3426 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Nursey said Destination Greater Victoria will launch its “largest ever” marketing campaign targeting the U.S. market on March 1.

 

For the ferry companies that bring U.S. tourists, easing restrictions is expected to open the floodgates.

 

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Gudgel said the Clipper will resume service April 15, and details are being worked out for how rapid tests can be completed and processed. Gudgel said those tests could be done at the Clipper terminal, through the company or a contractor on site, or by travellers booking their tickets before they arrive.

 

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Burles is worried, however, that testing requirements will still impede some tourists, especially those travelling to Port Angeles for an 8:20 a.m. sailing to Victoria. He said buying the rapid tests and having them verified, either at local pharmacies or online, will continue to complicate travel plans.

 

The Coho has been operating since early November, but with only a “trickle” of passengers.

 

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In a statement, Bruce Williams, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, said “many of us are doing a little jig — either in our mind or literally.”

 

“Let’s keep moving forward and respect each other as we find our footing and our own pace as we begin to step a little lighter.”

 

https://www.timescol...tourism-5068926

[spanky123]

It is not just coming here but travelling back to the US also requires an antigen test and there are only a handful of places in town that do it and the cheapest price is $140 per person inc tax. If you fail then you are stuck here for 10 days.

 

Saving $50 on a test isn't going to change the decision for people. 

 

It won't be until both countries remove mandatory testing that we see a return to normal. Perhaps DGV thinks they can run a campaign and hope that US travelers don't know the rules but that is not a great plan to encourage repeat business.

[Nparker]

...Saving $50 on a test isn't going to change the decision for people...

For a border crossing of a short duration (say, under 5 days), there is no way I would agree to take 2 tests. I am sure many people feel the same way. Going forward, proof of vaccination status at the border should be sufficient.

[spanky123]

For a border crossing of a short duration (say, under 5 days), there is no way I would agree to take 2 tests. I am sure many people feel the same way. Going forward, proof of vaccination status at the border should be sufficient.

 

As many people have pointed out on social media, what happens if your (return) trip to the US is on a Monday. You then have the added problem of finding someone to do a test on a Sunday at a huge premium (since the test has to be done the day before you cross the border). 

 

The problem with our various tourism and business groups is that nobody wants to rock the boat and risk their funding or future political aspirations so they throw platitudes around and congratulate each other without ever dealing with the underlying policy problems. Hope is not a strategy as they say.

Edited by spanky123, 16 February 2022 - 11:17 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The fact that we are testing to cross the border shows how insane this all is.

Almost 4 billion people have been infected. Who cares what crosses the border.

Zero previous border restrictions or rules have changed anything.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 16 February 2022 - 11:21 AM.

[Spy Black]

Around 15 million Americans visit Canada in a normal year.

I guess if their COVID regimen wasn't so stained with anti-vax thinking, we'd probably be wise from a financial point of view to let them in without worrying about border restrictions.

 

But as a country, the U.S. is notably anti-vax, so although I tend to agree with you that, at this point in time, border restrictions probably don't do very much ... countries do tend to reap what they sow, and in this case what's been "sown" is a reputation as a country with an adverse percentage of COVID complacent citizens.

 

Regardless, Federally or Provincially, elected governments are going to continue to do whatever their medical/political/scientific think-tanks tell them to do. I've largely given up believing that anybody has had, will have, or can have ... any influence on the course of events as they relate to COVID.

[Nparker]

...Hope is not a strategy as they say.

Exactly.

[vortoozo]

It is not just coming here but travelling back to the US also requires an antigen test and there are only a handful of places in town that do it and the cheapest price is $140 per person inc tax. If you fail then you are stuck here for 10 days.

 

Saving $50 on a test isn't going to change the decision for people. 

 

It won't be until both countries remove mandatory testing that we see a return to normal. Perhaps DGV thinks they can run a campaign and hope that US travelers don't know the rules but that is not a great plan to encourage repeat business.

 

Antigen tests can be had for less than $140. It's $99 at the travel medical clinic in Saanich on Vernon, for instance.

 

You can get home test kits which are administered virtually and are acceptable for cross-border travel. Air Canada sells them, $79 for 2. Travel certificate gets emailed within an hour of negative test result.

 

No reason you should be paying $140 for a rapid antigen test.

[Victoria Watcher]

Not much was seen of the figures after that, though out-of-town media would still look to Lane, a former chairman of the local chapter of the Monarchist League of Canada, when a member of the Royal Family had a child or got married or buried a corgi, or whatever. In 2016, when Kate and William visited Victoria, Lanes’ queens made a cameo appearance on Global television, with Squire Barnes sitting in an opera chair upon which Diana — the real one — once perched.

 

Then, two years ago during Megxit, when Prince Harry and Meghan temporarily took up residence in their North Saanich bolt hole, Lane assembled a brain trust of figures — Elizabeth II, Victoria, Diana, Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens and Capt. Cook — around his living room table to hash out the situation.

 

It was against that tableau that the New York Times ran a piece suggesting the nature of Victoria was shifting.

 

“Victoria … has long marketed itself as Canada’s most English city,” the story said. “It is peppered with Tudor Revival architecture, pubs with names like The Churchill and specialty shops selling marmalade jam. Until 1950, its police officers wore bobby-style helmets.”

 

But that image has faded, the story said. Things change. Some are sad, some are glad.

 

Lane himself no longer believes his figures’ future lies in the capital. He thinks that with the tourism industry emerging from its two-year slumber, the time is ripe for a sharp operator to scoop them up and put them on display — but not here. The city has lost its vibrancy and lacks good governance, he says. “Victoria’s not the place anymore.”

 

Best to turn his heads in another direction.

 

 

https://www.timescol...-a-home-5226898

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 April 2022 - 05:28 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

Not much was seen of the figures after that, though out-of-town media would still look to Lane, a former chairman of the local chapter of the Monarchist League of Canada, when a member of the Royal Family had a child or got married or buried a corgi, or whatever. In 2016, when Kate and William visited Victoria, Lanes’ queens made a cameo appearance on Global television, with Squire Barnes sitting in an opera chair upon which Diana — the real one — once perched.

 

Then, two years ago during Megxit, when Prince Harry and Meghan temporarily took up residence in their North Saanich bolt hole, Lane assembled a brain trust of figures — Elizabeth II, Victoria, Diana, Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens and Capt. Cook — around his living room table to hash out the situation.

 

It was against that tableau that the New York Times ran a piece suggesting the nature of Victoria was shifting.

 

“Victoria … has long marketed itself as Canada’s most English city,” the story said. “It is peppered with Tudor Revival architecture, pubs with names like The Churchill and specialty shops selling marmalade jam. Until 1950, its police officers wore bobby-style helmets.”

 

But that image has faded, the story said. Things change. Some are sad, some are glad.

 

Lane himself no longer believes his figures’ future lies in the capital. He thinks that with the tourism industry emerging from its two-year slumber, the time is ripe for a sharp operator to scoop them up and put them on display — but not here. The city has lost its vibrancy and lacks good governance, he says. “Victoria’s not the place anymore.”

 

Best to turn his heads in another direction.

 

 

https://www.timescol...-a-home-5226898

 

 

Jack Knox: A basement full of disembodied heads, looking for a home

 

Ken Lane has more than 300 disembodied heads in his Saanich basement — packed away since the Royal London Wax Museum was chased out of the Inner Harbour’s CPR Steamship building in 2010.

 

 

He's been holding out for 12 years.  Maybe there is no reasonable future for those wax heads?

[spanky123]

Not much left in the way of tourist attractions downtown now that 2/3rds of the RBCM is closed indefinitely.  If City council can find a way of getting rid of the bug zoo and miniature world it will be mission accomplished.

[Nparker]

Not much left in the way of tourist attractions downtown now that 2/3rds of the RBCM is closed indefinitely.  If City council can find a way of getting rid of the bug zoo and miniature world it will be mission accomplished.

Don't forget Settler/Colonial Tea at the Empress.

[North Shore]

Don't forget Settler/Colonial Conqueror's Tea at the Empress.

FTFY.

[Victoria Watcher]

Cities have to re-think how they promote tourism.  Nobody goes to the Tourism Victoria site before they book here.  The agencies need to promote cross-linking and events support.  For here, things like the Oldtimers hockey tournament, the TC10k and the marathon, Canada Day, Swiftsure etc. deserve support to grow.   That brings in money.  And spare no expense to get a damn art gallery downtown   

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...-agency-5303656

 

 

 

 

The City of Nanaimo is backing a new non-profit agency to attract visitors, conventions and sports tourism.

 

Tourism Nanaimo will get $711,000 from the city this year, funding that will be ongoing and supplemented with grants from other government agencies, the city said Tuesday.

 

Nanaimo has been without a tourism promoter for 18 months. When the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation dissolved in 2017, Tourism Vancouver Island took over promotional work for Nanaimo, but that deal ended in December 2020.

 

Nanaimo council reviewed options for creating a new approach to tourism and invited community partners to participate, resulting in the Tourism Nanaimo Society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately our council decided to sell 750 hotel rooms, that formerly brought in $150,000 a day in sales, and instead took in 2,000 reprobates and took on the task of trying to police that.  And the DVA and Chamber and Tourism Victoria hardly spoke up.  In fact the big hotels that fund most of TV were happy to see lower-priced competition erased.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 April 2022 - 04:44 AM.

[vortoozo]

Unfortunately our council decided to sell 750 hotel rooms, that formerly brought in $150,000 a day in sales, and instead took in 2,000 reprobates and took on the task of trying to police that.  And the DVA and Chamber and Tourism Victoria hardly spoke up.  In fact the big hotels that fund most of TV were happy to see lower-priced competition erased.  

 

The Travelodge client is not the same as the downtown hotel client. Hotels generally look at a fairly limited competitive set: 4-6 properties that offer similar amenities, in similar locations in the same price range. Anything beyond that, they're not really concerned about. Yes, there is some buy up/buy down across different tiers, but not to that degree. Taking a few $75-150/night rooms out of the market has very little impact for the properties charging $250+.

However, the hotels do support attempts to house underhoused Victorians.

[Barrrister]

Vort. you are right that the hotels bought by the city house a large number of druggies and seriously mentally ill. These are not a bunch of Ukrainian refugees that need housing. Your use of language to disguise the truth is getting tiresome.

[vortoozo]

Vort. you are right that the hotels bought by the city house a large number of druggies and seriously mentally ill. These are not a bunch of Ukrainian refugees that need housing. Your use of language to disguise the truth is getting tiresome.

 

Pardon? I said underhoused Victorians eg people who are experiencing homelessness. I wasn't implying that they were purchased for refugees. And I'm not familiar with the city purchasing any hotels. I know BC Housing did, which is the ones I thought we were talking about.

 

I might recommend that you look into researching inclusive language. Inclusive language is language that is free from words, phrases or tones that reflect prejudiced, stereotyped or discriminatory views of particular people or groups. It is also language that does not deliberately or inadvertently exclude people from feeling accepted.

Here are some starting points: Inclusive Language Guidelines (apa.org) Words Matter - Guidelines on Using Inclusive Language in the Workplace (gov.bc.ca)

[Victoria Watcher]

The City bought a travellers Inn. And a Pandora development site, for social housing.

[vortoozo]

Yes, the city purchased some land on Pandora for housing, but I'm not sure how that would decrease hotel beds in Victoria unless that had previously been a new build hotel project that didn't go forward.

The former Travelers Inn/ Capital City Centre Hotel was purchased by the province via BC Housing. To reiterate there would have been very little cross over from a guest that would stay there that would also consider one of the larger downtown hotels. 

[Victoria Watcher]

The City bought a former Travellers Inn at Queens and Douglas.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 April 2022 - 03:44 PM.