Tourism representatives from throughout the Boundary met with the president of the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Assocation (TOTA) on June 10 at the Christina Lake Welcome Centre to discuss several key initiatives.
The meeting was put on by TOTA along with the Boundary Country Regional Chamber of Commerce.
TOTA partners participating in the meeting were Community Futures Boundary, Christina Lake Welcome Centre, Christina Lake Accommodation Group, Grand Forks Visitor Centre and Greenwood Visitor Centre.
Sandy Mark of the Christina Gateway Community Development Association said it was great to be able to host the meeting in Christina Lake, especially considering it is “mile 0” for TOTA, which covers the Boundary and the Okanagan all the way up to Kamloops.
Glenn Mandziuk, the CEO and president of TOTA, and his team brought their vision “Embracing Our Potential” to Christina Lake (and Midway earlier in the day) as part of their tour to insure that everyone is aware of their new strategy.
“Their aim is to reach out to all the corners of this magnificent region and mobilize opportunities and experiences that will build wealth through focused tourism strategies now possible through the graces of social media,” said Mark. “Glenn and his team were pleased to see the work that Christina Lake is leading to create a Boundary Destination Management Organization as they prove that working together makes it possible for everyone to win.”
Mark said that the TOTA representatives were very impressed with the Christina Lake Trails project, which featured a group of people mapping out local trails to create a new trails map and website (cltrails.com) as well as other tools for making trail exploration easier.
“The Christina Lake Trails project impressed them as one of their goals is to work with the Trans Canada Trail as a key platform for ‘tourism product’ development and marketing,” said Mark. “Members of the Christina Lake Tourism Society were encouraged to hear of the plans, particularly to focus marketing in Washington State and Calgary—since people from these areas are close at hand physically but may never have heard of the beauty of Boundary Country and all of the experiences that can be offered here.”
Also discussed at the meeting were topics such as different ways to work more effectively with TOTA; TOTA’s new industry advisory committees; and creating a sustainability charter for tourism in the region.