Social media was on the menu as Tourism Fernie (TF) hosted their annual open house at Fernie Stanford Resort.
Derick Berry, president and chair of TF board of directors, mentioned the cross marketing into summer. “Summer events are selling out compared to the winter spike before, with weddings, fly fishing and accommodation.”
“If you don't know about Tourism Fernie, it's because we market a lot outside of town,” said Rebecca Hall, Tourism Fernie coordinator.
On Jan. 30 businesses ranging from adventure tourism to accommodations began the evening with a mixer before Berry introduced guest speakers Kim Gray and Chris Bird.
Kim Gray is the co-founder of Toque and Canoe (T&C), a website (http://toqueandcanoe.com) that gives publicity to great Canadian travel destinations. T&C is winning awards for it’s quality coverage highlighting unique Canadian tourism experiences that are getting national and intentional attention. T&C won best travel blog by the Canadian Tourism Commission in 2012. “The little blog that could is getting traction,” said Gray. Focusing on quality editorial content and photography helped win T&C the Magazine of the Year from Western Magazine Awards in 2013. T&C is now working with Tourism Fernie to expand its reach.
Chris Bird from Bird Marketing Productions is creating a television fly fishing pilot for Fly Fusion in Fernie this year. The filming will begin in Fernie the third week in March. The film crew will be returning the first week in September to get footage for the final episodes.
The fishing program will feature April Lokey (featured on 60 Minute Sports), Derek Bird, the founding editor of Fly Fusion and Jim McClennan who will be making his first reappearance since the late 80's. The T.V. program is slotted to air in 2015 on the World Fishing Network.
“The bottom line is we were tired of what was being offered on T.V. so we decided we could do better,” said Bird. “We hire helicopters and really good cameras (Red Cameras). I was born and raised in Cranbrook so the Elk and St. Mary's Rivers and the area is in our blood.”
With projects and partnering like this, Fernie might just get a little busier one season at a time.
Tourism Fernie is the Destination Marketing Organization for Fernie. It consists of 11 elected board members and employs an executive director who is responsible for carrying out the marketing plan and day-to-day operation of the organization.
Their mission is to “work collaboratively with partners and leverage its resources effectively to execute strategic marketing and sales programs that deliver an increasing number of overnight visitors to Fernie throughout the entire year who stay longer, spend more, and return and recommend Fernie again and again.”
For more membership information about Tourism Fernie, go to www.tourismfernie.org.