Stop, stay, shop and play.
That’s the new motto for Lake Country as it moves forward with a three-year tourism strategy aimed at getting more people to come to the area, stay in the area and spend tourism dollars.
Council has unanimously adopted the strategy, moving forward with the plans that outline a “high-level vision centred on improving ways for visitors to Lake Country to stop, stay, shop and play in the community,” the report stated.
“The vision is that Lake Country will become a hub for tourism activity in the Central Okanagan and position the community as a memorable place to stop, stay, shop and play,” said Lake Country community development manager Jamie McEwan. “We want to get people to stay in the community and spent their money here.”
The tourism strategy lays out the strengths of Lake Country when it comes to tourism, including its strategic position in the Okanagan Valley, its proximity to the Kelowna International Airport and UBCO, the rural and quiet environment, small town atmosphere, high quality wineries, beaches and lakes as well as cycling routes.
It also lays out future opportunities like the Okanagan Rail Trail and Pelmewash Parkway and talks about the aspirations to attract international travellers and become widely knows as a place to explore within the Okanagan.
But one part of the plan, to commission a hotel feasibility study in 2017 to assess Lake Country’s readiness for a potential hotel development, had one councillor asking why the district would pay to study market conditions.
“Why would we be allocating a significant amount of money to do a feasibility study for a hotel? Wouldn’t the developer do that?” questioned Coun. Penny Gambell. “I don’t think we are going to get a developer coming here unless they see this is an area they are going to invest in. They are going to do all the numbers. They are going to do the analysis. I don’t see why we are going to do the work for them.”
In response, McEwan said a potential feasibility study for a hotel would be another way to attract a potential developer to the community.
“It just becomes another tool in the tool-kit such as the statistics around our building permits and population growth,” said McEwan.
“It’s just an extra complimentary document that could benefit us. It would not only assess specific sites but also Lake Country’s readiness so we have targeted ways we could approach hotel developers.”
The feasibility study has not been approved by council as specific plans within the tourism strategy still need to get funding approval but McEwan says the cost would be less than $10,000 and the information could be critical in attracting a larger hotel that would also have meeting and conference rooms available.