Fernie is known globally for its world-renowned skiing, and at the beginning of December the quaint town was mentioned in The New York Times travel section.
“It’s a huge accomplishment to get this for our community,” Senior Vice President Marking & Resource Experience Matt Mosteller said. “Few Canadian major tourist destinations are mentioned in The New York Times but even fewer ski resorts[and] ski towns have been noted, so it sets Fernie on a stage all its own.”
The “British Columbia’s Powder Highway” article, written by Christopher Solomon, focuses on two men, Solomon and a friend, touring “the powder highway,” – the southeast corner of British Columbia recognized by Solomon as an area that doesn’t, “feel as though they have joined the tourism-industrial complex.”
Solomon commended the 50-feet of snowfall in the Kootenay Rockies and the multitude of skiing options, including heli-skiing, backcountry skiing, snowcat-skiing and Alpine resort skiing. But overall, he highlighted the Kootenay’s as a place where visitors and locals can escape from the typical tourism of skiing destinations.
“The ski areas are often a bit more modest. The mountain towns have yet to be overrun. The road less traveled passes right through here. Everything is a little more basic, a little less convenient,” he wrote. “You have to want to come here, and to be here. The locals like it that way. I do too.”
Solomon spoke about his skiing adventures at Red Mountain Resort, Whitewater, Panorama, Kicking Horse, Snowwater and last, but certainly not least, Fernie Alpine Resort.
Although the skiing conditions in the Elk Valley were unfavourable for powder skiing when the freelance writer visited the area, he praised Fernie for having, “the best and most extensive grooming [he] encountered on the Powder Highway.”
Despite some negative comments in the article, an example being when Solomon stated, “Fernie’s Achilles heel is the occasional temperature spike it experiences even in midwinter that can ruin the snow until the next snowfall,” the overall tone of the article embraced Fernie’s slopes.
Mosteller noted that this kind of coverage is amazing to see.
“[Having] a feature in one of the most respected newspapers in the world, and even more incredible their hugely read Sunday travel section, is truly off the charts,” he said. “This kind of coverage showcases the incredible media efforts of Fernie Alpine Resort, Tourism Fernie, Kootenay Rockies and Destination British Columbia, as it takes a highly orchestrated strategic approach to media efforts to deliver this type of message.”