Everything Revelstoke: tourism in one place

An independent initiative—Everything Revelstoke—is being established to serve visitors to the community

From left, John Leonard, Brydon Roe and Rich Eden stand with Chopper the dog outside the new and central Everything Revelstoke office. — Photo courtesy Everything Revelstoke

What came first, the chicken or the egg? How about tourism-minded businesses in an area, or tourism itself? Neither question has an easy answer. The first one may remain a mystery, but the second one is relevant to development in many different communities.

Revelstoke is one city in southeastern B.C. that has an evolving economic landscape. Although traditional industries will continue to play pivotal roles, the number of visitors to the area has increased, largely since the establishment of Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Regardless, smaller businesses have faced the challenge of adapting and growing.

Developing with growth

The company Revelstoke Connection has been operating airport shuttles since 2009, and is one company that is developing to meet the needs of the community. Everything Revelstoke is a new side to the business that will be offering easy citywide bookings from one source. The idea is to give visitors a helpful resource while offering key tools to small businesses, such as an online presence and credit card processing.

“We just felt that it was the natural progression for any developing resort town to have a central reservations centre where you can book everything,” said Richard Eden, general manager of Everything Revelstoke. “We’re going to do something like a grand opening the first week of April and invite all of the operators of all the activities in town and all the accommodation providers. We’re going to try and develop a relationship with each and every one of those.”

Everything Revelstoke operates on the belief that anything that benefits the community benefits every business in town. A long-term goal is to promote Revelstoke and to help it grow so that eventually travellers will be able to discover the summer activities of the region as well. For the moment, the focus will be on establishing the Everything Revelstoke website and office, while building solid relationships with every accommodation and tourism service provider in the city.

The serious business of vacationing

Eden is originally from the United Kingdom, but he finds that the Revelstoke lifestyle suits him just fine. Since moving to Canada, Eden has worked in hotels and transportation, and is now managing the bookings centre.

“Definitely look after your customers,” said Eden. “Your online reputation and management (is also very important). That’s huge, especially for hotels. A lot of smaller companies don’t realize that things like TripAdvisor play a massive role. People are looking online more than they ever have before when they want to book a holiday. Online reputation management is something we’re really trying to focus on.”

As Eden pointed out, Revelstoke will only get the boost of a new resort once. The challenge for Everything Revelstoke—along with everyone from Revelstoke—is to find a way to make tourism an integral and thriving part of business in their community. Ultimately, Everything Revelstoke will be keeping it local and making sure the tourism-business infrastructure is there to support the tourism growth itself.