Value in the valley

Funds have been raised and plans are being made to elevate the overall economic success of Columbia Valley businesses

Steve Paccagnan (L) and Pascal Van Dijk are president and CEO of Panorama Mountain Resort and Fairmont Hot Springs Resort, respectively. — Jamie Hurschler photo

“Regional collaboration” has a nice ring to it, evoking an all-for-one-and-one-for-all game plan. In southeastern B.C.’s Columbia Valley, where the major industry is tourism, a shared visitor services program is an early element of a growing collaboration—the Radium Hot Springs visitor centre is taking the lead in providing visitor services throughout the valley. In addition, the District of Invermere and the largest of the resorts have taken on a regional focus and invited other businesses to work with them to elevate and support the success of the area as a whole.

Steve Paccagnan is president and CEO of Panorama Mountain Resort (Panorama), situated 20 minutes northwest of Invermere. The resort employs about 500 people during its peak season, including about 120 permanent staff. Housing is available on site for the seasonal employees while most of the permanent staff, like Paccagnan, make their homes in Invermere.

In addition to the annual $8.7-million payroll for Panorama’s employees, the resort invests large sums in development projects that employ local tradespeople and in services for the facility itself and its guests. Those sums support businesses in the valley.

“We’re starting to look more to our community at large for what we can collectively do together, so that we create a culture that’s unique to the area that we’re in,” Paccagnan said. “I think this is a place where people can ... bring their skills and talents and integrate into the communities or even reinvent themselves. We want to find ways to embrace entrepreneurs who want to come here and start to do something within these communities.”

Steve Paccagnan is president and CEO of Panorama Mountain Resort near Invermere, B.C. — Photo courtesy Steve Paccagnan

Paccagnan cites Kicking Horse Coffee as an authentic local success story.

“They’ve created huge social and economic benefit based on a passion that they’ve turned into a business,” he said. “It’s on the map distinctly and uniquely as coming from Invermere, where people are proud of it and want to be a part of it. We’re also starting to see microbreweries and microdistilleries and other entrepreneurial ventures that are uniquely integrated into the community and authentic in that regard.”

Forty minutes southeast of Panorama lies Fairmont Hot Springs Resort (Fairmont), which employs about 330 people. Its annual payroll of about $7.5 million makes it pretty well the raison d’etre for the small, unincorporated community of Fairmont Hot Springs, B.C.

Pascal Van Dijk, the president and CEO of Fairmont, explained that while Panorama and Fairmont and a few other local employers have certainly been successful with their marketing to date, it makes good economic sense for them to operate as a unified organization with other tourism-oriented companies in the Columbia Valley 

“By collaborating,” Van Dijk said, “we’re creating a much bigger pot of money and a bigger opportunity to showcase all of what the Columbia Valley has to offer, including a lot of the amenities and activities that are not currently being marketed widely. It can be done much more efficiently if there is an organization that puts all of this together as a package representing everyone.”

Pascal Van Dijk is president and CEO of Fairmont Hot Springs Resort in southeastern B.C.'s Columbia Valley. — Photo courtesy Fairmont Hot Springs Resort

Attending trade shows is expensive in terms of time and travel. A trade-show display that represents a group of vendors from the same geographic area would be less costly for individual vendors and more convenient for shoppers. It could also offer exposure to smaller businesses that wouldn’t ordinarily be present.

With funding from Columbia Basin Trust, the Columbia Valley Advisory Committee undertook research to establish the viability and how-to of a valley-wide marketing collaboration, including the two large resorts and all of the accommodators from Radium Hot Springs south to Fairmont Hot Springs.

The Destination BC Co-op Marketing Partnerships Program provides financial support for collaborative marketing and added $103,000 to the almost $145,000 contributed by Tourism Radium, the Invermere-Panorama destination marketing organization, Fairmont, Bighorn Meadows Resort, the Columbia Valley Golf Trail, Copper Point Resort and a number of others. These funds will all be spent on marketing initiatives to benefit the economy of the entire Columbia Valley.

Now, a smaller committee made up of stakeholder representatives is formulating a plan for spending those marketing dollars. They are working on branding and an extensive marketing campaign that will be based on research already done.

This is a strong forward step in the collaboration to create a destination marketing organization that supports the interests of the entire Columbia Valley. However, Van Dijk said, “There are a lot of moving parts to this process, and it may take a while.”

Collaboration is an effective strategy for economic development, but it’s not easy to go from competition and self-interest to supporting the success of everyone in the game. This game,though, works best when everyone wins. And the more winners there are, the longer the game can continue.