Gibsons and area businesses are coming together for co-operation and commerce of Olympic proportions as the 2010 Games approach.
The Gibsons Landing Business Association (GLBA) hosted a meeting Tuesday, Jan. 12, inviting the local business community to hear presentations from eight business and stakeholder organizations on how they can all benefit from the upcoming Olympics. The spin-off benefits expected include a spike in local tourism and shopping during the Games, highlighting the Sunshine Coast to foreign media and tourists and the chance to showcase the Coast for foreign investment and business.
Celia Robben, president of the Sunshine Coast Bed and Breakfast and Cottage Owners Association, said local accommodations already have guests from around the world booked who plan to use the Sunshine Coast as a home base during the Games.
"We are approaching 300 room nights with our member accommodations that are booked in February," she said. "They're coming from all across Canada including Quebec and Ontario. They're coming from the United States, Australia, Germany, Russia and the Netherlands."
Robben said the reservations are for stays longer than typical summer stays, which means more shopping and dining locally.
Business owners had a chance to sit down with Robben and collaborate on how guests can get around the Sunshine Coast, where to shop, eat, admire local artists' work and play while they are here.
Judy Spears, president of Sunshine Coast Tourism, told attendees the organization had recently secured two high-profile locales and events in the Lower Mainland during the games.
The first is a booth on "B.C. Street" at the O Zone in Richmond, a free pavilion for arts, concerts, games, festivities and tourist information. Spears said she expected 15,000 visitors through the pavilion, which happens to be located right across from Sunshine Coast artist Gord Halloran's Ice Gate installation.
Spears was also able to partner with Vancouver Island Tourism for an event called Taste of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
"We will host approximately 200 accredited Olympic media with B.C. shellfish and wine tasting," she said.
Journalists who attend the event will go home with press kits on the Sunshine Coast featuring high definition video of the Coast's most scenic places.Spears said the details are being ironed out, but some chefs from the Sunshine Coast will be part of the event.
The message from Community Futures Development Corporation is that the Olympics represent a chance of a lifetime to attract investment to the Coast.
Al Mulholland, executive director of Community Futures, said the organization will be working to get the word out that the Sunshine Coast is a good place to invest. He said Community Futures hopes to act as a broker between investors looking for a new business and opportunities on the Coast.
He said the real brass ring would be if the Coast could attract an investor to build a hotel convention centre, which would stimulate the local economy year round. He added that the vast majority of businesses on the Coast were started by people who first came as visitors and liked what they saw and wanted to open up shop.
"I'd say about 80 per cent of the people who come and make investments were visitors here first," he said.
GLBA director Nancy Hache said businesses are working together to put on a "united front" and go above and beyond of welcoming visitors from all different cultures.
