Portrait: adam blasberg
When people ask if I like to travel, I tend to
parse the sentence in a very Clintonesque fash-
ion, replying, "I love to vacation—but I hate to
travel."
Travelling—and all the necessary rituals
and procedures that get you from A to B—make
my jaw clench and my shoulders hunch. The
bags to be prepped and packed. The plants
to be watered, the fridge to be emptied, the
4 a.m. wake-up call—and then, if you're flying,
dealing with the sundry indignities that define
the airport experience.
So you can imagine my surprise to find
Vancouver International Airport in the top 5
of this year's Most Loved Brands survey (for
the full list of winners, turn to page 32). When I
think of things that I love, airports are
not among them. Yet the thing about
airports is that you remember, vividly,
your experience with those brands, to
an extent that you may not remember
the paper towel or diet cola you bought
last week. So many people have bad
airport experiences—ask anyone who's
flown through London's Heathrow or
New York's La Guardia—that when you
have a good one, it stands out like a
beacon in the night.
After getting the survey results, I
canvassed my friends on Facebook to
ask them what they liked about
YVR.
The responses came fast and furi-
ous: the kids' play structure; the First
Nations art; the Canada Line access;
the "perfectly designed bathrooms";
the water features and sound of crick-
ets ("it feels genuinely stress reduc-
ing, hearing the crickets after a long
flight"). "Does
YVR still have the BC
Liquor Store?" wrote one former Vancouver-
ite. "That was awesome."
According to Ipsos's Michael Rodenburgh,
who conducted the Most Loved Brands sur-
vey, "the experience of flying through
YVR
is so dramatically different than the average
airport—and travellers recognize and appreci-
ate what they've done to change the customer
experience." So, whether it's the water fea-
tures and aquariums, the Bill Reid sculpture
or ready access to booze, Vancouver's airport
authority has done a lot to create a space that
you wouldn't mind hanging out in—even if, like
me, you'd ultimately rather be somewhere else.
C O N T R I B U T O R S
Matt O'Grady, Editor-in-Chief
mogrady@canadawide.com / @bCbusiness
BCB columnist Lucy Hyslop
("Lunch with Lucy, " p.78) pulled
double duty this month with a
look at B.C.'s most prominent
philanthropist duos ("The Power
Givers, " p.46). She says that the
couples wanted the focus to
"not be about dollar figures at
all but about attitudes to giving."
Hyslop has also written for
Vancouver magazine and the
Globe and Mail.
december's most
popular stories
on bcbusiness.ca
Best cities
for work
in B.C.
B.C.'s 11 richest
people (includes
Canada's richest
woman)
Big fat deal:
This Victoria mansion
must be seen
to be believed
A piece of
Vancouver history
can be yours for
10 million
B.C.'s 16 most-
powerful women
leaders
/careers /finance /real-estate /real-estate /people
12
BCBusiness February 2015
Milton, Ontario, native Sabrina
Smelko—who contributed
several illustrations to our new
The Monthly Informer section,
starting on p.17—says that
"I spend most of my time
conceptualizing and coming
up with a tight sketch and then
only a few hours to execute the
final." Smelko has also worked
for Canadian Business and the
Globe and Mail.
From Such
Great Heights
editor's desk
In march
Real estate: Where to invest now, the state of affordability and the truth about gentrification.
