By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: Aug 15, 2018
A Squamish Adventure Centre teeming with visitors and flush with cash has been the dream of past councils. Now, this council is trying to march towards that dream again.
The district is creating a project team consisting of the district Economic Development Officer, Tourism Squamish and external consultants to find out how best to generate revenue and enhance the adventure centre as a tourism-focussed facility.
The project team will develop short term, mid-term, and long-term recommendations on how best to increase tourism revenue by bringing in more visitors to the adventure centre.
Staff recently told council data shows the building does receive traffic, especially in the summer months, but the district still sees opportunities for growth.
“The centre currently lacks a clear operating model supporting highest/best use of the facility. A renewed model and business plan would support program and service delivery as well as general operations,” the report said.
Originally conceived in the early 2000s’, the original intent of the Adventure Centre was to act as an anchor to position the community as the heart of the Sea to Sky corridor.
It was envisioned as a multi-use facility to attract people travelling on the Highway 99 every year, with the centre being a focal point for many community-driven activities.
More than a dozen full-time jobs were forecasted to be created directly or supported by the centre in its first season of operation, although broader impacts were anticipated to be much more generous., staff told the council.
The centre was also forecasted to generate an additional $9.76 million in sales for Squamish businesses, leading to the creation of 293 new jobs with added income of $4.88 million for the region.
An additional $2.64 million in tax revenue was forecasted as a result of the activities of the Centre. That clearly hasn’t happened as the centre is still dependent on taxpayers money. No economic impact study of the centre or even of Tourism in Squamish has been done since.
The project team will now assess secondary and primary data and come up with recommendations on how best to increase revenue and make the adventure centre an anchor for the community.
Dave Colwell says
Just a thought: Has anyone thought about the access to this site?. …Not user friendly in my opinion. One way North to South you have to go to the main (terrible intersection) and then turn back on yourself . South to North you could go straight by. Do we need another external consultant to tell us that? I’ll send Council my bill later! 🙂 When we do get our public transit to Vancouver and Whistler sorted out….Make this the bus station!
Dave Colwell says
By “going straight by” I mean that if you happen to go through intersection in the fast lane (which is quite likely if you end up there while waiting to go through at the lights and not quite sure where you turn to the Adventure Centre) it is quite possible that you may not be able to move over to the right lane as the exiting traffic speeds up….Hey presto ,you miss the turn! This is important to the issue.
Jared Sissons says
The Adventure Centre was created as launching point for tourists visiting Squamish to gain knowledge about our community and has provided our guests with vital tourism information. It is the home to Tourism Squamish which has over the years grown in size to provide much need marketing of our small city, which in turn drives revenue to all businesses in Squamish. The Adventure Centre Tourism has allowed us to market the community as one of the best recreational destinations in Canada and has been the precursor to the development of Hotels , Resorts, Sea to Sky Gondola, and many tourism related businesses to set up shop in Squamish. Many people in Squamish should understand that tourism marketing has lead to many people visiting our city who intern discover what a wonderful place Squamish truly is. This leads people not only to move to our community but to set up businesses which benefits the municipalities tax revenues. The vision should be to develop the adventure centre to continue to market tourism and our beautiful city as one of the best recreational, historical and cultural places in Canada.