Is the biggest issue facing tourism in Squamish and the Sea to Sky Corridor ensuring everyone in the tourism sector work together?
That鈥檚 what incumbent Mayor Rob Kirkham said at an all-candidates held Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Quest University.
Kirkham and fellow mayoral frontrunner Patricia Heintzman laid out their plans Squamish tourism.
聽鈥淲e have a much better chance of everyone succeeding if we are all on board supporting each other,鈥� Kirkham told the crowd.聽
Kirkham later said council needs to take more of a leadership role in tourism, as he has done with education.
鈥淚 started that with our educators and we have a mayor鈥檚 educators forum and I brought all the leaders and all the educational institutions together to work on their working together to benefit each other,鈥� he said. 聽
鈥淭he same approach with the tourism industry is getting them together around the table and they can take it and run with it from there, but someone needs to be initiating that.... It is something that the district can initiate support without creating a lot of money and hiring of staff.鈥�
Kirkham said in the council started to take on the facilitator role in the last few years, but could do much more.
鈥淚t is time now,鈥� he said.
Heintzman said that most people don鈥檛 realize that tourism is an economic driver, and she said Squamish needs a philosophical shift in the way people view tourism.
聽鈥淚t is often sort of denigrated as something that doesn鈥檛 provide good wages and that kind of thing, and that is simply not the truth,鈥� she told the audience, adding that tourism supports other industries in town such restaurants and retail businesses.
聽鈥淥ne thing I would do, right off the bat, is you look at all the empty lots downtown, they are empty, we have incentives to develop those,鈥� she later told The 小蓝视频. 鈥淚 want to meet with every empty lot owner in town within the first three months and say, 鈥榃hat do you want to do? What does it take to make it happen?鈥欌��
Heintzman added that she would outline council鈥檚 expectations to drive tourism.
鈥淒owntown is just the start of it, the impetus of it. It doesn鈥檛 mean that we don鈥檛 thrive in Brackendale and the Highlands and that kind of thing, but you need the cultural core and heart to your community.鈥�
The event had an unusual start with an O Canada flash mob that got the approximately 50 spectators in attendance awkwardly to their feet and singing the anthem.
The event was presented by Tourism Squamish and the Squamish Arts Council and 聽saw the mayoral and council candidates (with the exception of Brad Hodge and Terrill Patterson, who were not聽 present) answer questions regarding tourism and the arts.
The election will be held this Saturday, Nov. 15.
