News

TOURISM

The people who promote Vancouver as a tourist destination aren't about to let the scenic mountains and cosmopolitan streets speak for themselves during the Winter Olympics, especially not with the Americans.

Tourism officials are planning an aggressive attack on visitors to ensure they don't just enjoy Vancouver, but are convinced to come back. The advertising and social media blitz will also continue after the crowds have gone home.

On their hit list in particular are the Americans: easy targets because there are so many of them and they live close by, but hard to trap due to such barriers as tough financial times, the high Canadian dollar and tighter border security.

It makes the hunt that more challenging, but necessary given that increased tourism is said to be the key benefit of being an Olympic host city.

“We have to get people to pay attention to our message and make it relevant enough for them to consider us as a vacation option,” said Steve Pearce, a vice-president at Tourism Vancouver.

He said the strategy for his organization, combined with all levels of government, is to attract international visitors to Canada, with British Columbia and Vancouver as a destination. However, when it comes to the Americans, the key is promoting the province and more specifically Vancouver.

“It's not hard to find people who know about Canada, but finding it as a vacation option, that's tougher,” he said.

INFRASTRUCTURE

SNC-Lavalin didn't need the 2010 Winter Olympics to help put it on the map, but having a hand in two of the major infrastructure projects that make up a big part of the event has given it greater global exposure.

Its Vancouver-based transportation division built and now operates the Canada Line connecting Vancouver's airport to the downtown. It also oversaw the engineering behind upgrades to the Sea-to-Sky highway that winds from Vancouver to Whistler.

Both projects were going to be tackled at some point, but Vancouver's winning Olympic bid turned them into government spending priorities.

“The nice thing about the Olympics was that it gave a hard deadline for many projects,” said Jim Burke, SNC-Lavalin's executive vice-president in charge of transportation.

SNC-Lavalin's biggest Olympic-related role is the Canada Line, which opened 15 weeks ahead of schedule last summer and boasts ridership levels years ahead of predictions. The transit line surpassed its two-year goal of 100,000 daily riders, within the first two months. More than 158,000 people travelled on the Canada Line on Thursday, the day before the opening ceremonies.

“This is a source of pride for employees, being involved in these projects,” said Mr. Burke.

The Canada Line and Sea-to-Sky Highway projects helped SNC-Lavalin land work for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, as an adviser to state-owned Russian Railways, which is building road and rail infrastructure.

HOTELS/CONVENTIONS

Vancouver's $880-million Convention Centre expansion project, which tripled its size, is the key to attracting more business to the city after the Winter Games.

So far the strategy appears to be working with room night bookings – a key measure in the convention business – poised to surpass 170,000 in 2010, not including the explosion of business during the Olympics. Tourism Vancouver says those numbers rise to a record 200,000 in 2011. Both smash the record 120,000 bookings in 2004, before the expansion.

Conventions are lucrative because of the economic spinoffs, such as restaurants, taxis and of course hotel stays.

Hotel bookings from March to December this year are up 53 per cent from the same time in recessionary 2009, and up 33 per cent from 2007, which was the best year in recent memory, PricewaterhouseCoopers data shows.

That bodes well for Fairmont Hotel and Resorts, which has four hotels in downtown Vancouver, its highest concentration of all cities in which it does business.

Fairmont's Graeme Benn said the economic recovery is boosting stays, but the Olympics is also a strong driver. “I expect the interest to only escalate,” now that the Games are here, he said.

Rival Four Seasons, with one Vancouver hotel, sees Olympic hype helping sales.”The Olympics will be a huge coup for us going forward, more so that Expo ‘86 ever was,” said marketing director Kostas Christopoulos.

PROPERTY

The end of the Winter Olympics will lead to higher commercial and industrial vacancy rates in Greater Vancouver as dozens of companies and countries move out of the thousands of square feet of space leased in months leading up the event.

More space is good news for tenants looking to rent property, but bad news for landlords already facing high vacancy rates as a result of the recent recession.

The collective moving out in a few weeks time has property owners scrambling to secure new tenants by offering deep discounts and other incentives.

For example, a 750,000-square-foot building leased by the Winter Olympics organizing committee in Delta, B.C., is now being marketed for around $5 a square foot on an annual basis. The space was being marketed for more than $7 per square foot when they took it over about 18 months ago.

Avison Young broker Michael Farrell said the Vancouver Olympics have become a “soft deadline” for lease renewals. Potential tenants are waiting to see what space will come free as other leases expire over the next 18 months or so. The result is even more vacant space on the market, which is good news for tenants.

“Tenants today have an opportunity that we have not seen in several years to lease space at reduced rents with generous inducement packages,” he said.

The office vacancy rate for Greater Vancouver was 7.8 per cent at the end of 2009, which is up slightly from 7.4 per cent in the middle of last year.

MARKETING

Elena Rivera MacGregor is counting on the Winter Olympics to revitalize her Vancouver branding and design company, and not just because of the renewed attention she's receiving as creator of the Inukshuk design that won the Games logo competition.

Ms. MacGregor, who runs Rivera Design Group, is hoping marketing mania around the Vancouver Games will inspire many companies to rebrand, and then choose her company to do the work.

“The Olympics is really a demonstration of what I do,” she said.

Since she won the logo competition in 2005, Ms. MacGregor said her phone hasn't rung off the hook as some expected. Instead, she has had to pound the pavement, sometimes harder than before, to convince both old and potential clients that she wanted more work, and does more than just design logos.

“We have finally come to the place where we are more of a magnet than a deterrent,” said Ms. MacGregor of Rivera Design Group.

Her experience is not unlike the success of the Winter Games themselves, where hype can only go so far.

Ms. MacGregor said it will be an emotional time for her when the event ends.

“I will miss the attention. Right now the city is dressed in my colours. It will be a little sad, that's for sure,” she said.

RETAIL

While most people want snow during the Winter Games, Vancouver Umbrella president Shana Hochfelder is praying for rain.

“If it doesn't rain between now and the end of February, we'll be having a bonfire of Olympic umbrellas,” joked Ms. Hochfelder, whose company has the licensing deal to sell umbrellas with the official 2010 Olympic logo.

Ms. Hochfelder is one of many retailers eyeing the event as an opportunity to reinvigorate sales after the recession. While her market is people who hate to get wet, others retailers, such as Roots and Lululemon, are playing up to the patriotic side by selling bags, jackets and shirts emblazoned with flags from various Olympic nations.

How successful the strategy will be won't be known for weeks, but Ms. Hochfelder's company is proof that having special Olympic retail status doesn't guarantee strong sales. “Sales are not nearly as high as we thought,” she said.

Corporate sales to sponsors such as Visa and Samsung are 70 per cent below projections, and while retail sales have risen steadily in the past six weeks, the company has only sold about 50 per cent of its Olympic product so far, which is below expectations. The company has made about 20,000 Olympic-style umbrellas of various shapes and styles.

Ms. Hochfelder said the highest sales volumes are expected during the Olympics, but she's also looking to Mother Nature for help.

What happens if the umbrellas don't sell out? They'll go on sale, alongside all of the other Olympic paraphernalia left on the shelves.