With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1510895
ON THE RADAR ( the informer ) T he trouble started months ago, when I got an email inviting me to the annual Partners in Tourism Invitational Golf Tournament at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. It promised a day on the golf course with some of B.C.'s tour- ism leaders to learn about the challenges and opportunities facing the industry. I consid- ered attending the event with- out actually participating in the golf, something that managing editor Alyssa Hirose quickly called "the coward's way out." Okay, fine, I thought. I'll show her. After all, my golf game has been improving, thanks to friends who drag me out to pitch-and-putt and small- er, so-called executive courses. As I have moved reluctantly into older age to reach the point where the people I know are trading in their backwards baseball caps for what I have termed "old man golf hats," tackling the sport of golf—and developing the ability to say you've been playing sports when you've actually been walking around—has become my fate. So, I bravely answered yes. Over the next few weeks, doubt followed me around like a bad cough. "I usually lose nine or 10 balls there," said my friend Daniel, a golfer about 10 times as talented and experienced as me, when describing the course. "It's a monster, straight up the mountain." As some- one who doesn't even take his driver out of the bag, I had to ask the question: Was I about to completely embarrass myself? On the day of the event, that query is answered succinctly by every member in my four- some, who all initially insist they don't golf very much, and who each proceed to hit mas- sive drives perfectly placed down the fairway. When I get to the tee box Chipping Away Our intrepid editor-in-chief (and very amateur golfer) takes on the Partners in Tourism Invitational Golf Tournament and learns about the state of the tourism sector by Nathan Caddell T O U R I S M RECOVER AND RESUME In August 2023, tourism in B.C. hit a five-year employment rate high. In May 2020, the B.C. tourism industry saw its highest unemployment rate (33.6%) in the last five years. By August 2023 it was down to 4%. Average hourly earnings have also risen in the sector. In August 2023, the average tourism worker made $28 an hour in B.C., up from $21 in August 2019. 15.5% Increase in ferry traffic along Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo routes during the first six months of 2023. B.C. saw 560,950 international visitors (not including U.S.) in June 2023, a 45.3% increase from 2022. Still, it was a far cry from June 2019, which saw 825,805. When it comes to U.S. travel to B.C., that segment seems to have fully recovered. B.C. had a 1.6% increase in U.S. visitors in June 2023 compared to June 2019. SOURCE: DESTINATION BC JAYDEN INNISS; ISTOCK GREENER PASTURES From left: David Tikkanen, marketing tourism program head, BCIT; Nathan Caddell; Adam Laker, gen- eral manager, Fairmont Hotel Vancouver; and Michael Drake, director of sales, Destination Vancouver NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 13