EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
FOCUS AREAS & STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS
Focus Areas are the big outcomes that will help achieve the Vision and guide all of the actions in the plan. The Focus Areas and goals reflect what was learned through industry research and engagement with the community, business and tourism stakeholders. The Strategic Directions under each Focus Area consider the current trends, opportunities and challenges of today and direct on how to achieve the goals in each Focus Area.
Prioritizing the Strategic Directions led to a review of community, business and tourism stakeholder input on specific projects and ideas. These were refined and prioritized into Actions and categorized as Catalyst Actions, Short-Term, Medium-Term or Long-Term. The Action list is detailed in the Appendix.
DIVERSITY OF VISITORS YEAR ROUND
Goal: Recover from COVID-19 and grow visitors into multi-day, year-round economic and community contributors
Strategic Directions:
• Increase visitation in non-peak times in summer, winter, fall & spring
• Foster Fernie’ s arts, heritage & cultural tourism product
• Develop strategies to attract & serve high yield / value oriented visitors
• Embrace 2nd homeowners to create ambassadors for Fernie
• Develop a common community brand to present to visitors
REMARKABLE VISITOR EXPERIENCES
Goal: Develop and enhance Fernie’ s visitor infrastructure, amenities, brand, tourism products, experiences and people
Strategic Directions:
• Support businesses & organizations to foster improved tourism experiences & overall sustainability
• Expand indoor activities
• Foster impeccable customer service
• Protect & enhance Fernie’ s downtown
• Create focal visitor points for visitor staging & gathering
• Improve visitor focused in-community communications / wayfinding
STRONGER TOURISM FOUNDATION
Goal: Ensure collaboration, community support, people and financing for tourism recovery and success
Strategic Directions:
• Ensure there is adequate & qualified staff
• Define organizational roles & make collaboration a central tenant
• Ensure land use & development policies maintain & grow access to natural attractions & recreation amenities
• Enhance a working relationship with the Ktunaxa / KRBI
• Increase community support for tourism & create more ambassadors
• Sustain financial resources for tourism
SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT
Goal: Manage locations where visitation is impacting the sense of community or natural environment and support the resiliency of the industry
Strategic Directions:
• Manage tourism related capacity impacts on community, environment & visitor experiences important to tourism
• Mitigate non-tourism industry impacts on the environment & visitor experiences important to tourism
• Improve getting to & around Fernie( visitors & locals)
• Foster greater care & appreciation of Fernie- having visitors become contributors and ambassadors