Premier Gordon Campbell asked the first meeting of the new minister's council on tourism to use the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver as a “launch pad” to promote the province.
“It is an indication of the great importance that government places on the tourism industry that Premier Gordon Campbell attended our inaugural meeting,” council chair Stuart McLaughlin wrote in a summary posted on the B.C. Aviation Council website. “In his remarks, the Premier urged us to think outside the box about ways that we can use the 2010 Olympics as a launch pad to the future.”
The council, whose membership was announced Nov. 23, had its first meeting on Nov. 30, just over two months before the Olympics begin Feb. 12.
"It made me laugh to read that," said New Democratic Party tourism, culture and the arts critic Spencer Herbert. "I would have thought that would have been something we started as soon as we got the games."
It's late now, he said. "The Olympics are here."
Tourism, culture and the arts minister Kevin Krueger announced in August that the government was closing Tourism B.C., the Crown corporation that had been responsible for promoting the province.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers report on Olympic impacts released in November found the Games had not boosted tourism in the province by 2008. “No substantial spending occurred in 2003 to 2008,” they found.
Premier Campbell's remarks show little has changed, said Herbert. "It shows continuing mismanagement of what could be a really good opportunity for tourism."
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
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mcdull
2 years ago
Tourism
We will not be tourists in our own Province anymore what with the HST coming. We will buy only what is needed. Anything extra will be bought by relatives in Alberta and then gifted to us.So no more travelling by BC ferry ripoff. No more staying in the Interior at motels. I will travel through Washington State by Washington State Ferries and will ignore any CFIB stores. I have already started and when asked I told the owner why I would not spend any money in his store.
Dan the socialist
2 years ago
When I lived in Fort St.
When I lived in Fort St. John in the 90's and early 00's I went to Grand Prairie to see what the hoopla was all about and for a day trip and I was very surprised at all the cross border shopping, the one mall had more BC Plates than Alberta ones...I guess that form of cross border shopping will pick up to.
I don't know why the people have not given the BC legislature the Winter Palace treatment over the HST. If Gordo was a leader in say a European country there would be 100 000's of thousands of people in the streets protesting...
Van Isle
2 years ago
Hey Dan (the Socialist),
Hey Dan (the Socialist), most people in this country don't have the gonads to do any protesting. Most people are sheople and don't have it, what so ever, in questioning what the hell is going on. The ol' saying; If you're not angry, then it's obvious that you're not paying attention