Tourism Comox Valley – Jennifer Evans

– Lara Greasley

Municipality/Regional District – Sheila VanNus – Darcy Walters

Sport – Len Apedaile – Martin Ready

Other – Pat English (Sage Hills) – Leah Knutson – Brad Knight (Mt. Washington)

The coordinating group will organize opportunities for the broader sport tourism stakeholder group to get involved with planning and implementing sport tourism activities.

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SUMMARY OF COMOX VALLEY SPORT TOURISM ACTION ITEMS

The following table summarizes the action items identified at the workshop by workshop participants. Workshop participants selected a working group to be the key contacts for moving forward with this report in the Comox Valley. During your first follow-up meeting, use this list as a starting point for next steps.

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Action Item

Description Responsibility Status

1 Use the list of Sport Events Previously Hosted as a starting point for a record of all the sport events the Comox Valley has hosted. Use this information when bidding for events, and when getting ideas for which events to target and host. Keep the list up to date and ensure that it is accessible to all appropriate sport tourism stakeholders in the community.

2 Use the Sport Hosting Facilities chart to get a sense of what sports the Comox Valley can host at each facility and use that information to discuss opportunities with facility management. Discuss sport event hosting with facility management to learn about when the facilities can be made available for events and what special rental rates can be negotiated.

3 Use the Local Sport Event Hosting Capacity chart to create a directory of your local sport clubs with contact information. The person taking the lead for coordinating sport tourism initiatives in the Comox Valley can use this list to connect stakeholders and build professional contacts. Keep the contact list up to date.

Use the directory of sport clubs to do a sport club audit and create Sport Comox Valley – the community’s sport council. Have 1-2 representatives from Sport Comox Valley present at the community’s sport tourism planning discussions.

Contact other local communities that have existing sport councils such as Nelson, Richmond, North Okanagan and Calgary to get some recommendations for forming a sport council.

4 The key contacts for coordinating sport tourism in the Comox Valley identified at the workshop were:

Tourism Comox Valley – Jennifer Evans – Lara Greasley

Municipality/Regional District – Sheila VanNus – Darcy Walters

Sport – Len Apedaile – Martin Ready

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Other – Pat English (Sage Hills)

– Leah Knutson – Brad Knight (Mt. Washington)

The coordinating group will organize opportunities for the broader sport tourism stakeholder group to get involved with planning and implementing sport tourism activities.

5 Form a larger sport tourism working committee to discuss the community’s sport tourism goals. Make an action plan to implement the tactics for the next six months as outlined below and monitor progress.

• Follow-up meeting (late November) • Circulate the Advanced Sport Tourism Workshop Report (this document) • Circulate the Comox Valley Sport Tourism Profile • Form a Sport Committee - liaise or join Comox Sport Valley • Create Mission Statement and Committee Vision • Roles, responsibilities and organizational chart • Create inventory of all tourism and sport organizations and businesses • Look for political support • Forecast the Budget – discuss funding ideas • Create Event Listing – short and long term bid options • Media Release

7 Continue to be an active member of the BC Sport Tourism Network, participate in the quarterly conference calls and receive the biweekly e-newsletter.

8 Maintain the Comox Valley’s presence on www.HostingBC.ca Upload/update sport facility information and images as applicable.

9 Attend the BC Sport Tourism Events Marketplace on November 24th, 2010 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. For more information about the event and to register go to: www.bcsporttourismmarketplace.com

Appendix 1: KEY SUCCESS FACTORS AND CASE STUDIES

This section presents three case studies relating to sport tourism and some of the key success factors associated with them.

CREATED EVENT – KARATE CHAMPIONSHIP In this Canadian community, there were a number of karate clubs that run local tournaments and had a dedicated fan base for the sport. Local and regional tournaments took place in these clubs in which the winners would represent their club or region at tournaments in the U.S. or overseas. There was interest from the local clubs to see if there might be potential for an event based in this community where participants could perform in front of a home town crowd and not need to incur costs for travel. The sport tourism manager did some research into other karate championships and met with all 5 local clubs and determined that there was potential to create a new karate championship that would draw participants from all over North America. Two of the key factors included providing enough prize money to draw the participants to the community (as this was a key motivation for participants) and ensuring all the sanctions were in place from provincial and national karate organizations. The community secured a venue and then started to seek out corporate sponsorship (in cash) to build up a solid revenue base to allow for a large amount to be awarded to the winning participants. It then targeted a prize amount that would be competitive with other competitions in North America and added some unique features in terms of discounted accommodation costs, discounted restaurant vouchers, and a banquet with entertainment. Once the targeted amount of prize money was secured, the community began planning to create awareness for the event. It used the network of local karate clubs to use their contacts to promote the event in Canada and in the U.S. It spent about $10,000 in promoting the event and set a deadline for registration approximately 3 months in advance of the event. The target was to draw 200 participants. Due to the targeted promotion of the event to karate clubs across North America that highlighted the prize money that would be available, the event drew approximately 250 participants from all over North America. Many came to the community early and stayed longer as the age categories started at 12 and as a result, many participants travelled with parents and family. The event was held just prior to U.S. Thanksgiving so the community could draw on families taking a vacation as part of their trip to the competition. The event made approximately $15,000 which went back to the 5 local karate clubs in the community. The objective was to make this an annual championship. However, many of the leaders from the local clubs who were instrumental in putting on this event had moved on to other positions and the sport tourism manager left. As a result, the event did not continue. Key points to consider:

• Significant numbers of participants in karate organized into clubs in this community. • Community already had experience hosting local and regional tournaments. • Sufficient financial support was obtained as one of the first steps. • The event was scheduled close to a holiday period to make it easier for participants to travel. • Large, first-time events can over burden the volunteer community and cause burn-out. Ensuring there is

enough organizational depth to facilitate hosting future events is an important consideration.

WORLD POLICE AND FIRE GAMES IN BC The World Police and Fire Games are one of the largest sporting events in the world, with more than 60 sporting events, more than 40 venues, 10 days of competition, over 10,000 athletes from more than 70 countries, and over 20,000 family, guests, and officials. In 2009, they were held in the Lower Mainland and Sea to Sky region in BC from July 31 to August 9. While such events are rare and the competition to host them is stiff, the principles associated with running a successful event can be applied to many other events. The vision for the World Police and Fire Games:

In the spirit of eagles Community, comradeship, and competition

The mission for the World Police and Fire Games:

To successfully attract the most athletes and visitors, that they have an ultimate competitive and travel experience and generate lifelong memories, world-wide recognition and lasting legacies.

Some basics about the World Police and Fire Games:

• Open to all full time, professional law enforcement officers, firefighters, customs agents, and corrections agents

• Held every two years • Masters style event with age, gender, and skill brackets • 2,100 gold medals to be awarded • Up to 2,500 volunteer hosts • Sport venues include Lower Mainland and Sea to Sky region • Nightly live entertainment featured in Games village in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Whistler sport hubs • Net proceeds from 2009 Games will go to three BC-based charitable organizations: Law Enforcement

Torch Run for Special Olympics, Professional Firefighters Burn Fund, KidSport • 2009 is the second time the event has been in the Vancouver area (previously in 1989) and the first time it

has returned to a previous site • Previously been in Calgary in 1997 and Quebec City in 2005 • 2011 event will be held in New York City and 2013 event in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

World Police and Fire Games objectives:

• Deliver a friendly Games, inclusive to all • Deliver a first-class experience for participants, volunteers, sponsors, and spectators • Deliver a fiscally-responsible Games • Deliver a diverse and exciting BC experience for our visitors • Provide a legacy to local communities, children’s sports, and participants • Deliver a culturally-rich experience for local centres and our communities.

Marketing activities to reach participants:

• E-marketing to over 20,000 previous participants • E-newsletters every two weeks • Attendance at emergency services sporting events • Exhibits at industry events, conferences, and trade shows.

Awareness campaign to community:

• Official media partnerships and advertising campaign (TV and print) • Advertorials in BC Business magazine • Games poster and printed materials • Street banner and official venue signage program • Exhibits at public events such as Abbotsford Air Show, PNE, etc.

Website features:

• www.2009wpfg.ca • “Ask Jill” information email address for FAQ • Make accommodation bookings • Find general Games information • Search sport schedule and sport venue listing • Interactive map of Metro Vancouver with venues and hotels • Find out more about sponsor partners and supporting agencies • Online official merchandise store • 2009 Games blog • Facebook link and page • Twitter link and page.

Some advice from the event organizers is presented here. How to choose the right sporting events for your community To increase your community’s chance of being successful in being awarded a sporting event, decide what events are the right fit for the community. To determine this, ask:

• What assets do we have – good facilities, skilled and well-connected sport people, local athletes, volunteers, sponsors, media, spectators?

• What kind of sport community are we – a soccer community, a hockey community, etc.? This is an indicator of the number and quality of volunteers that might be available.

• What level of competition can we do well for particular sport – provincial, national, international? What have we successfully hosted before?

• How many teams or competitors can we accommodate in hotels, sport facilities, transportation system, restaurants, entertainment options?

• What time of year is best to host an event – when are sport facilities, accommodation available? • Can the event be profitable in our community? • How strong is our community’s will to host this event? • How does this event fit in with our community’s long-term tourism plans?

How to plan for the event once your community has been awarded it These might have already been addressed in your bid but are important to keep in mind as your community starts to put plans in place to host the event.

• Determine what your event goals are. Are they to raise money, provide entertainment for your residents, raise the profile of the community, create awareness for new facilities, host a higher level of competition, attract international competitors, etc.?

• Know that your community’s event can be two of: - Fun, fast, or cheap – pick 2.

• Know the difference between “doing things right” and “doing the right thing”. Sometimes they are the same and sometimes not.

• In creating the event organizing team, surround yourself with a great team from committee members to staff to volunteers. Make sure they “fit” together and there is no “class” system.

• Break the project down into pieces – and then concentrate on each manageable piece. • Make the event fun for all involved, from athletes to volunteers to spectators to sponsors. This means

giving real value to those paying to participate and treating athletes like the stars they are. • Ensure clockwork execution where nothing is left to chance. This means the leadership team has

contingency plans and has thought through every detail

Budget philosophy • When planning the budget, be conservative with revenue and generous with expenses. Revenues include

concession revenue, athlete fees, sponsors, government partners, fees for social and cultural events. For major events such as the World Police and Fire Games, government funding assistance is essential. Expenses include $750K sanctioning fee and professional staff.

• However, when operating the event, try to get everything for free or minimal costs. Organizational philosophy For a sporting event, an “instant” organization is formed where the organization goes from zero to many staff in a matter of months. Some things to keep in mind:

• Volunteers provide a great community connection and are the true spirit of any event. However, they are not free and are not there for event organizers to exploit or to be treated as free labour.

• Volunteers need to have a purpose, need to be integrated with staff, and need to be respected for giving their time.

• Volunteers need to be recognized, praised for their work, and need to receive some benefits (that could include training sessions, recognition program, privileges at the event, high quality uniforms, merchandise, etc.)

Post event activities

• Survey your staff and volunteers • Draft a report on the “good” and the “bad” and identify best practices so there is a knowledge transfer to

ensure your community becomes even better at hosting sporting events • Remember to give post-event reports to sponsors so they will return. • Complete economic impact calculations after the event.

Key points to consider:

• A major sporting event can generate significant economic benefits to a community and significant financial and other legacies for community and sport groups.

• A potential sporting event should be chosen with care to ensure a good fit with the community’s assets and interests.

• Volunteers need to be cared for and recognized to ensure a positive experience not only for a particular event but to build a volunteer corps for future events.

• Post-event reporting is important for knowledge transfer and to encourage sponsors and partners to participate in future events.

ST. CATHARINES SPORT TOURISM GRANT CASE STUDY St. Catharines, Ontario was trying to balance the needs of community users of its municipal recreation facilities and the needs of sporting events. Historically, St. Catharines’ recreation facility policies were developed primarily for access by residents. Facilities were made available for sport events after community users are satisfied. However, St. Catharines is now considering the longer-term community and economic benefits of hosting sport events and seeing to create better balance between community users and sport events. Previously, St. Catharines had a rebate program for all tournaments using municipal facilities. This was subsequently dropped in favour of a new grant program that recognized the economic benefits of sport events that draw visitors from outside the community. This new grant program has the following features:

• Essentially acts as a post-event rebate on fees for municipal facilities. • Eligible sport events must be measured with an agreed-to economic impact model. • Eligible events need to achieve a minimum number of overnight stays in St. Catharines and include hotels,

motels, bed & breakfasts, and private residences (with a maximum percentage of room nights allowed for stays at private residences).

• Eligible events start with a base 15% discount off rental fees for municipal facilities plus $1.25 per confirmed room night.

This grant is over and above any hotel commissions or sponsorships. The process involves: • Pre-event

- Event organizers prepare an application that includes estimates of participants and spectators and projected economic impact using a prescribed economic impact model.

- Municipal staff interview event organizers and confirm application including special facility requirements.

• Post event - Municipal staff receive and reconcile receipts and tallies for overnight stays from event organizers and

accommodation providers. - Event organizers complete the prescribed economic impact model for review by municipal staff. - Municipal staff calculates the grant amount: 15% x facility cost + ($1.25 x room nights) and prepares a

report to municipal council. - Once approved, municipal staff forwards a cheque to event organizers with a copy of the economic impact

statement for use in next year’s sponsorship drive. At a particular point in time, St. Catharines has 11 eligible events. This program has generated 2 new events and several more enquiries. As a result of this program, event organizers are planning their events to draw visitors from further away to maximize grant and hotel revenues. The total annual amount provided in the form of these grants is about $35K. Some issues still to be resolved include:

• Possible inequities in grants because cost of facilities vary widely (i.e. ice surfaces have higher fees resulting in ice-related tournaments receiving larger grants than say, field-based tournaments).

• The grants are applicable only to municipally-owned facilities. Need to address non-municipally-owned facilities.

• Scheduling of ice time does not take place until July for the year, which does not give event organizers sufficient lead time.

Key points to consider:

• Grant is provided after the sport event is held and is based on a prescribed economic impact model. • Grant encourages more overnight stays. • Grant is on top of commissions or sponsorships received from accommodation providers. • Room nights at private residences may be difficult to verify and perhaps could be excluded from grant

calculation.

Appendix 2: CHARACTERISTICS OF SPORT TOURISTS BY SPORT

SPORT TOURISM VISITORS This section describes the characteristics of the sport tourism target population.

Information is available for tourists who play sport and for those who are spectators, in total and for numerous major sports separately. For “sports players” and “sports spectators” in total, information is available for those who participate in an activity on a trip and also for those who took a trip motivated by sports.

Participant demographic and behavioural profile information is based largely on the 2006 Travel Activities and Motivation Survey (TAMS) study, which classified travellers based on whether they took part in activities during any trip in the past two years.

Information Sources

The source of most of this analysis is the Travel Activities and Motivation Survey (TAMS) study conducted in 2006 by a consortium of tourism research organizations including Tourism BC. This study involves a very large sample of 21,000 Canadian and 47,000 US adult travellers, allowing analysis by specific groups participating in many activities on their overnight trips.

Participation in a sport or activity is based on reported participation in the sport on any overnight trip in the prior 2 years. The study also covered destinations visited, including BC, but activity and destinations are not linked, so BC visitors (in the last two years) who took part in a sport may not have done so on the BC trip.

Profile information is often presented using an index showing over/under development of the demographic/behaviour group versus total travellers set to index 100. For example, an index of 200 shows twice as many in the group participate in the activity as the percentage of all travellers participate.

Results following are extracted from a variety of different reports, and the categorizations of “sport tourists” vary. The principal sub-groups are those who watched sports events on a trip and those who played sports.

Demographic and behavioural profile data is shown for Canadian travellers, but US market information is also available from Tourism BC. Wherever possible, data has been presented for travellers to/in BC to increase relevance to BC. Size of the Market (Number of Sport Tourism Travellers) The TAMS 2006 analyses provide estimates of sport tourists, including those playing sports on a trip and those watching sports on a trip, the latter including both amateur sports tournaments and professional sports. Twenty percent of Canadian travellers visiting BC said they had played sports on a trip in the last two years, and one-third said they had watched sports during a trip.

However, it is an exaggeration to regard anyone participating in a sport on a trip as a sport tourist, as this includes someone who plays or watches a game on a trip taken for other reasons. The more meaningful definition of sport tourism is those who take a trip motivated by playing or watching sport, i.e., it was the primary purpose of the trip. About 1.1 million Canadian travellers who visited BC in two years took a trip in that period motivated by sport tourism (not necessarily a BC trip). These represented 20 percent of all Canadian travellers to BC. Within these, 500,000 took a trip in order to play sport and 900,000 took a trip in order to watch sport. 1.6 million US visitors to BC in two years had taken a trip (anywhere) motivated by playing or watching sport. Playing or watching sports on any leisure trip in last two years

Canadian Travellers United States

Travellers

Total Travelled to BC Total Travelled

to BC Total Adult Population 24.8 million 222.8 million Total Leisure Travellers 18.4 million 5.7 million 170.5 million 7.0 million Percentages below of travellers % % % % Played sports on any overnight trip 3.5 million 1.1 million 25.8 million 1.3 million 19% 20% 15% 18% Watched sports on any overnight trip 4.9 million 1.8 million 42.6 million 2.6 million 27% 32% 25% 37% Took any overnight trip motivated by 1.6 million 0.5 million 10.2 million playing sports 9% 9% 6% Took any overnight trip motivated by 2.5 million 0.9 million 22.8 million watching sports 13% 15% 13% Took any trip overnight motivated by 1.1 million 1.6 million playing sports or watching sports 20% 23% Watched amateur tournament on trip (inc. non-sport tournament) 2.2 million 13.1 million

12% 8%

- Primary Purpose 1.1 million 6.7 million 6% 4% Watched professional sports on trip 2.9 million

16%

- Primary Purpose 1.2 million 7%

Sport Tourism Visitor Spending and Market Value Estimates There are no definitive estimates of the volume of sport tourism trips and its tourism revenue value, so “best estimates” have to be used. Each of the following calculations has limitations, and their purpose is only to give an order of magnitude Volume of Trips Motivated by Sport tourism While the TAMS data shows that 20 percent of Canadian travellers to BC took at least one trip in the last two years motivated by sport tourism, sport tourism is of course a much smaller proportion of travel than this, as sports may only have accounted for one trip a traveller took among many in two years. The Travel Survey of Residents of Canada (TSRC) tabulates the activities on travellers’ most recent overnight trip. In 2007, 3.7 percent of BC visitors reported being a spectator at a sports event and 2.2 percent playing a team sport on their last trip. The similar ITS study tracking US visitors reported that 3.3 percent of BC visitors reported taking part in a “sports event” on their last trip. These studies do not report on whether sport was the motivation for the last trip or an incidental activity. The TAMS study found that very close to half of those taking part in sports activity on a trip were motivated to take the trip by the sports activity. Using this ratio, the estimates of the percentage of overnight travel trips to BC that are motivated by sport tourism are: Canadians: Spectator sporting event 1.8%

Playing team sports 1.0% Total sport tourism 2.8% US visitors: Sports Event 1.7% TSRC reports the proportion of Canadians’ day trips motivated by sport tourism is 2.2 percent. Note some limitations on these estimates. Being based on adults, this data does not capture children’s activity unless they are accompanied by an adult from their household. Also the data slightly under-represents the sector by not including playing individual sports, sports meetings, camps and courses. However, using this data for an overall “best estimate”, it appears sport tourism accounts for about 2.5 percent of BC travel trips, which means that there are more than 500,000 overnight sport tourism trips in BC annually. Value of Tourism Expenditure Two previous broad estimates of tourism expenditure provide an “order of magnitude” of sport tourism. In 2003, Tourism BC estimated sport tourism in BC generated approximately $150 million in tourism revenue. As total tourism revenue at that time was approx. $9.5 billion, sport tourism was about 1.5 percent of total tourism revenue. The Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance quoted a CTC estimate of sport tourism in Canada in 2001 being worth $1.2 billion. The total value of Canadian tourism for 2001 was estimated at $55 billion, implying sport tourism was two percent of the total. These value estimates and the BC visitor volume estimate of 2.5 percent of trips (noting that some sport tourism is lower yield) converge to a best estimate of the value of BC sport tourism as being worth 2.0 to 2.5 percent of total tourism spending. With a base of $13.2 billion dollars in BC provincial tourism revenue in 2007, this suggests sport tourism in BC generates about $300 million per year in tourism revenue. The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and associated sport tourism investments dramatically increased sport tourism in BC in 2009 and 2010.

Characteristics of Sport Tourists Demographic Profile of Sport Tourists Sport tourism is popular with most demographic sub-groups, but tourists motivated to take overnight trips for sport are more likely to be male and younger/middle-aged, and families with children are over-represented. Among Canadians who have visited BC in the last two years, and who have also taken a trip primarily motivated by playing or watch sports, males account for 60 percent of travellers and females 40 percent. 64 percent of adults who have taken a trip to play sports are aged 18 to 44, as are 58 percent of those who have been motivated to take a trip to watch sports. Relatively few (15%) of those travelling to play sports are over 55 (half their incidence among all travellers), although more (21%) of sport spectators are aged 55 and over. Sport tourists also skew slightly toward higher household income. Sport tourism appeals reasonably equally to all education groups other than those with least education. 38 percent of those who take trips to play sport have children at home, one-third higher than among all Canadian travellers.

Demographics of Sport Tourists (on Overnight Trip in 2 Yrs) Sport Tourism Primary Motivation for Trip – BC Visitors

TAMS 2006 Total Travellers

Sports Players on Trip

Index to All

Travellers

Sports Spectators

on Trip

Index to All

Travellers Total 5,651,177 501,983 856,161 9% 15% Male 50% 61% 121 61% 122 Female 50% 40% 79 39% 78 Age 18-34 31% 39% 123 40% 128 35-44 19% 25% 133 18% 95 45-54 21% 21% 100 22% 101 55-64 15% 11% 74 13% 85 65+ 14% 4% 30 8% 59 Household Income Under $40,000 20% 17% 84 17% 83 $40,000-$59,999 16% 13% 84 10% 66 $60,000-$99,999 31% 34% 111 33% 105 $100,000 or more 33% 36% 107 40% 122 Education Less than Secondary 7% 4% 61 4% 56 Completed Secondary 25% 30% 118 28% 113 Some Post Secondary 12% 12% 101 11% 89 Completed Post Secondary 55% 53% 97 57% 103 Household Composition Adults only 70% 61% 87 68% 97 Children under 17 28% 38% 134 30% 105

Activities and Interests of Sport Tourists Tourists motivated to take overnight trips for sports are very active travellers. They have high levels of participation in many sporting activities, and they are also above average participants in most other outdoor activities and most cultural activities. They like “doing things”, both sports and others. The Canadian travellers who have taken trips purposely to play sports have a high level of interest in playing numerous sports, in watching sports at amateur tournaments and professional events, and taking part in other outdoor activities, including golf, water-based adventure and winter activities. Their trips can also involve a wide range of cultural activities, for example about one-quarter visit well-known historical sites. Music and arts events they attend on trips skew to popular rather than classical, and those activities appealing to their younger demographic profile. Canadians who take overnight trips to watch sporting events are very interested in a multiplicity of sport spectator events, with amateur tournaments and professional ice hockey being most popular. They also like playing sports and taking part in other outdoor activities. The summary table below shows the sports and other outdoor activities in which the development index for the sub-groups of sport tourists motivated by playing sports and watching sports index at least 200 versus all Canadian tourists, i.e., twice as many of the group took part in the activity than did so among all travellers. The tables following overleaf show the full listing of sports/outdoors activities and cultural events in which these groups participated on trips. For example, 13 percent of travellers who had taken a trip in order to play sports curled on trips, this proportion being more than eight times higher than the incidence among all travellers.

Canadian Sport Tourists: Very High Development Sports/Outdoor Activities Index vs. All Travellers = 200+

Travellers Motivated to Take Trip by Playing Sports Travellers Motivated to Take Trip by Watching Sports

1.6 million (9% of all) % Also

Participate

Index to All

Travellers 2.5 million (13% of all) % Also

Participate

Index to All

Travellers

Playing Curling 13% 847 Watching Curling Bonspiel 8% 447 Playing Ice Hockey 42% 796 Watching Auto Races 18% 438 Playing Baseball or Softball 22% 697 Watch Amateur Sports Tourn’s 47% 419 Playing Basketball 9% 531 Watching Pro. Football 14% 403 Playing Soccer 12% 522 Watching Prof. Ice Hockey 35% 368 Watching Curling Bonspiel 8% 488 Watching Pro. Baseball 20% 361 Playing Volleyball 12% 468 Playing Curling 5% 360 Playing Bowling 14% 349 Playing Ice Hockey 18% 338 Watch Amateur Sport Tournaments 36% 322 Playing Baseball or Softball 9% 297 Watching Pro. Football 11% 309 Playing Soccer 5% 226 Playing Beach Volleyball 10% 271 Water Skiing 12% 214 Snowboarding 11% 258 Golfing - Stay Golf Resort 9% 207 Playing Tennis 7% 256 Snowmobiling - Day Use 9% 207 Watching Pro. Ice Hockey 24% 246 Playing Basketball 3% 206 Water Skiing 13% 232 White Water Rafting 7% 232 Golfing - Stay Golf Resort 10% 218 Ice-Skating 22% 215 Golfing - Occasional 33% 202

Outdoor and Sports Activities of Canadian Sport Tourists (on Overnight Trip in 2 Years) Sport Tourism Primary Motivation for Trip

Activities minimum 5% participation on overnight trips

Total Travellers

Sports Players on Trip

Index to All

Travellers

Sports Spectators

on Trip

Index to All

Travellers 18,400,000 1,600,000 2,500,000

Total 9% 13% Sunbathing/Sitting On A Beach 41% 52% 126 49% 120 Swimming In Lakes 35% 48% 136 46% 131 Playing Ice Hockey 5% 42% 796 18% 338 Watching Amateur Sports Tournaments 11% 36% 322 47% 419 Fishing - Fresh Water 21% 34% 168 32% 157 Golfing - Occasional Game 16% 33% 202 28% 174 Nature Park- National/Provincial 31% 33% 107 33% 108 Swimming In Oceans 29% 32% 111 33% 115 Motor Boating 18% 28% 153 28% 153 Hiking - Same Day Excursion 24% 27% 112 25% 102 Watching Professional Ice Hockey Games 10% 24% 246 35% 368 Mini-Golf 13% 23% 184 21% 163 Ice-Skating 10% 22% 215 17% 161 Skiing - Downhill 12% 22% 180 20% 163 Playing Baseball or Softball 3% 22% 697 9% 297 Kayaking/Canoeing - Freshwater 12% 19% 155 14% 116 Fitness - Jog/Exercise Outdoors 11% 18% 159 15% 131 Cycling - Same Day Excursion 11% 17% 153 14% 126 Wildlife - Land Based Animals 14% 15% 110 16% 117 Fitness - In A Fitness Centre 10% 14% 144 14% 139 Playing Bowling 4% 14% 349 6% 154 Snorkelling In Sea /Ocean 11% 14% 127 13% 125 Water Skiing 6% 13% 232 12% 214 Playing Curling 2% 13% 847 5% 360 Hiking / Backpack Overnight 8% 12% 163 8% 108 All Terrain Vehicle Same Day 8% 12% 161 13% 175 Playing Soccer 2% 12% 522 5% 226 Wildlife - Bird Watching 10% 12% 118 9% 91 Playing Volleyball 3% 12% 468 5% 196 Wildlife - Whale/Marine 11% 11% 100 13% 119 Snowboarding 4% 11% 258 8% 174 Watching Professional Baseball Games 5% 11% 198 20% 361 Fishing - Ice Fishing 5% 11% 200 11% 198 Watching Professional Football Games 3% 11% 309 14% 403 Playing Beach Volleyball 4% 10% 271 5% 126 Wildflowers / Flora Viewing 10% 10% 92 10% 91 Golfing - Stay At A Golf Resort 4% 10% 218 9% 207 Snowmobiling - Day Use 5% 9% 200 9% 207 Playing Basketball 2% 9% 531 3% 206 Viewing Northern Lights 6% 8% 141 8% 137 Watching Curling Bonspiel 2% 8% 488 8% 447 Watching Auto Races 4% 8% 190 18% 438 Cycling - Mountain Biking 4% 7% 176 8% 185 Hunting - Big Game 4% 7% 189 7% 174 Playing Tennis 3% 7% 256 3% 126 Skiing - Cross Country 6% 7% 106 7% 106 White Water Rafting 3% 7% 232 5% 189 In-Line / Roller Blading 3% 6% 200 5% 165 Fishing - Salt Water 4% 6% 143 6% 140 Horseback Riding - Same Day 5% 6% 126 7% 138

Cultural Activities of Sport Tourists (on Overnight Trip in 2 Years) Sport Tourism Primary Motivation for Trip

Activities minimum 5% participation on overnight trips

Total Travellers

Sports Players on Trip

Index to All

Travellers

Sports Spectators on Trip

Index to All

Travellers

Total 18,439,50

8 1,624,757 2,453,885 9% 13%

Stroll A City To See Buildings 41% 34% 83 41% 100 Well-known Historic Sites/Buildings 30% 27% 88 32% 106 Other Historic Sites/Buildings 25% 23% 93 26% 104 Well Known Natural Wonders 24% 24% 97 26% 106 Museum - History/Heritage 23% 24% 103 24% 104 Amusement Park 22% 36% 164 35% 160 Farmers' Markets/ Country Fair 20% 25% 125 28% 138 Art Galleries 20% 16% 80 18% 93 Free Outdoor Performances 17% 23% 133 20% 116 Live Theatre 17% 21% 122 19% 112 Zoos 17% 22% 134 23% 135 Firework Displays 16% 25% 158 23% 143 Botanical Gardens 15% 14% 94 14% 93 Aquariums 14% 17% 124 18% 131 Rock & Roll/Popular Concert 13% 21% 162 24% 179 Exhibition Or Fairs 12% 16% 141 17% 147 Water Theme Park 11% 20% 185 19% 177 Historical Replica/Re-Enactment 11% 12% 117 11% 104 Museum - Science/Technology 10% 14% 135 13% 129 Stand-Up Comedy/Variety Shows 10% 14% 142 14% 143 Museum - Military / War 10% 12% 122 12% 124 Live Theatre With Dinner 8% 10% 123 11% 143 Aboriginal Heritage Attractions 8% 9% 114 10% 126 Music Festivals 7% 12% 160 11% 145 Paleo/Archaeological Sites 7% 8% 117 7% 96 Garden Theme Park 7% 8% 113 7% 104 Carnivals 7% 11% 152 10% 146 Science & Technology Theme Park 7% 12% 176 10% 151 Entertainment Farms 7% 10% 154 9% 145 Ballet/Other Dance Performances 6% 8% 136 8% 128 Classical/Symphony Concert 6% 5% 85 6% 95 Food / Drink Festivals 6% 8% 136 8% 138 Country / Western Music Concerts 5% 10% 191 11% 206 Musical Attractions 5% 7% 135 8% 155 Aboriginal Arts/Crafts Shows 5% 6% 122 6% 116 Religious Festivals 5% 8% 158 5% 94 Ethnic Festivals 4% 5% 116 5% 126 Jazz Concert 4% 6% 137 6% 137 Cooking /Wine Tasting Courses 4% 5% 136 6% 158 Western Theme Events/Rodeos 4% 7% 197 7% 209

Travel Patterns

Canadian sport spectator tourists travel to more destinations than the average Canadian leisure traveller. The proportions of those spectating at amateur tournaments and at professional sports who travelled to key destinations (not necessarily for sport) are almost all above average.

Canadian Sport Tourists in 2 Years

All Travellers

Watched Amateur

Tournaments

Index to All

Travellers

Watched Prof’l

Sports

Index to All

Travellers 18,439,508 2,178,005 2,889,472 12% 16% Destinations Visited (Any Trip) in 2 Years

Total Canada 95% 99% 104 97% 103 - In own province 86% 93% 109 91% 106 - To adjacent province 49% 57% 118 60% 123 - To non-adjacent province 31% 36% 113 38% 122

United States 51% 59% 116 68% 133 Mexico 12% 13% 104 18% 145 Caribbean 16% 16% 105 18% 114 All other 24% 21% 89 27% 113

Use of Internet for Travel Planning Sport spectator tourists are more likely to use the Internet to plan and book their trips than Canadian leisure travellers in general, with 41 percent of amateur tournament spectators and 48 percent of pro sport spectators booking trips on-line in the last two years.

Canadian Sport Tourists in 2 Years

All Travellers

Watched Amateur

Tournaments

Index to All

Travellers

Watched Prof’l

Sports

Index to All

Travellers 18,439,508 2,178,005 2,889,472 12% 16% Use Internet for Travel Planning To book part of trip 37% 41% 111 48% 129 To plan trips only 22% 27% 124 23% 105 Not use 41% 32% 78 29% 71 Types of Web-Sites Country/region/city 50% 54% 109 56% 113 Hotel or resort 57% 64% 112 65% 113 Airline 46% 47% 102 51% 111 Travel planning / booking site 46% 47% 102 54% 119 Booked Over Internet Accommodation 69% 75% 108 70% 101 Air tickets 70% 71% 102 74% 107 Car rental 27% 29% 108 31% 115

Media Consumption

Sport spectator tourists are above average media consumers, both general media and activity-specific vertical media. Their interest in sports is strongly demonstrated in very high indices versus the general leisure traveller for use of sports and activity media channels, including sports magazines, TV and radio programming. For example, approximately 20 percent of both amateur tournament and professional sports spectators report reading sports magazines, twice the rate of the average leisure traveller, and sports radio indices are approximately 200 among both groups.

Canadian Sport Tourists in 2 Years

All Travellers

Watched Amateur

Tournaments

Index to All

Travellers

Watched Prof’l

Sports

Index to All

Travellers 18,439,508 2,178,005 2,889,472 12% 16% Newspaper Reads daily newspaper 87% 90% 103 91% 104 Community newspapers 62% 67% 108 66% 107 Travel section daily newspaper 46% 51% 112 57% 124 Magazines Professional sports mags 9% 19% 228 22% 255 Outdoor activities/sports mags 13% 22% 172 23% 177 Business, finance mags 16% 20% 122 25% 150 Auto/cycle magazines 13% 16% 121 18% 131 TV and Radio TV Sports / sports shows 43% 63% 145 70% 161 TV Music / Music video 26% 31% 122 30% 118 TV Reality shows 40% 45% 112 45% 112 Sports radio 11% 20% 182 25% 227 Modern rock radio 37% 49% 131 47% 127 Country music radio 24% 29% 121 27% 114 Top 40 / Current hits radio 25% 30% 118 33% 131 On-Line Sports web-sites 27% 44% 162 53% 197 Travel web-sites 51% 54% 108 60% 119

Sport Tourism by Sport: Players and Spectators

The 2006 TAMS study also provides estimates of the number of Canadian and US residents who have participated in major specific sports (playing or spectating) while on an overnight trip in the last two years. The Canadian data is shown below, both in total and for travellers who visited BC in the last two years (although their sports activity may have been on other trips). All information is for adults only.

The following pages show participation, demographic profiles and other sports activity information for each major sport (players and spectators separately). For example, among the estimated 5.7 million Canadian who visited BC in two years, 785,000 of these (equal to 14 percent) reported watching professional ice hockey on any overnight trip in the last two years (not necessarily on a BC trip).

Canadian Travellers Canadians

Travelled to BC Total adults 18.4 million % 5.7 million %

Sports Players Ice hockey 970,000 5% 335,000 6% Bowling 710,000 4% 220,000 4% Baseball/softball 570,000 3% 210,000 4% Beach Volleyball 700,000 4% 205,000 4% Tennis 500,000 3% 180,000 3% Soccer 420,000 2% 150,000 3% Volleyball 460,000 3% 130,000 2% Badminton 360,000 2% 130,000 2% Curling 280,000 2% 105,000 2% Basketball 290,000 2% 90,000 2% Football 220,000 1% 75,000 1% Paintball 160,000 1% 55,000 1% Squash 54,000 0% 30,000 1% Sports Spectators Prof. Ice hockey 1,760,000 10% 785,000 14% Amateur sports tourney 2,090,000 11% 750,000 13% Prof. Baseball games 1,000,000 5% 325,000 6% Prof. Football games 630,000 3% 290,000 5% Auto races 730,000 4% 220,000 4% Curling bonspiels 300,000 2% 130,000 2% Equine competitions 230,000 1% 115,000 2% National/International sports events 180,000 1% 75,000 1% Prof. Basketball games 270,000 1% 65,000 1% Prof. Golf events 180,000 1% 65,000 1% Prof. Figure skating 140,000 1% 45,000 1% Prof. Soccer games 180,000 1% 45,000 1%

Softball/Baseball Players 570,000 overnight Canadian travellers in the last two years (as of 2006) had played softball or baseball on any overnight trip they had taken in those two years. 210,000 of these had taken a BC leisure trip in two years, four percent of all travellers to BC. Six million US resident adults had taken part in these sports on overnight trips, four percent of all leisure travellers. 365,000 of these had visited BC in the last two years. Canadian softball/baseball players on overnight leisure trips skew to males (Index of 120), and those aged 18-34 (Index 170). While two-thirds of players are from adult-only homes, households with children are above average importance (Index 125) relative to all travellers. Canadian softball/baseball players have very high interest in many other sports, especially playing hockey (33% also taking part) and volleyball. Their interest in watching professional hockey (45%) and baseball events and watching amateur sports tournaments on trips indexes at least 300 versus all Canadian travellers to BC. Softball/Baseball Players on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 570,000 % of all travellers 3% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 210,000 % of all been to BC 4% UNITED STATES - Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 6,100,000 % of all travellers 4% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 365,000 % of all been to BC 5%

Softball/Baseball Players on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 256 Participants

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 61% 120 Female 39% 80 Age 18-34 54% 170 35-44 20% 110 45-54 17% 80 55-64 7% 45 65+ 2% 15 Household Income Under $40,000 22% 110 $40,000-$59,999 13% 80 $60,000-$99,999 36% 115 $100,000 or more 29% 85 Education Less than Secondary 3% 45 Completed Secondary 28% 115 Some Post Secondary 16% 130 Completed Post Sec. 52% 95 Household Composition Adults only 64% 90 Children under 17 36% 125 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Ice hockey 33% 550 Beach volleyball 21% 550 Bowling 19% 500 Volleyball 18% 750 Curling 13% 650 Football 11% 850 Soccer 10% 350 As Spectator: Pro. ice hockey 45% 300 Amateur sports tourney 42% 300 Pro. baseball 24% 400 Pro. football 17% 350 Curling bonspiels 13% 550

Beach Volleyball Players 700,000 overnight Canadian travellers in the last two years (as of 2006) had played beach volleyball on any overnight trip they had taken in those two years. 205,000 of these had taken a BC leisure trip in two years, four percent of all travellers to BC. 4.2 million US resident adults had taken part in the sport on overnight trips, three percent of all leisure travellers. 280,000 of these had visited BC in the last two years. Canadian beach volleyball players on overnight leisure trips skew strongly to those aged 18-34 (Index 195) and higher income and education. The sport draws evenly across gender, and from homes with and without children. Canadian beach volleyball players have very high interest in many other sports on trips, especially playing volleyball (25% also taking part), baseball/softball, tennis, hockey and soccer. They also have high interest in watching amateur sports tournaments and professional ice hockey on trips. Beach Volleyball Players on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 700,000 % of all travellers 4% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 205,000 % of all been to BC 4% UNITED STATES – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 4,200,000 % of all travellers 3% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 280,000 % of all been to BC 4%

Beach Volleyball Players on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 224 Participants

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 51% 100 Female 49% 100 Age 18-34 62% 195 35-44 18% 95 45-54 16% 75 55-64 4% 30 65+ 1% 5 Household Income Under $40,000 17% 85 $40,000-$59,999 7% 45 $60,000-$99,999 44% 140 $100,000 or more 32% 100 Education Less than Secondary 1% 10 Completed Secondary 19% 75 Some Post Secondary 16% 135 Completed Post Sec. 64% 115 Household Composition Adults only 71% 100 Children under 17 29% 100 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Participants

Index to All Travel

As Player: Volleyball 25% 1100 Baseball/softball 21% 600 Tennis 21% 650 Ice hockey 20% 330 Soccer 18% 700 Bowling 14% 350 Badminton 12% 550 Football 12% 900 Basketball 11% 700 As Spectator: Amateur sports tourney 32% 250 Pro. ice hockey 27% 200 Pro. football 15% 300 Pro. baseball 11% 200

Bowlers 710,000 overnight Canadian travellers in the last two years (as of 2006) had bowled on any overnight trip they had taken in those two years. 220,000 of these had taken a BC leisure trip in two years, four percent of all travellers to BC. 8.5 million US resident adults had gone bowling on overnight trips, five percent of all leisure travellers. 390,000 of these had visited BC in the last two years. Canadian bowlers on overnight leisure trips skew female (Index 130) and to younger travellers. The sport attracts middle income groups and draws evenly across education and from homes with and without children. Canadian bowlers also tend to enjoy tennis (20% also taking part) and badminton on trips. They also have high interest in watching professional ice hockey and amateur sports tournaments on trips.

Bowlers on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 710,000 % of all travellers 4% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 220,000 % of all been to BC 4% UNITED STATES - Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 8,500,000 % of all travellers 5% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 390,000 % of all been to BC 6%

Bowlers on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 245 Participants

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 35% 70 Female 65% 130 Age 18-34 51% 160 35-44 21% 115 45-54 16% 75 55-64 7% 45 65+ 5% 35 Household Income Under $40,000 16% 80 $40,000-$59,999 24% 155 $60,000-$99,999 38% 120 $100,000 or more 22% 65 Education Less than Secondary 9% 120 Completed Secondary 22% 90 Some Post Secondary 14% 115 Completed Post Sec. 55% 100 Household Composition Adults only 69% 100 Children under 17 30% 105 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Tennis 20% 600 Baseball/softball 18% 500 Badminton 18% 750 Ice hockey 14% 250 Beach Volleyball 13% 350 Soccer 11% 400 As Spectator: Pro. ice hockey 42% 300 Amateur sports tourney 29% 200 Pro. football 13% 250

Curlers 280,000 overnight Canadian travellers in the last two years (as of 2006) had curled on any overnight trip they had taken in those two years. 105,000 of these curlers had taken a BC leisure trip in two years, two percent of all travellers to BC. Curling is a very limited activity among United States travellers. Canadian curlers on overnight leisure trips skew male (Index 120). The sport has a very even appeal across all age groups, including older groups who have less interest in many sports. The sport also draws well across income and education groups. Canadian curlers also tend to enjoy playing baseball/softball (20% also taking part), ice hockey and bowling on trips. They also have extremely high interest in watching their sport (with 57 percent watching bonspiels on trips) and in watching amateur sports tournaments and professional ice hockey on trips.

Curlers on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 280,000 % of all travellers 2% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 105,000 % of all been to BC 2% UNITED STATES – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 250,000 % of all travellers 0% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 30,000 % of all been to BC 0%

Curlers on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 180 Participants

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 61% 120 Female 40% 80 Age 18-34 34% 110 35-44 17% 90 45-54 22% 100 55-64 16% 110 65+ 11% 80 Household Income Under $40,000 10% 50 $40,000-$59,999 24% 155 $60,000-$99,999 31% 100 $100,000 or more 35% 105 Education Less than Secondary 4% 60 Completed Secondary 23% 95 Some Post Secondary 14% 120 Completed Post Sec. 57% 105 Household Composition Adults only 77% 110 Children under 17 22% 75 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Baseball/softball 26% 400 Ice hockey 25% 450 Bowling 19% 500 Tennis 13% 400 Volleyball 12% 500 Soccer 11% 400 Beach Volleyball 11% 300 As Spectator: Curling bonspiels 57% 2500 Amateur sports tourney 49% 350 Pro. ice hockey 41% 300 Pro. baseball 21% 350 Pro. football 15% 300

Ice Hockey Players Nearly one million (970,000) overnight Canadian travellers in the last two years (as of 2006) had played hockey on any overnight trip they had taken in those two years. 355,000 of these players had taken a BC leisure trip in two years, six percent of all travellers to BC. Playing hockey is more limited among United States travellers, with 105,000 BC visitors playing on a trip in the last two years. Canadian hockey players on overnight leisure trips skew strongly male (Index 150). While skewing younger, middle age groups also have strong interest, and homes with children are very well represented. The sport appeals across education groups, but is most developed among high income homes. Canadian hockey players also tend to enjoy playing baseball/softball (20% also taking part), football, beach volleyball and tennis on trips. They also have high interest in watching professional hockey (48 percent watching on trips) and amateur sports tournaments.

Ice Hockey Players on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 970,000 % of all travellers 5% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 335,000 % of all been to BC 6% UNITED STATES - Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 1,400,000 % of all travellers 1% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 105,000 % of all been to BC 2%

Ice Hockey Players on Overnight Trips Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 387 Participants

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 75% 150 Female 25% 50 Age 18-34 37% 115 35-44 29% 155 45-54 17% 80 55-64 14% 95 65+ 4% 25 Household Income Under $40,000 15% 75 $40,000-$59,999 10% 60 $60,000-$99,999 26% 85 $100,000 or more 49% 150 Education Less than Secondary 7% 90 Completed Secondary 24% 100 Some Post Secondary 12% 100 Completed Post Sec. 57% 105 Household Composition Adults only 54% 75 Children under 17 45% 160 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Baseball/softball 21% 570 Football 13% 1000 Beach Volleyball 12% 350 Tennis 12% 350 As Spectator: Pro. ice hockey 48% 350 Amateur sports tourney 41% 300 Pro. football 18% 350 Pro. baseball 14% 250

Soccer Players 420,000 overnight Canadian travellers in the last two years (as of 2006) had played soccer on any overnight trip they had taken in those two years. 150,000 of these had taken a BC leisure trip in two years, representing three percent of all travellers to BC. 2.8 million US resident adults had played soccer on overnight trips, two percent of all leisure travellers. 125,000 of these had visited BC in the last two years. Canadian soccer players on overnight leisure trips skew strongly to those aged 18-34 (Index 170) and to males. The sport draws evenly across income and education groups and from homes with and without children. Canadian soccer players have very high interest in many other sports on trips, especially playing beach volleyball (25 percent also taking part), hockey, badminton, and tennis. They also have high interest in watching amateur sports tournaments and professional ice hockey, football and soccer on trips.

Soccer Players on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 420,000 % of all travellers 2% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 150,000 % of all been to BC 3% UNITED STATES - Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 2,800,000 % of all travellers 2% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 125,000 % of all been to BC 2%

Soccer Players on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 171 Participants

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 60% 120 Female 40% 80 Age 18-34 53% 170 35-44 22% 115 45-54 16% 75 55-64 7% 50 65+ 2% 15 Household Income Under $40,000 17% 85 $40,000-$59,999 19% 120 $60,000-$99,999 29% 95 $100,000 or more 36% 110 Education Less than Secondary 3% 45 Completed Secondary 24% 95 Some Post Secondary 15% 125 Completed Post Sec. 58% 105 Household Composition Adults only 62% 90 Children under 17 36% 125 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Beach Volleyball 25% 700 Ice hockey 20% 300 Badminton 19% 800 Tennis 17% 500 Bowling 16% 400 Basketball 15% 900 Baseball/softball 14% 350 Volleyball 12% 500 As Spectator: Amateur sports tourney 40% 300 Pro. ice hockey 22% 150 Pro. football 14% 300 Pro. soccer 14% 1700

Tennis Players 500,000 overnight Canadian travellers in the last two years (as of 2006) had played tennis on any overnight trip they had taken in those two years. 180,000 of these had taken a BC leisure trip in two years, three percent of all travellers to BC. 4.5 million US adults played tennis on overnight trips, five percent of all leisure travellers. 355,000 of these had visited BC in the last two years, five percent of US leisure visitors. Canadian tennis players on overnight leisure trips skew slightly male (Index 120) and to travellers 18 to 54. Over half of players have income over $100,000, and three quarters have completed post-secondary education. Homes with children (40%) are over-represented relative to all travellers. Canadian tennis players also enjoy bowling (24% also taking part), beach volleyball and hockey on trips. They also have a tendency to like watching amateur sports tournaments (25%) and professional ice hockey on trips.

Tennis Players on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 500,000 % of all travellers 3% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 180,000 % of all been to BC 3% UNITED STATES – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 4,500,000 % of all travellers 3% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 355,000 % of all been to BC 5%

Tennis Players on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = Participants

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 59% 120 Female 41% 80 Age 18-34 34% 105 35-44 26% 140 45-54 24% 115 55-64 10% 65 65+ 6% 45 Household Income Under $40,000 5% 25 $40,000-$59,999 16% 100 $60,000-$99,999 22% 70 $100,000 or more 57% 175 Education Less than Secondary 2% 25 Completed Secondary 13% 50 Some Post Secondary 9% 80 Completed Post Sec. 75% 135 Household Composition Adults only 59% 85 Children under 17 40% 140 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Bowling 24% 600 Beach Volleyball 23% 650 Ice hockey 21% 350 Badminton 17% 750 Soccer 14% 550 Volleyball 12% 500 Baseball/softball 11% 300 As Spectator: Amateur sports tourney 25% 200 Pro. ice hockey 22% 150 Pro. baseball 11% 200

Volleyball Players 460,000 overnight Canadian travellers in the last two years (as of 2006) had played volleyball on any overnight trip they had taken in those two years. 130,000 of these had taken a BC leisure trip in two years, two percent of all travellers to BC. 4.1 million US resident adults had taken part in the sport on overnight trips, two percent of all leisure travellers. 230,000 of these had visited BC in the last two years. Canadian volleyball players on overnight leisure trips skew strongly to those aged 18-34 (Index 195), but the sport draws evenly from gender, income and education groups and from homes with and without children. Canadian volleyball players have very high interest in many other sports on trips, especially playing beach volleyball (39% also taking part), softball/baseball, tennis, badminton and hockey. They also have high interest in watching amateur sports tournaments (43%) and professional ice hockey and football on trips.

Volleyball Players on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 460,000 % of all travellers 3% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 130,000 % of all been to BC 2% UNITED STATES - Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 4,100,000 % of all travellers 2% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 230,000 % of all been to BC 3%

Volleyball Players on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 154 Participants

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 48% 95 Female 52% 105 Age 18-34 61% 195 35-44 19% 100 45-54 17% 80 55-64 2% 15 65+ 1% 10 Household Income Under $40,000 20% 100 $40,000-$59,999 17% 110 $60,000-$99,999 34% 110 $100,000 or more 28% 85 Education Less than Secondary 3% 40 Completed Secondary 31% 125 Some Post Secondary 12% 95 Completed Post Sec. 55% 100 Household Composition Adults only 71% 100 Children under 17 29% 105 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Beach Volleyball 39% 1050 Baseball/softball 28% 750 Badminton 18% 750 Ice hockey 17% 300 Tennis 16% 500 Bowling 16% 400 Basketball 15% 1000 Football 14% 1100 Soccer 13% 500 As Spectator: Amateur sports tourney 43% 300 Pro. ice hockey 28% 200 Pro. football 18% 350 Pro. baseball 10% 200

Amateur Sports Tournament Spectators In 2006, 750,000 Canadian adults who had been to BC in the last two years had also been a spectator at an amateur sport tournament on a leisure trip (not necessarily on a BC trip). These represented 13 percent of all BC visitors. 920,000 US resident adults who visited BC in the last two years had watched an amateur sports tournament on any trip. This represents 13% of all visiting BC, much higher than the incidence of watching tournaments among all US leisure travellers, seven percent. Canadians who have watched an amateur tournament have a broad demographic profile. They skew toward homes with children (Index of 125) with a similar index of 125 among those aged 45 to 54, suggesting this group includes those watching their teen children compete. These spectators also enjoy watching professional sports, especially ice hockey (31%) and also play sport themselves, with numerous sports showing strong development indices.

Amateur Sports Tournament Spectators (US = Am. Sports Events) on Overnight Trips

CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 2,100,000 % of all travellers 11% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 750,000 % of all been to BC 13% UNITED STATES - Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 12,300,000 % of all travellers 7% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 920,000 % of all been to BC 13%

Amateur Sports Tournament Spectators on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 1082 Spectators

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 53% 105 Female 47% 95 Age 18-34 34% 105 35-44 17% 90 45-54 27% 125 55-64 12% 85 65+ 10% 75 Household Income Under $40,000 18% 90 $40,000-$59,999 13% 80 $60,000-$99,999 30% 95 $100,000 or more 39% 120 Education Less than Secondary 5% 65 Completed Secondary 24% 100 Some Post Secondary 12% 105 Completed Post Sec. 58% 105 Household Composition Adults only 62% 90 Children under 17 35% 125 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Ice hockey 18% 300 Baseball/softball 12% 325 Beach Volleyball 9% 250 Bowling 9% 225 Soccer 8% 300 Volleyball 8% 325 Curling 7% 375 Tennis 6% 200 As Spectator: Prof. Ice hockey 31% 225 Prof. Football games 12% 225 Prof. Baseball games 11% 200 Curling bonspiels 8% 350 Auto races 7% 175

Auto Racing Spectators In 2006, 730,000 Canadian adults watched auto racing on any overnight trip they had taken in the last two years. 220,000 of these had visited BC, representing four percent of all BC visitors. Interest in auto racing is higher among US residents, with seven percent of BC visitors from the US having watched auto racing on an overnight trip in the last two years. Automobile racing appeals to younger Canadian adults with those aged 18-34 accounting for half of all spectators (index 150 versus all travellers) and males, who account for two-thirds of spectators. Interest directionally skews to higher income and lower education groups. Canadians who watch auto races are also interested in watching other sports, including pro. ice hockey, amateur tournaments and professional football. 14 percent play ice hockey. There are very high development indices (over 400) for playing paintball and football, likely a reflection of the group’s young age profile.

Auto Racing Spectators on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 730,000 % of all travellers 4% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 220,000 % of all been to BC 4% UNITED STATES – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 9,500,000 % of all travellers 6% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 520,000 % of all been to BC 7%

Auto Racing Spectators on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = Spectators

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 68% 135 Female 32% 65 Age 18-34 47% 150 35-44 19% 100 45-54 15% 70 55-64 15% 100 65+ 4% 30 Household Income Under $40,000 14% 70 $40,000-$59,999 9% 60 $60,000-$99,999 37% 120 $100,000 or more 39% 120 Education Less than Secondary 8% 115 Completed Secondary 32% 130 Some Post Secondary 9% 75 Completed Post Sec. 51% 90 Household Composition Adults only 73% 105 Children under 17 27% 95 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Ice hockey 14% 240 Bowling 7% 190 Paintball 7% 700 Baseball/softball 7% 185 Football 6% 475 Badminton 6% 250 Volleyball 6% 245 As Spectator: Prof. Ice hockey 32% 230 Amateur sports tourney 23% 170 Prof. Football games 12% 225 Prof. Baseball games 11% 190 Equine competitions 10% 495 Nt'l/Intl sports events 6% 475

Professional Baseball Spectators In 2006, 730,000 Canadian adults watched professional baseball on any overnight trip they had taken in the last two years. 325,000 of these had visited BC, representing six percent of all BC visitors. Watching professional baseball is a much more common activity among US residents, with 19 percent of BC visitors from the US having watched pro baseball on an overnight trip in the last two years. Watching baseball appeals to higher income Canadian travellers. Nearly 60 percent have a household income over $100,000, with a development index of 175. Interest is higher among the 18 - 34 age group (Index of 120) and the 55 to 64 age group (Index 135). Canadians who watch pro. baseball also watch other sports, especially pro. ice hockey, (51% have watched on a trip), amateur tournaments and professional football. Showing the general tendency of players to also watch their sport, 15 percent of these baseball spectators also played baseball on a trip. Fourteen percent played hockey. Pro. Baseball Spectators on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 730,000 % of all travellers 4% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 325,000 % of all been to BC 6% UNITED STATES – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 17,800,000 % of all travellers 11% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 1,340,000 % of all been to BC 19%

Pro. Baseball Spectators on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 434 Spectators

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 52% 105 Female 48% 95 Age 18-34 38% 120 35-44 17% 90 45-54 15% 70 55-64 20% 135 65+ 10% 75 Household Income Under $40,000 8% 40 $40,000-$59,999 11% 70 $60,000-$99,999 23% 75 $100,000 or more 57% 175 Education Less than Secondary 3% 40 Completed Secondary 17% 65 Some Post Secondary 9% 75 Completed Post Sec. 71% 130 Household Composition Adults only 78% 110 Children under 17 22% 80 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Baseball/softball 15% 410 Ice hockey 14% 235 Curling 7% 360 Beach Volleyball 7% 185 Bowling 6% 155 Tennis 6% 185 Football 6% 430 As Spectator: Prof. Ice hockey 51% 370 Amateur sports tourney 25% 190 Prof. Football games 19% 360 Prof. Basketball games 9% 785

Professional Football Spectators In 2006, 630,000 Canadian adults watched professional football on any overnight trip they had taken in the last two years. 290,000 of these had visited BC, representing five percent of all BC visitors. 615,000 US visitors to BC in the last two years had watched professional football on a trip, nine percent of all US visitors to the province. Pro. football appeals to younger Canadian adults, with those aged 18-34 accounting for nearly half of all spectators (index 145 versus all travellers) and males, who account for 72 percent of spectators. Interest directionally skews to middle levels of education. Canadians who watch pro. football are also interested in watching other sports, including pro. ice hockey, (45%) amateur tournaments (31%) and professional baseball, 21%. While less than two percent of all adults played football on a trip, 15 percent of the football spectators had played football, and 21 percent played hockey. Pro. Football Spectators on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 630,000 % of all travellers 3% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 290,000 % of all been to BC 5% UNITED STATES – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 9,660,000 % of all travellers 6% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 615,000 % of all been to BC 9%

Pro. Football Spectators on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 386 Spectators

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 72% 145 Female 28% 55 Age 18-34 45% 145 35-44 17% 90 45-54 20% 95 55-64 11% 70 65+ 7% 50 Household Income Under $40,000 15% 75 $40,000-$59,999 12% 75 $60,000-$99,999 34% 110 $100,000 or more 38% 115 Education Less than Secondary 2% 25 Completed Secondary 32% 125 Some Post Secondary 19% 155 Completed Post Sec. 48% 85 Household Composition Adults only 71% 100 Children under 17 28% 100 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Ice hockey 21% 355 Football 15% 1130 Baseball/softball 12% 330 Beach Volleyball 11% 290 Bowling 10% 245 Volleyball 8% 350 Soccer 7% 280 Curling 6% 290 As Spectator: Prof. Ice hockey 45% 325 Amateur sports tourney 31% 235 Prof. Baseball games 21% 355 Curling bonspiels 9% 400

Professional Ice Hockey Spectators In 2006, 1.76 million Canadian adults watched professional hockey on any overnight trip they had taken in the last two years. 785,000 of these had visited BC, representing 14 percent of all BC visitors. Hockey’s audience is far more limited among US travellers, of course. Pro. ice hockey appeals very broadly demographically, but most strongly to the 18-34 age group (Index 140 to all travellers) and high income groups. These hockey spectators (Canadian) are also interested in watching other sports, including amateur tournaments (30%) and professional baseball (21%). Many Canadian ice hockey spectators also like playing the game. While six percent of all adults have played hockey on a trip, 21 percent of the hockey spectators had played hockey, and their playing other sports on trips is also well above average.

Pro. Hockey Spectators on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 1,760,000 % of all travellers 10% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 785,000 % of all been to BC 14% UNITED STATES – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 4,210,000 % of all travellers 2% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 375,000 % of all been to BC 5%

Pro. Hockey Spectators on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 857 Spectators

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 63% 125 Female 37% 75 Age 18-34 44% 140 35-44 17% 90 45-54 21% 100 55-64 12% 85 65+ 5% 40 Household Income Under $40,000 14% 70 $40,000-$59,999 11% 70 $60,000-$99,999 29% 95 $100,000 or more 45% 135 Education Less than Secondary 4% 60 Completed Secondary 24% 95 Some Post Secondary 12% 95 Completed Post Sec. 60% 110 Household Composition Adults only 74% 105 Children under 17 26% 90 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Ice hockey 21% 344 Baseball/softball 12% 325 Bowling 12% 305 Beach Volleyball 7% 195 Badminton 6% 250 Curling 6% 290 As Spectator: Amateur sports tourney 30% 220 Prof. Baseball games 21% 365 Prof. Football games 17% 320 Auto races 9% 230 Curling bonspiels 6% 260

Equestrian Event Spectators In 2006, 230,000 Canadian adults had watched equestrian events on any overnight trip they had taken in the last two years. Half of these, 115,000, had also visited BC, and represent two percent of travellers to BC. Two million US resident adults had watched equestrian events on overnight trips in two years. 180,000 of these had also visited BC in the last two years, equal to three percent of all US visitors. Canadian equestrian event spectators have a profile skewing to older travellers; 43 percent are aged over 55 (Index of 150 to all travellers). Accordingly they are less likely to have children, over 80 percent being adult-only homes. Canadians who watch equestrian events have different participation patterns than most other sport tourism groups. Duplication with other sports is lower than many other sport tourism groups. Watching auto races, curling and national/international sports events have high development indices. Equestrian Event Spectators on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 230,000 % of all travellers 1% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 115,000 % of all been to BC 2% UNITED STATES - Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 2,000,000 % of all travellers 1% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 180,000 % of all been to BC 3%

Equestrian Event Spectators on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 176 Spectators

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 44% 90 Female 56% 110 Age 18-34 24% 75 35-44 12% 60 45-54 22% 105 55-64 25% 165 65+ 18% 130 Household Income Under $40,000 13% 65 $40,000-$59,999 17% 110 $60,000-$99,999 28% 90 $100,000 or more 41% 125 Education Less than Secondary 1% 15 Completed Secondary 28% 110 Some Post Secondary 11% 95 Completed Post Sec. 60% 110 Household Composition Adults only 82% 115 Children under 17 17% 60 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Ice hockey 14% 250 Football 7% 550 Paintball 6% 600 Curling 4% 225 As Spectator: Prof. Ice hockey 22% 150 Amateur sports tourney 20% 150 Auto races 19% 500 Prof. Baseball games 18% 325 Nt'l/Intl sports events 14% 1050 Prof. Football games 11% 225 Curling bonspiels 9% 400

Curling Bonspiel Spectators In 2006, 300,000 Canadian adults had watched curling bonspiels on any overnight trip they had taken in the last two years. 130,000 of these had also visited BC, representing two percent of travellers to BC. Curling bonspiel attendance is very limited in the US. Curling bonspiel visitors have a broad profile across different demographic groups, other than age. 44 percent of attendees are aged over 55 (Index of 155 to all travellers), and (hence) three-quarters are adult-only homes. Canadian bonspiel spectators also like to play their game, and watch and play other sports. Half of all spectators have also curled on an overnight trip themselves in the last two years and 21 percent played softball or baseball. Half have also watched an amateur sports tournament, 37 percent have watched a professional hockey game and about 20 percent have also watched pro baseball and football on trips. Curling Bonspiel Spectators on Overnight Trips CANADA – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 300,000 % of all travellers 2% Among Leisure Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 130,000 % of all been to BC 2% UNITED STATES – Adults Among All Leisure Travellers Total Participants 150,000 % of all travellers 0% Among Travellers Been BC Total Participants Been to BC 35,000 % of all been to BC 0%

Curling Bonspiel Spectators on Overnight Trips

Adults - Demographic Profile (Canada) Among Leisure Travellers Been BC. Base = 283 Spectators

Index to All Travel

Sex Male 46% 90 Female 54% 110 Age 18-34 28% 90 35-44 11% 55 45-54 18% 85 55-64 23% 155 65+ 21% 155 Household Income Under $40,000 19% 95 $40,000-$59,999 23% 145 $60,000-$99,999 28% 90 $100,000 or more 30% 90 Education Less than Secondary 6% 75 Completed Secondary 28% 110 Some Post Secondary 15% 120 Completed Post Sec. 51% 90 Household Composition Adults only 76% 110 Children under 17 21% 75 Other Sports Participation (Selected - Canada)

Among Leisure Travellers Been BC

% also Participate

Index to All Travel

As Player: Curling 47% 2475 Baseball/softball 21% 575 Ice hockey 16% 275 Bowling 12% 300 Football 8% 650 Volleyball 8% 325 Beach Volleyball 7% 200 As Spectator: Amateur sports tourney 46% 350 Prof. Ice hockey 37% 250 Prof. Baseball games 21% 375 Prof. Football games 21% 400

 

   AppendReview 

dix 4:  Comw (Tract Co

mox Valleyonsulting),

 

y Heritage, July 2007

18 

 Experienc7 

Comox V

ce Infrastr

Valley Visitor 

ructure an

 Services Stra

1‐A

nd Concep

ategy 

Apr‐11 

pt 

Infrastructure and Concept Review

HERITAGE EXPERIENCE

July 2007 (revised August 2007)

Infrastructure & Concept Review

Comox Valley Heritage ExperienceJuly 2007(revised August 2007)

Table of Contents

Appendices

1. Project Background

1.1 Revised Scope of Work

2. Signage Systems as a Component of the Visitor Experience

3. Study Area Assessment

3.1 Signage

No. Sign Type Use / Function Existing Conditions

Welcome to the Comox Valley

Heritage Experience”

(Note: It is important that promotions

for the Discovery Centre connect it to

the Comox Valley Heritage

Experience.

Some exhibits at the Discovery Centre

would, ideally, connect to themes

proposed for the Comox Valley

Heritage Experience and thus help to

promote this product.

No. Sign Type Use / Function Existing Conditions

Ex: The Filberg Festival.

No. Sign Type Use / Function Existing Conditions

“See our dinosaurs at the Courtenay

Museum”

No. Sign Type Use / Function Existing Conditions

No. Sign Type Use / Function Existing Conditions

No. Sign Type Use / Function Existing Conditions

No. Sign Type Use / Function Existing Conditions

3.2 Current Touring Routes

1. Comox Valley Heritage Experience Driving Tour

engage

3.3 Proposed Touring Routes

1. Town of Comox HeritageWalking Routes

Typical Driving Tour Sign Typical Tour Sign Graphic

Tour Sign of Downtown Comox St. Peter’s Church

Sidewalk Markers Banners

2. Town of Courtenay HeritageWalking/Bicycle Routes

Heritage Air Park Marina Sign

Sid Williams Theatre Courtenay Museum

Downtown Courtenay Riverwalk

Driving Tour Sign Historic Plaque

3. Town of Cumberland Heritage Walking Tour

Mine 6 Park

Downtown Cumberland

3.3.1 Themes & Proposed Route Naming

walk experience

Village Square Cultural Centre

3.3.2 Storylines

experience

Current Stories

Community / Area Major Story Minor Stories

K’ómoks First Nation

Comox

Courtenay

Cumberland

Rural/Outlying Areas

4. Preliminary Recommendations

4.1 Routing

ROUTE 1: Courtenay Riverside and

ROUTE 2: Downtown and Old OrchardWalk

ooo

o

oooo

ROUTE 3: Comox Maritime HeritageWalk

o

o

o

Possible Future Sub route: K’ómoks First Nation – Courtenay Bicycle link

(future walkway link)

First Nations Route Sign

ROUTE 4: Cumberland Industrial Heritage Walk (includes bicycle and

driving tour link)

4.2 Other Recommendations

4.3 Next Steps

ooo

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

City

of S

t. Jo

hn’s

Sig

nag

e S

tra

teg

y

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n C

on

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pt

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e

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to

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APPENDIX B

or

Ex

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d &

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po

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Str

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ign

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   Append 

dix 5:  Ministry of Fin nance Tax

19 

x Bulletin, 

Comox V

 March 20

Valley Visitor 

10 

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ategy 

Apr‐11 

Ministry of Finance Tax Bulletin ISSUED:  October 1990     REVISED:  March 2010  Bulletin HRT 007 

www.fin.gov.bc.ca/rev.htm 

  

The revision bar (   ) identifies changes to the previous version of this bulletin dated January 2010. PO Box 9442 Stn Prov Govt, Victoria BC  V8W 9V4 

Municipal and Regional District Tax Hotel Room Tax Act 

Do you know how a municipality or regional district can participate in the  

collection of an additional hotel room tax? 

Do you know how the additional hotel room tax applies if you operate a hotel,  

motel, resort, hostel, bed & breakfast or other lodging? 

This bulletin provides specific information to help municipalities, regional districts 

and other eligible entities understand how they can participate in the collection of an 

additional hotel room tax of up to 2%.  In addition, this bulletin provides specific 

information to help registered operators of hotels, motels and other lodgings 

understand how this additional tax applies to their business. 

Please note:  As part of the introduction of the harmonized sales tax (HST), effective 

July 1, 2010, the 8% component of the hotel room tax will generally cease to apply to 

sales of accommodation.  For transition rules respecting the wind‐down of the  

8% component of the hotel room tax, please see our website at www.sbr.gov.bc.ca 

/business/Consumer_Taxes/Harmonized_Sales_Tax/hrt_transitional_rules.htm 

However, the obligation to collect and remit the additional 2% municipal and regional 

district hotel room tax remains in place after July 1, 2010 (see the section below, HST 

and the Additional Hotel Room Tax).  

Table of Contents 

Overview ............................................................................................2 

Municipalities, Regional Districts 

and Eligible Entities ........................................................................2 

Registered Accommodation Providers .........................................4 

Participating Municipalities 

Regional Districts and Eligible Entities ......................................7 

 

Municipal and Regional District Tax  Page 2 of 9 

 

Overview 

The municipal and regional district tax is an additional hotel room tax of up to 2%.   

The additional hotel room tax is over and above the 8% hotel room tax (HRT) charged 

on taxable accommodation.  This additional tax is intended to assist municipalities, 

regional districts and other eligible entities (see below) in promoting their tourism 

industry and financing new tourist facilities or programs. 

Municipalities, Regional Districts and 

Eligible Entities 

A municipality, regional district or eligible entity in British Columbia, may apply to the 

Ministry of Finance for an additional hotel room tax of up to 2%.  This tax is charged on 

sales of taxable accommodation within that area. 

The additional hotel room tax is administered by, and sent in to, the ministry under the 

Hotel Room Tax Act, but is separate from the hotel room tax and has its own tax return 

form.  The tax can apply to the entire municipality or regional district, or to a specific 

area within the municipality or regional district. 

The ministry charges an administration fee to cover the additional cost of administering 

the tax, and provides the balance of the tax collected to the municipality, regional 

district or eligible entity on a monthly basis. 

How to Participate To participate in this program, you must pass a bylaw requesting the province to 

administer and collect the additional tax on your behalf.  The bylaw must contain the 

following information: 

the proposed tax rate, 

the geographic area in which the tax will apply (i.e. the entire municipality or 

regional district, or a smaller area), 

the purpose for which you will use the funds, and 

the date you want the new tax to be effective. 

Additional Information and Documentation You also need to provide the following with your application. 

A complete list of all registered operators that are currently collecting the 8% HRT 

located within the area where the tax will apply. 

 

Municipal and Regional District Tax  Page 3 of 9 

 

Documented evidence that you have consulted with the local accommodation 

industry, and that the majority support both the business plan and the application 

for the new tax. 

For a municipality, you need to show that you have consulted with the regional 

district in which you are located, and that the regional district agrees with the new 

tax. 

For a regional district, you need to show that you have consulted with the 

municipalities that are included in the geographical area where the tax will be 

collected within your jurisdiction and that they agree with the new tax being 

implemented.  You need to also show that you are authorized to use the funds 

for the intended purpose, either by your letters patent or by statutory authority. 

If a municipality and regional district cannot agree on whether the additional tax 

should be imposed, priority will generally be given to the municipality. 

For assistance with the preparation of your business plan or your application, 

please contact the Director, Tax Policy Branch at 250 356‐5928.  Send your 

completed application to the Minister of Finance at PO Box 9048, Stn Prov Govt, 

Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 9E2.  Your application will be reviewed by the 

Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts. 

Eligible Entities If you are an eligible entity, such as a non‐profit organization that takes part in tourism 

marketing, you can also apply to have the additional hotel room tax administered and 

collected on your behalf.  You will need to show that you have consulted with the 

regional district or the municipality that is included in the geographical area where the 

tax will be collected.  If you are a public body, other than a municipality or regional 

district, interested in requesting that the additional hotel room tax be collected in a 

specific area, please contact the Director, Tax Policy Branch (please see above for 

contact details). 

Compliance with Program Objectives For a municipality, regional district or other eligible entity participating in the 

additional hotel room tax program, you must provide audited documentation to the 

ministry each year showing how the funds raised by this tax were used.  You must 

also provide a statement that the funds were used for the purpose for which they 

were intended and are consistent with your business plan.  The implementation of the 

business plan will be monitored in conjunction with the audited financial statements. 

 

Municipal and Regional District Tax  Page 4 of 9 

 

Additional Hotel Room Tax Renewal Process The additional hotel room tax is implemented for a period of five years.  In order to 

extend the tax for an additional five year period, you must re‐apply to the ministry.  

You must consult the local accommodation sector as part of the renewal process. 

There is no restriction on the number of times you can apply for the tax to be renewed. 

Registered Accommodation Providers 

Charging the Tax Registered operators are accommodation providers registered with the ministry to 

collect HRT.  If you are a registered operator located within a newly participating area 

in which the additional hotel room tax will apply, you will receive information from  

the ministry on procedures for charging the tax. 

You charge the additional hotel room tax of up to 2%, in addition to the 8% HRT,  

in areas of the province where the additional hotel room tax applies, on all sales of  

taxable accommodation.  The total tax charged on taxable accommodation sales  

cannot exceed 10%. 

You charge additional hotel room tax plus the HRT if you offer four or more units of 

accommodation in British Columbia, even if you offer the accommodation on behalf of 

another owner, or if you only rent two or three units out of the four offered.  You also 

charge additional hotel room tax plus the HRT if you offer four or more units that are 

geographically dispersed throughout British Columbia. 

For example, if you offer three units at a bed and breakfast in Williams Lake, a private 

cottage in Parksville, and a condominium in Whistler on behalf of another owner,  

you charge the additional hotel room tax of 2% on all sales of accommodation in 

Parksville and Whistler.  You are offering five units (four or more) and therefore you 

collect 8% HRT in all three municipalities.  You do not charge the additional hotel room 

tax on the units offered in Williams Lake as this municipality does not participate in the 

additional hotel room tax program. 

The same rules apply to this additional tax as the HRT; that is, if you have to charge 

or refund the HRT, you also have to charge or refund this tax.  For more information 

on the hotel room tax, please see our accommodation industry webpage at 

www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/industry_specific/accommodation/accommodation.htm 

 

Municipal and Regional District Tax  Page 5 of 9 

 

Calculating the Tax You calculate the additional hotel room tax on the purchase price of the 

accommodation, the same as you do the HRT, i.e. on the total amount that a guest 

pays for the right to use the accommodation.  This includes any additional charges 

for extra beds, cots, cribs, linens or pets, but does not include the goods and services 

tax (GST). 

On the invoice to your guest, you must show the tax payable separately from the charge 

for the accommodation.  However, you can charge the additional hotel room tax 

together with, or separately from, the HRT. 

For example, if you charge $80 for accommodation and the additional hotel room tax  

is 2%, you can show the tax payable in either of the following ways: 

Room charge 

10% includes HRT plus the additional 

hotel room tax  

5% GST 

Total charge 

= $80.00 

=     8.00 

=     4.00 

= $92.00 

or 

Room charge 

8% HRT 

2% additional hotel room tax 

5% GST 

Total charge 

= $80.00 

=     6.40 

=     1.60 

=     4.00 

= $92.00 

HST and the Additional Hotel Room Tax As noted above, you must continue to collect and remit the additional 2% hotel room 

tax after implementation of the HST on July 1, 2010. 

As part of the transition to HST, the provincial hotel room tax will be eliminated from 

the federal Taxes, Duties and Fees (GST/HST) Regulations.  As a result, the additional 

hotel room tax will no longer be excluded from the GST/HST base.  Therefore, if you sell 

accommodation that is subject to both the HST and the additional hotel room tax, you 

charge HST on both the accommodation and the additional hotel room tax.  

For example, if you charge $80 for accommodation that is subject to both HST and the 

additional hotel room tax, you calculate the tax as follows: 

 

Municipal and Regional District Tax  Page 6 of 9 

 

Room charge 

2% additional hotel room tax 

12% HST 

Total charge 

= $80.00 

=     1.60 

=     9.79 

= $91.39 

Sending in the Tax You use a separate tax return to send in the additional hotel room tax.  If you offer 

accommodation in more than one area that collects the additional hotel room tax, you 

file a separate return for each area.  At the end of each reporting period, the ministry 

will send you a Hotel Room Tax Return form (FIN 432), together with a Municipal and 

Regional District Tax Return form (FIN 401) for each area in which you offer 

accommodation.   

The procedures for completing the returns are the same, except there is no commission 

allowed for collecting the additional hotel room tax.   

To be considered on time, your tax return and payment must be received by the 

ministry before the close of business (4:30 pm) on the 23rd of the month following the 

end of your reporting period.  If the due date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday in 

British Columbia, your tax return and payment are due by 4:30 pm on the first business 

day following the due date.  You are required to complete and send in your tax return 

even if you did not make any sales of taxable accommodation.  If you do not receive a 

tax return for a reporting period, you still must file a return and pay your taxes by the 

due date.  The return forms are available on our website at www.sbr.gov.bc.ca 

/business/Consumer_Taxes/Hotel_Room_Tax/hrt_forms.htm or from any 

Service BC Centre.   

For more information about completing the tax return form, please see 

Bulletin HRT 003, Completing the Hotel Room Tax Return Form. 

Transition Period You charge the additional hotel room tax on all sales of taxable accommodation that 

you make on, or after, the date the tax becomes effective in your area. 

However, your guests can apply to the ministry for a refund of the tax they paid if they 

booked and confirmed reservations for a specified number of days of accommodation, 

before the effective date. 

The ministry cannot process a claim of less than $10 and it must be received by the 

ministry within four years of the date the tax was paid. 

 

Municipal and Regional District Tax  Page 7 of 9 

 

To be eligible, your guest’s refund application must include the following supporting 

documentation and show that before the effective date they:  

had a written contract, 

received written confirmation of the reservation, or 

made a deposit. 

Participating Municipalities, Regional 

Districts and Eligible Entities 

Additional hotel room tax of 2% applies in the following areas: 

Alberni‐Clayoquot, Regional District of (applies to the City of Port Alberni and the 

Alberni‐Clayoquot Regional District electoral areas B, D, E and F) 

Alert Bay, Village of (effective January 1, 2010) 

Abbotsford, City of 

Burnaby, City of 

Chilliwack, City of 

Central Kootenay, Regional District of (effective March 1, 2010 and applies to the 

electoral areas D, E and F) 

Columbia‐Shuswap, Regional District of (applies to the Town of Golden and the 

Columbia‐Shuswap Regional District electoral area A, not including Kicking Horse 

Mountain Resort Area and Yoho National Park) 

East Kootenay, Regional District of (applies to the City of Fernie and a portion of the 

East Kootenay Regional District electoral area A) 

East Kootenay, Regional District of (effective February 1, 2009 and applies to the 

District of Invermere and a portion of the East Kootenay Regional District electoral 

area F) 

East Kootenay, Regional District of (applies to the Village of Radium Hot Springs 

and two portions of the East Kootenay Regional District electoral area G) 

Harrison Hot Springs, Village of 

Kamloops, City of 

Kaslo, Village of (effective March 1, 2010) 

Kelowna, City of 

Kimberley, City of 

Kitimat‐Stikine, Regional District of (applies to the City of Terrace and the  

Kitimat‐Stikine Regional District electoral area E) 

Langford, City of 

Langley, City of 

Langley, Township of 

Merritt, City of 

 

Municipal and Regional District Tax  Page 8 of 9 

 

Mount Waddington, Regional District of (effective January 1, 2010 and applies to  

the Village of Port Alice and the Regional District of Mount Waddington electoral 

areas A, B, C and D) 

Mount Washington Resort Association (effective January 1, 2010 and applies to  

the resort area that is a portion of the Comox Valley Regional District electoral  

area C) 

Nanaimo, Regional District of (applies to the Nanaimo Regional District electoral 

areas E, F, G and H) 

Nelson, City of (effective March 1, 2010) 

North Vancouver, City of  

North Vancouver, District of 

Oak Bay, District of 

Osoyoos, Town of 

Parksville, City of 

Penticton, City of 

Port Hardy, District of 

Port McNeill, Town of (effective January 1, 2010) 

Prince George, City of (effective January 1, 2010) 

Prince Rupert, City of 

Qualicum Beach, Town of 

Revelstoke, City of 

Richmond, City of 

Rossland, City of 

Saanich, District of 

Smithers, Town of 

Squamish, District of (effective November 1, 2009) 

Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Area 

Surrey, City of 

Tofino, District of 

Ucluelet, District of  

Valemount, Village of 

Vancouver, City of 

Vernon, City of (effective March 1, 2010) 

Victoria, City of 

Wells, District of 

Whistler, Resort Municipality of 

Please note:  To verify whether your accommodation is subject to the additional hotel 

room tax, please contact your municipality or regional district. 

 

Municipal and Regional District Tax  Page 9 of 9 

 

Need more info? 

Accommodation website:  www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/industry_specific/accommodation 

/accommodation.htm 

Telephone (Vancouver):  604 660‐4524 

Toll free in Canada:  1 877 388‐4440 

E‐mail:  CTBTaxQuestions@gov.bc.ca 

The information in this bulletin is for your convenience and guidance and is not a 

replacement for the legislation.  The Hotel Room Tax Act and Regulations are on our 

website at www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/business/Consumer_Taxes/Hotel_Room_Tax 

/hrt_legislation.htm 

Acknowledgments  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:  Hotel Room Tax Act, Sections 1, 3, 3.1, 6, 12, 18, 38 and 43, and Regulations 5.2 and 5.4. 

i 

We wish to acknowledge and thank the British Columbia Hotel Association and the 

British Columbia Lodging and Campgrounds Association for consulting with us on public 

information for the accommodation industry.  By working with us, they help us better 

serve their members and work towards making British Columbia the best place to do 

business. 

 

   AppendProgram

dix 6:  Comm 

mox Valleyy Economi

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Comox V

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Valley Visitor 

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