Photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters

By Liam Verster

Tourism Strategy

Destination management the focus of Vernon’s tourism strategy

Jun 15, 2022 | 5:00 AM

Tourism Vernon will focus on destination management and appealing to key demographics in the coming years.

The 2023 – 2027 Tourism Strategy, which was presented to Vernon City Council Monday, June 13, shows that the sector needs to evolve from destination marketing to destination management, which will ensure there is active stewards in the community prioritizing long-term sustainability and community wellbeing.

The decision to make the change came following public consultations that identified sustainability as being a key priority to the sector locally.

With the move, Tourism Vernon will establish a Destination Management Organization (DMO) to promote, protect and enhance Vernon’s position in the sector while leading targeted marketing programs, supporting destination development programs, and advocating for the sustainable growth of tourism in Vernon.

As part of that process, the DMO will focus in on the key demographics for the area: active explorers, those nearing retirement, and people seeking specialized sporting activities.

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Tourism Vernon’s stats on visitors to Vernon in 2021 shows that 49 per cent of visitors were active explorers. Those individuals tend to be within the 35 to 55 year old age group, are travelling as a family, are Western Canada based, are fairly budget conscious, and are interested in outdoor activities.

The near retirement group, which consisted of 33 per cent of visitors in 2021, were noted to be a desirable segment to appeal to as they have more resources, including time and money, and often seek off-season visits to avoid crowds. This group, which consists of people age 55 and older, typically travel as couples or as multi-generational families, come mostly from Alberta markets, and enjoy hiking, biking, golfing, and spending more time at the beach. They are also more likely to eat out at restaurants or take part in wine tours or other relaxing tourist activities.

The specific sports group, which consists of people age 16 to 45, are travellers who enjoy skiing, biking, golfing, sports events, and other more fast paced activities. They are the group more likely to be reached through social media.

Tourism Vernon also stated that a majority of visitors to the area are ‘short-haul visitors’ who are taking short flights or drives from Alberta or the Lower Mainland to the region.

With all these factors in mind, the city department will be putting most of their attention focusing on the more prominent visitor groups.

“What this breaks down to for Tourism Vernon, from a budgeting perspective, is we focus the majority of our marketing dollars on our primary market (active explorers), short-haulers, and then varying degrees from there of dollars spent marketing to the various other demographics,” explained Tourism Manager, Torrie Silverthorn, during Monday’s meeting.

In order to attract these key demographics, Tourism Vernon has several strategies to put in place:

Lead with the brand

• Conduct a brand assessment
• Develop messaging for major attractions
• Create additional brand assets

Focus marketing on key audiences

• Shift marketing towards target audiences
• Update Tourism Vernon website
• Conduct hyper-targeted advertising through social and digital media
• Continue to invest in conventional spaces

Incubate products and experiences

• Support an annual tourism product development forum
• Develop partnerships (such as with Lake Country wineries)
• Enhance in- and out-of-town business connections
• Support bike-friendly product development
• Elevate the presence of Vernon arts and culture

Activate local pride

• Develop and launch a local concierge training program to connect visitors with activities
• Develop family and friends program
• Host social media takeovers

Leverage specific sports

• Prepare the foundation for a sport tourism strategy and leverage partnerships in that sector
• Partner with Destination SilverStar and SilverStar Mountain Resort
• Promote Vernon as a golf destination

Establish strong partnerships

• Conduct an audit of available tourism support programs
• Continue work with Downtown Vernon Association and City of Vernon departments to improve visitor access to downtown core
• Continue building relationships with Okanagan Indian Band
• Support Vernon economic development in climate action

The presentation to council also included a suggestion to refresh Tourism Vernon’s branding to showcase more specific activities and key messaging that speaks more directly to the target markets.

The city department also wants to focus on sustainability through regenerative nature, regenerative tourism and regenerative relationships, all of which involve being more thoughtful of the long-term environmental impacts the tourism sector can contribute to, or can help alleviate.

Silverthorn finished her presentation by saying the new strategic plan is more focused and targeted than previous plans, reinforces and elaborates on what has been proven to work, imbeds sustainability as a core principle, deepens engagement with the local community, and is reflective of a growing tourism destination.

Tourism Vernon’s 2023 – 2027 Strategic Plan was accepted for information with a unanimous vote by the four council members present Monday. Councillors Brian Quiring and Kelly Fehr, as well as Mayor Victor Cumming, were not in attendance.

Following the meeting, Acting Mayor and Tourism Vernon Commission member, Teresa Durning, told Vernon Matters that seeing tourism find key priorities to work on, particularly in the realm of sustainability, is important.

“I think one of the things I was pleased with was the alignment with the Climate Action Strategy, which is very important to the City of Vernon, that they had the wherewithal to actually get some of their strategy going in that direction to align so everybody is working in the same direction,” said Durning.

She noted the strategic plan’s focus on the primary market is also important at this time instead of trying to overreach into untapped markets.

“Always the thinking behind tourism is you want those people to tell their friends and to come back and spend more nights in our community, so those are kind of the objectives [of tourism],” said Durning.

“We don’t go looking for new markets if our markets are growing and if our market has strong potential for the future, so I think we’re on the right track with that.”

Durning also stated it is impressive to see Tourism Vernon adapted to how tourism worked during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are shifting focus moving forward to build the sector in the coming years.