DMO

[re]

Well well, looks like the Dmo will be the topic for the next little while,
We all have to say yes to this , as its to late to say no,
Just going for a walk on my usal route made me come to that decision,
Holly $hit , what have we done to the view down on the east side of town , they have boxed in Madin Lake , well i guess one possitive thing about that is …we will be looking @ the word Canadian in big letters and the nice maple leaf, But as we kill off our great views in this town we have to realize that marketing is know more important than ever, i mean how can we let these monster projects in and not all support the DMO, I just not logical , Fernie has already taken the first step so there is no point in going backwards, It is just the process of maturing and growing ie. every one wanted the billboards taken down so they are being taken down and replaced with superstores in town that are massive billboards them selfs …….we love kicking the local and bending over of the giants when will we learn the the dollar is just that a dollar

[re]

so i guess i must have nail it, so were all for the DMO, THATS GREAT , see you @ the meeting Aug 15 6.30 @ the senior center

[adventuresource]

I am a small business. I am 98% booked every winter. My yearly marketing budget is less than the DMO fee for an Animal Adventure provider. How are they going to make business in Fernie better for my company? Are they going to get my adventure insurance lowered?
Can they provide me with income if the snow doesn’t come?
I don’t think I the DMO to be in business. Are they going to feed my dogs and pay my rent if I can’t do tours due to a lack of snow?
Somebody tell me how the DMO helps me?

http://www.adventuresource.ca

[re]

I think the DMO will help you when you have compition move in , being 98% booked is great but when another dog sleding company moves to town you might need someone marketing Fernie out there to get you more biz , or you might wan to run your operation in the summer with carts, the DMO is a service to help you grow , its not a hand out …you all have to be in to win,
your clients do not all just drive down from Calgary or were ever, they stay in town at a hotel or lodge or Hostel, So why should they have to pay for you?? I know that if the DMO is not all in, that is if only some of us were to pay and others not The ones paying would have a great network to recommend people too , and the ones not in the DMO would be on there own as in not recommended….
I think as we see this town change we all have to look at the big picture

[adventuresource]

I have three competitors locally, and 1 in Kimberly. I send all my over flow to these other business. I do operate in the summer but don’t need too. The DMO sounds like a great Idea. But I pay the Chamber to market us. However the chamber doesn’t seem to make it to any of the big Trade Shows across Canada or anywhere. So if I join the DMO they will market my business overseas and in Canada? I have articles in magaines and newspapers all over the world for free. I’m already booked for the Christmas weeks. I’ll join but I do not believe that the fees are fair for small business vs larger tour business. If I put it this way a raft company can take out 4 rafts with 8 people in each raft and charge $95 each everyday of their season. I can take four people at $200 each only when there is snow once a day or twice a day if I’m lucky. I don’t make money dogsledding I do it to provide an experience for people. My dogs eat everyday 365 days a year, this cost money. Rafts don’t eat in the winter or the summer. I just feel that the fees are completely out to lunch.

[re]

that could be true ,but were all in the same boat
were with a major chain, 4000 hostel world wide 66 here in canada, We get marketed by this chain, were are booked out over all holiday periods , and get great write ups in travel books and ski mags from around the world, but its Just backing Fernie and being part of it ,every other 4season town is doing it some with millions behind them, I think we should just give it a go and see wht it can do, who know maybe you,ll be able to feed your dogs t bones

[seasonsgreetings]

As re said, we need to look at the bigger picture. Hopefully the DMO will market Fernie as a four-season destination and promote us as a single entity with lots of activities and all the associated facilities our visitors require.
People are complaining that the trickle down effect does not help them, but how are we supposed to measure something like that? Think of all the hospitality and tourism employees in town who can only stay because of the tourist dollar that pays their wages – where do they buy their groceries, get their car fixed, replace their kitchen, watch a hockey match, take a sick pet?
Fernie is now at the point where everyone must start to pull together, or we all lose out.
Adventuresource, I understand where you are coming from on the fees, but how on earth are they supposed to be done fairly for everyone? Raft companies have enormous expenses – equipment gets lost or broken, buses need maintenance, every raft needs it’s own guide. The river season is no more reliable than your snow season – at the start the river can be running too high to be safe, rafts can’t go out in a lightning storm, and anytime between July and October the river can get too low to run without adequate rainfall. This applies to all adventure operators, and capacity is only limited by the resources you have. Given enough new visitors, you could expand your business, take on more guides, dogs and sleds and end up with the biggest dogsledding company in Canada.
I think it is great that you are 98% booked, but I can assure you nobody else is. Most hotels and motels are running at around 50-65% yearly occupancy and the fact that you still don’t need reservations to rent skis or bikes even at the peak of the appropriate season, suggests we are nowhere near the capacity we should be in terms of visitor numbers.
If we are going to continue to build accommodations at such ridiculous speed, we have to find some way to fill them.

[sparkes]

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[valleygirl]

I grew up in Fernie and remember a time when there were two restaurants on main street (aka 2nd ave), Ginger Beef and JV’s Pantry. Things have changed and will continue to do so. An effective DMO ensures that any changes work towards helping local businesses. A coalition lessons the threat of the big box organizations moving in, and when/if they do move in, local businesses will be in a more secure situation. We need to stick together and help keep the local shops and services that make Fernie such a unique destination in business.

Getting people here essential, but before we start the mass marketing we should take a look around and make sure we provide an aesthetically pleasing destination that offers all amenities. A conscious effort needs to be made to increase the services we offer in town and at the ski hill, keep businesses open on 2nd avenue, repair roads, etc. Sure, we can get people here once, but it is the repeat visitor that adds value in the end.

[seasonsgreetings]

Sparkes, I said 50-65% YEARLY average, not summer. I was including April, May, October, November and the first two weeks of December and January when pretty much everyone is struggling to get their first floor filled. That said, there certainly has been a marked growth in summer visitors over the past two years and I think we are all feeling the benefits of that. I’d love to see the summer season expand to the same amount of time that we actually have warm weather, instead of just the 8 week influx we currently get.

In addition to my earlier point about the speed of the accommodation construction in town, we are also experiencing a huge issue locally with housekeeping staff. I can think of at least 7 businesses that are currently looking for housekeepers. Anyone know how we are going to fix that issue with all the new accommodations we are expecting to see over the next few years that will need to be cleaned? And where are those $9 ph housekeepers supposed to live when winter accommodation is pushing $500/month?

What I would like to see is some kind of organised voice in Fernie that is going to look after issues like this, and others, including low income housing for low income workers, grass roots employment incentives, promoting small business and stopping future big box stores that are going to be a blot on the landscape and push smaller businesses out. Prime example is Kootenay Market folding just two years after Extra Foods went in. Canadian Tire and Marks work warehouse are sure to follow suit – I’m not saying I won’t shop there, I need to save a buck just like anyone else, I just hope we don’t have to lose the likes of IGS and the small autobody places as a result.

I don’t think the DMO is going to get involved in any of this – does anyone else care enough about these issues to do something about this with me?

[gavitron]

I think a major factor that is impacting business in town yet seems entirely ignored is our population. As bigger stores come in, smaller stores are closing down. In normal cities, small businesses can function because there is enough local consumers to ensure that everyone gets a slice of the pie all year round. The way we market Fernie these days does not attract long term residents, which we need more of. Not only to spend money here, but to live here and work and spread the wealth. The tourism marketing is a start, but the more we do that the more expensive it gets to live here. Whos gonna run this town? I know of perfectly feasible businesses in town that have closed their doors only because they can not find employees that will stay for more than a month or two. Maybe we should worry about the basics before we get too crazy with the marketing. How about some affordable housing? I don’t know much about this DMO stuff, but by the sounds of it I don’t think the time is right to give our businesses another headache.

[czar from afar]

Ask yourself: who in their right mind wouldn’t want to move to an oasis like Fernie. On a North American scale, are there not thousands or tens of thousands of people for whom Fernie is a uniquely perfect lifestyle match.
Then why do the number of permanent residents stay pasted at 5,000, or even drop slightly, year after year?
Employment opportunities.
My impression, as an outsider and long-time admirer, is that Fernie is an attractive base for coal mining commuters and seasonal service workers. It is also an attractive base to set up small, low-revenue store front shops. It is not a place to start your career (with a few noteable exceptions that I have encountered over the years), and it is an economically risky place to relocate a family.
If the community does aspire to stabilize or grow its size with more permanent residents, these people need quality jobs. Effective self-promotion seems like a good first step. Your DMO opportunity sure seems on the mark.
If, on the other hand, you would like to keep things as they are, then stick with your current plan, but hope that nothing else changes (like an influx of big box stores, a string of bad winter seasons, new ski industry competition, an environmental hazard, a turn in coal fortunes, etc.), where change occurs without your control.
This was the lesson that I learned in Toronto during SARS – an event that we have still not gotten over completely – or Detroit learned during the change of auto inductry fortunes, or New York learned on a business-as-usual day one September, or New Orleans learned when bad climate met bad luck – things will change. Invest in the community to flourish during the good times, while building strength to help manage inevitable changes.
P.S. Please invest in Fernie so that I can relocate my family there.

[sparkes]

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[adventuresource]

Why in the world would I ever want to expand my business bigger that it is? Why would I ever want to have the biggest dogsled kennel in Canada? I don’t run tours to push customers through one after another.
I will stay in business because I run the best quality and most unique trips of any dogsled business in Canada. My customers come to us because we aren’t like anywhere else or anyone else. As far as expansion it would be business suicide for my business to be any bigger than it is. Does anyone remember what happened to other companies that ran dogsled tours in this area? I do I was there. It was this community and a certain unnamed local resort that put them out of business. I became a success without being indebted to any other organization. I went straight to the people that have made Fernie a tourist destination. I went straight to the tourist. The DMO sounds great. But are they going to cover marketing above my budget? Are they going to give every company a fair representation. What is going to happen to companies that market us all ready and sell complete holiday packages like Mountain Perks? The DMO could cripple destination marketing business’ that already exist. Are they going to be competitors or parteners?

[seasonsgreetings]

Fernie is going to grow, it’s inevitable. We either work out a way to do that in a positive, responsible, reliable and controlled manner, or we will end up in a mess for the next ten years or so until we end up the size of Banff or Whistler and a few bigshots just take over the whole town. At present we are in a position to work together as a community and create a healthy environment for everyone.
Personally I would be totally happy if we stayed exactly as we are and didn’t get any busier or more popular. However for that to happen it would take a ton of businesses, the City and RCR to all agree to stop growing and to put together a formal plan to prevent any increases in accommodations, marketing, spending, new business and rates. Ain’t gonna happen folks!
So lets please get this right now before it’s too late. If you don’t like it you need to do something constructive – the DMO might not be the perfect solution (and I certainly don’t know enough about it to make a decision yet) but at least someone is doing something.
adventuresource, I am glad your business is doing well and you are as busy as you need/want to be. That is an excellent situation to be in when so many small businesses have closed their doors over the past two years. Now I’m not saying all or even most of those did so as a result of a lack of tourism, but it was definately a factor in some cases (Divine Essentials, Tres Hermanas…) How do we solve this issue in your eyes? I think everyone would like to see some alternatives so we have options on the table.

[canatedian]

What we seem to hae here….. is a failure to progress, smartley (imo)

We are not taking control and smartley using what promotional outlets we hae.

Ps. (my / button aint werkin eh.)

No offence to the person in charge at the lcal cable company in example, but who in their right mind wants to turn on the tube and watch some old bat sippin tea and talking to people.

What? Does she thinks she’s the next Oprah?
I hae seldomly seen any outside Fernie Footage on channel 10 , but someones apparently not thought of this yet

We also hae the problem of too many non /erbal people.

Look what happened with the Mogul Smoker….. People should learn to work together and not be thinkin bout profit margins or staff costs.

I say that if a Destination Marketin Organization – (Group which makes no real sence imo) should be funded by an outfit such as Columbia Basin or work under the umbrella of the Chamber of Commerce.

Sadly – We are all taking the wrong aproach to Marketing our town and are creating our own problems.

Why doesnt each Bar in town take turns hosting industry night? Probably because we don’t pay our hospitality people enough to comfortably li/e , how can we expect them to enjoy the scene on time off.

– I would also like to add that I would like to see a one way street placed from the corner of 7th and nineth to the corner of 7th and 7th.
No offence to any of the three fly fishing outfits on the stretch, but congestion and mornin coffee at jamochas is no combination I can swallow easy. All woried about my Jag parked out front with all the gonna catch a trout testosterone in the air.

The answer to all your griefs can be found. sadly I only hae time to end global warming and turbidity today.

[leftcoast]

The DMO is a tool for big business and the proposed directorship of the organization will keep them at the wheel indefinitely.

Small businesses will benefit however not to the extent that the fat cats will. Fernie Lodging Co and Fernie Alpine Resort are poised to reap the rewards of their political maneuvering.

They will argue that they are paying the most and should have control. What happened to democratic representation?

Say NO to the proposed directorship of the DMO. Lets not let the fat cats further use our resources to their benefit.

[Author]

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