Tourism in British Columbia and Destination BC's Corporate Strategy
International Mountain Tourism
This seminar paper deals with the destination British Columbia (BC) based on scientific research papers and findings, secondary data, and various insights from the guest lectures by tourism experts Richard Porges, Destination BC, and Eric Callender, Ecosign. Starting with an overview of BC as a tourism destination, internal strengths and weaknesses can be defined. Further research into current challenges in the tourism industry, global trends, and the impact of the pandemic on the industry, to name a few influencing factors, provide a diverse overview of opportunities and threats for BC. A special focus is thereby placed on Mountain Tourism.
Overview of the Tourism Industry in British Columbia
In Canada, BC is the westernmost province, bordering the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. The diverse nature, wildlife, resources, and location sets the province apart from the rest of Canada. Vancouver is the largest city and the economic center of BC, whereas most people live in the south, Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. The rest of the province is thinly populated due to the geographical situation and mountain ranges make it difficult to settle the lands or to cultivate for farming. In BC, not only the countryside is diverse. The population in BC is an ethnical, and multilingual melting pot, which originates from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, China, India, and France as well as First Nations (i.e., indigenous people). Concluding, English is the most spoken language, followed by Chinese and Panjabi (Porges, 2021; Statista, 2021; Statistics Canada, 2016). BCs labor market offers high educational standards and quality as well as a skilled and multilingual workforce. This can be attributed to the provincial and federal governments’ immigration programs, which enable foreign professionals and experienced entrepreneurs to settle permanently in BC (Trade and Invest BC, 2021).
Tourism is steadily growing since World War II and various events like the fair expo 1986 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2010 fostered and leveraged the sustainable development of infrastructure like the Sea-to-Sky-Highway, the construction of rapid transport lanes, convention centers and further facilities, the tourism governance takes advantages of (“The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games,” 2015; Westcott et al., 2015; Williams & Elkhashab, 2012).
Today, tourism in BC is a very important business sector next to its economic mainstay of resource-based sectors with natural gas, mining, forestry, agriculture and fishery (Work BC, 2020): In 2018, a total revenue of USD 20.5 billion was generated and therefore contributed to the GDP with about 10%. With 161,500 people employed in tourism-related businesses, one out of 16 Canadians are employed in the service sector. Tourism is a thriving industry in BC and gained a great deal of importance. Since 2008, the contribution of the GDB, annual revenues and wages and salaries in the tourism industry at least doubled (Destination BC Research and Analytics, 2018; Porges, 2021; Tourism Industry Association of BC, 2019).
In 2019, Canada broke 22 million mark in arrivals, 6.2 million of those went to BC, accounting for almost 30% of total tourist arrivals in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2020). The guest structure in BC is divided into local arrivals with a share of 21%, 1/5 travels to BC from the rest of Canada, 21% originate from the United States, 15% from Asia Pacific and only 8% of the arrivals come from Europe. The remaining 7% is split between Mexico and other international markets. Overseas tourists usually stay longer and have a higher spending behavior, therefore this markets are very important to achieve BC’s high-yield strategy (Porges, 2021; Tourism Industry Association of BC, 2019).
“Super, Natural British Columbia”, as the name already states, BC provides a diversity of outdoor adventures like skiing, helicopter skiing and snowboarding, river rafting, mountain biking, rock climbing, and recreation activities like golfing, animal watching and visiting hot springs. BC also offers seasonal festivals and cultural heritage of the First Nations people. In metropolitan areas of BC, business travel, meetings and conferences are also relevant, as well as city or day-trips, mostly with guests from the United States, as the border is in close proximity to southern BC (BritishColumbia.com, 2020; Porges, 2021).
Lately, small wineries add texture to the tourism experience in BC (Williams & Kelly, 2001). The segment of food and beverage or wine and beer can stimulate tourism demand by adding a culinary component to the cultural tourism market regarding aboriginal festivals and agritourism activities. By doing so, rural diversification and identity can be represented through the relationship between food and ecotourism (Pesme et al., 2021; Plummer et al., 2005; Poitras & Donald, 2006; Williams & Kelly, 2001).
Concluding, BC provides strong assets and therefore can offer a sound, comprehensive package within the adventure, mountain and recreational tourism segment which is clearly represented through the DMO with its precise and strategic destination development and its focus on including local people into decision making process. Through the stakeholder-centric approach, BC is in a good position to create a sustainable tourism destination which provides excellent services, compelling experiences and achieves a positive tourism attitude within the country. Therefore, all partners, stakeholder and the people in BC are in a tight, interconnected ecosystem which strives for the best for BCs tourism industry and support individual communities likewise (BritishColumbia.com, 2020; Destination BC, 2020a, 2020b; Porges, 2021).
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Mountain and Snow Tourism
Especially in winter, BC offers a wide range of winter sports activities like skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing in one of the 13 world-classy mountain resorts or in one of the smaller, community mountain resorts. Various skiing experiences are offered in the high alpine basins: helicopter, snowcat, downhill and backcountry skiing (BritishColumbia.com, 2020; Westcott et al., 2015). Ski resorts do not only vary in size but also in seasonality and provide the above mentioned winter activities, but also summer activities with mountain biking, hiking and golfing to achieve the status of year round destinations (Destination BC, 2015).
Skiing became popular in the United States, Europe and Canada in the 1960s. BCs biggest and most famous ski resort is Whistler Blackcomb, which worldwide ranked number 5 based on average annual skier visits during the last 5 years (Vanat, 2021). At about 2/3 of skier visits are from the local, BC market, whereas 1/3 of international arrivals originate from Washington State, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand (Brent Harley and Associates Inc [BHA], 2020; Destination BC, 2015). The ski areas play an important role in BCs tourism industry, as they are one of the main motivators for national and international guests to visit during the winter months (BHA, 2020; Porges, 2021).
Worldwide, new ski markets appear on the map, especially in China. According to this, worldwide skier days are still growing annually. In western markets however, the ski industry faces various challenges like the highly competitive market, a stagnation of skier days, a significant change in demographics and, of course, the threat of climate change, which leads to higher expenses in order to invest into innovation, modernization, research and development (Rutty et al., 2015; Vanat, 2021). According to Vanat (2021), Canada already has a very mature market and needs to face an ageing clientele, look out for new customer segments and invest in snow reliability due to recent weather conditions, which affected skier days in the past few years.
Despite the recent stagnation of skiing attendance in Canada, BC experienced an improvement of skier days in winter seasons 2016/17 and 2017/18 due to excellent weather and snow conditions. Due to a low Canadian dollar, more international guests visited for skiing. Another factor that improved skier days was the entry of Whistler Blackcomb to the Epic Pass (Callender, 2021; Vanat, 2021).
Recent studies have investigated the impact of so-called supra-regional multi-resort passes (mega passes) and the influence they have on day ticket prices and skier days. Whistler Blackcomb, for example, is part of Vail Resorts Inc. group since 2016, and therefore, the Epic Pass can be used in every ski resort that belongs to Vail Resorts Inc. Mega passes are available at a relatively low rate, while day ticket prices are rather expensive and depend on the day of the week, holiday season or weather conditions. However, with the mega pass, further profits are generated from additional revenues through dining, lodging and rental services, which are again cheaper for mega pass owners. Through the vertical integration of various income streams, the group can shift revenues within the segments of mountain, lodging and real estate development. Vail Resorts Inc. clearly follows a shareholder value-oriented concept of corporate management and benefits from objective and fast decision-making processes and targeted investments (Callender, 2021; Caplan, 2019; Lai, 2019; Vail Resorts, 2021).
With many ski resorts included in the group, it has embraced a monopolization position within the North American ski market, making it rather difficult for smaller and independent ski resorts to maintain their operation (Pröbstl-Haider & Flaig, 2019). Further impacts of the mega passes are increased traffic, noise and longer waiting times due to higher attendance and rising accommodation costs. Lastly, the development of mega passes prevent visitors from visiting new ski resorts because they are committed to their favorite one (Callender, 2021), and the high day ticket prices make skiing less accessible for first-timers which slows the potential of growth in skier days (Lai, 2019).
In summary, the Epic Pass fosters the growth of skier days, while on the other side, BC faces the above-mentioned challenges in the mountain tourism industry, that lead to a stagnation of skier days at the same time. Nevertheless, BC is planning on expanding existing ski resorts and even proposes projects like the new massive ski resort in the south of BC, stating to provide an all-season destination for day-use and overnight visitors due to its proximity to Vancouver and creating a sustainable community. Also, the strength of individual communities and resort municipalities in ski resorts allow the shift from winter-only to all season resorts (Chan, 2021; Gilani et al., 2018), and furthermore, the growth of the Chinese ski market can be used as a huge opportunity to approach a new target market due to the high Chinese population in BC and the growing middle class in China (Canadian Tourism Commission, 2012). Through the paradigm shift from winter with snow-related activities to year-round destinations with extreme sports, BC may overcome the decline of international arrivals in Canada (Gilani et al., 2018). However, rough weather conditions make it difficult to achieve constant arrivals throughout the year, therefore summer is still peak season (Reilly et al., 2010).
Covid-19
As the pandemic hit every country around the globe and especially the tourism industry, BC is also struggling to recover. It has experienced a shift in its tourism markets and relies on its strong, inbound travelers from Canada. Due to entry restrictions, vaccination regulations and PRC testing, which still needs to be paid privately, BC may lose some major markets, especially visitors from Seattle and the business tourism segment suffers a lot, and in addition, BC also struggles with a shortage of manpower in tourism. However, for the high-end visitor segment, the PCR test is no barrier and due to a very high vaccination rate in Canada, it is expected that the economy and tourism industry may recover faster than other economies (Callender, 2021; Porges, 2021).
Conclusion
To come to an end of the analysis, the overall weakness of the lack of infrastructure and public transportation due to the geography and landscape of BC is being emphasized at this point. Many places in BC are not accessible easily (Porges, 2021; Williams & Kelly, 2001). According to Porges (2021), the lack of public transportation does not hinder the high-end guest to visit BC; however, it is acknowledged, that expansion of infrastructure or investment in alternative mobility is too costly in both private and public sectors and therefore will remain a weakness as no effort seems to be made to contribute to the tourism environmental footprint (Reilly et al., 2010). The lack of public transportation may pretend to preserve natural habitats for flora and fauna, protects the wildlife and prevents traffic congestion; however, with non-existing public transport or alternative mobility solutions, individual movement and therefore the carbon footprint will rather increase than decrease (Reilly et al., 2010).
And lastly, according to the mountain and snow tourism, there seems to be a mismatch between the DMO’s strategy, which states to take into account all stakeholders, and the biggest and most famous ski resort in BC, which belongs to an US corporation, which clearly focusses its shareholders and revenues (Destination BC, 2020a; Vail Resorts, 2021).
Limitations
The SWOT analysis on BC tourism is a very small fragment and there are many more attributes to be investigated to achieve a clear and broad picture capturing comprehensive strengths and weaknesses. A detailed PESTEL analyses could emphasize future opportunities and risks. Second, influencing factors change constantly, therefore this paper represents a snapshot at that time only.
