Opportunities of Fernie’ s Tourism Industry
• Community’ s desire to work on addressing the weaknesses. Find the money and build the capacity.
• There are more people that can become a visitor to Fernie. Continue and expand upon building the product, infrastructure, and awareness.
• Currency exchange rates( US, Euro, UK).
• Growing occupancy in high yield months, ADR and RevPar overall.
• New investment and development – Basecamp, Best Western expansion, Montane campground.
• Advocating the Province of BC to charge MRDT on campgrounds and RV resorts.
• City of Fernie OCP process.
• New housing, infrastructure needs and projects
• Travel is a priority for people across the globe. Lots of market-share to capture.
• Fernie is the type of destination many are looking for: clean, safe, beautiful, outdoors, small mountain town, community, authentic, fun, quaint etc.
• Further leveraging our sustainability efforts, GreenStep potential benefits.
• Destination Weddings – based on venue capacity.
• Events, festivals, competitions, and meetings – based on venue capacity – existing and future.
• Boutique wellness tourism.
• Accommodators wanting to do packaging and selling of FAR lift tickets.
• Return and continued growth of long-haul markets.
• Tourism Fernie’ s growing plan and efforts in destination management and development in partnership with key stakeholders such as RDEK, landowners and the City of Fernie.
• Technology and AI.
• More and better data will help industry long-term growth and sustainability.
• Further increase communications to industry / visitors on important content / updates.
• Increase in importance of tourism to local economy, what is future of coal in the valley.
• A new industry or economic entity needs to be fostered now to eventually replace the economic engine of coal mining in the Elk Valley. Tourism based industry is big part of that solution.
• Creative public and private partnerships to address opportunities with infrastructure.
• More local education on the benefits and values of tourism.
Threats of Fernie’ s Tourism Industry
• Current local / national / global economics – cost of living, affordability, discretional spending. Impacts tourism staffing if limited housing options. Impacts visitation if travelers limit spending.
• Weather / climate negative impacts to stays, the experience and the product. Need to plan, mitigate, diversify industry.
• Many competing destinations are further investing in experiences, attractions.
• Lack of local and regional transportation jeopardizes much of the industry including international visitors as it is a barrier to access.
• Future of TECK / Glencore in the Valley, decrease in coal prices, jobs, home values, business revenues, corporate room nights.
• Media and government communications during provincial / national weather / other big issues affecting travel. Those that are not an issue locally yet their communications then become the issue to travelers.
• Future of air travel, sustainability trends, climate change, ability to adapt.
• Future of labour shortages, stopped being an issue this winter 23-24 season. What will summer and beyond look like?
• Will housing / rental developments keep pace of demand?
• Multiple users / demands and industry on the land base, private landowners. Complexity to collaborate and work through continually.
• Invasive species to our waterways. Selenium challenges.
• Limited base area, experience and chairlift investment at Fernie Alpine Resort.
• Municipal process for permits and approvals is slow and cumbersome which has and can turn away investment and limit positive change and growth.
• Strong corporate travel business demand( TECK, CP, TC construction, etc) can push leisure tourism business down due to lack of accommodation availability and different ways of spending in the community.
• Local pricing competition that erodes overall revenue generation for the industry, ie with ADR between properties and also compared to STRs.
• Will new Federal budget discourage investment?
Copies of Tourism Master Plan and past Annual Reports can be found here: http:// tourismfernie. com / stakeholders / resources
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