BCBusiness

42 To u r i s m N a n ai m o B C B U S I N E S S . C A A P R I L / M AY 2 0 2 5 BEST CITIES FOR WORK THE and a long-time member and former chair of the BC Hotel Association. "We'll fill in the business over the next couple of years. [The hospitality scene] is much better than it was even five years ago. The hotel rooms are all modern; there are so many cool new restaurants around town. It's just a matter of time before the world notices us." SEA IT ALL Hullo, of course, has a role to play there. According to the company, it has carried more than 650,000 passengers since launch. Monthly passenger growth has reportedly been in the 50-percent range recently. On nights when the Canucks are playing at Rogers Arena or when there are big concerts at BC Place (hello, Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift), the company adds extra sailings that typically sell out. "I feel like this town, with so much potential, is realizing it over the last couple of years," says Xander France, director of marketing and sales at Hullo. France was raised in Nanaimo but left to work in the cannabis and beer industries in Vancouver for 10 years before coming back to work at Hullo in 2022. "Buildings that were left alone are being renovated, investment in the community is happening. Our partners, the Snuneymuxw First Nation, are owners of the new hotel, which is great for downtown," France says. "And the Howard Johnson Hotel, which has been in poor shape for 10 years—the First Nation struck a deal with government to take it over and I've seen more change on that site in the last month than in the last 10 years. Things are happening." Vancouver Island residents have been burned by alternatives to BC Ferries in the past, but France is confident that Hullo will flourish. "I think it's the diligence that our team did," he says when asked why the company has been able to succeed so far. "We met with the owners of [other ferry operators] to ask, 'What did you do right, what did you do wrong?' We overcame some challenges by getting two vessels, partnering with Damen Shipyards, the same folks who build for BC Ferries. We have a full-service team and an ownership group that's all in." Hullo has over 100 employees, with its headquarters in Nanaimo, and offers pas- sengers free shuttle service directly to the city's downtown core. The company does envision eventually expanding to Victoria as well. "It's an ode to our leadership and the way our company works," France says. "It's about iteration—where we are today isn't going to be where we are in two months. We keep improving and evolving service. It's going to keep getting better." FILLING THE HOLES The city has also recently made moves to elevate its business scene. Pivotal among those has been the hiring of Colin Stans- field, who was brought on last year to head the Nanaimo Prosperity Corporation with the mandate to develop economic oppor- tunities for the region. "What drew my attention was when Nanaimo signed on to doughnut econom- ics as being its driving economic model for the future planning of the city," says Stansfield, the former executive director of the Sunshine Coast Regional Economic Development Organization. According to the Prosperity Corporation, Nanaimo is the first and only North American city to use doughnut economics as a guiding principle, joining cities like Amsterdam, Berlin and Melbourne. The theory con- tends that environment, society and econ- omy are deeply interconnected and can't be separated. "It's progressive and future-oriented—it centres people and place in an economy and makes sure that the benefits are shared equitably," says Stansfield. "Nanaimo is looking ahead—it's thinking about that next generation of where it's going to be. It has that sweet spot of building on its recent history and its long-standing history, time immemorial, of great local host Nations doing incredible work." Asked about the potential blue- and white-collar divide in the city, Stansfield simply replies, "It hasn't shown up as a divide for me. If you go to a chamber of com- merce meeting, every stripe of business is showing up in that room and I'm fielding questions from all those perspectives. You go to the rugby club on a Thursday night, it's both suits and Carhartts dropping kids off in BMWs and Dodge Ram pickups. It's a city of diversity and that's what makes it sweet. You have that blue-collar work ethic with the working harbour, and you have remote workers showing up whose go-to tool is a MacBook. They're all choosing to

• Cover