They might feel like we are falling behind, but they are not alone. The proponents of Tourism Jasper argue that without increasing the amount of money spent on marketing, this community will fall by the wayside in the fierce battle for tourists. Having identified competitors as far south as Whitefish and as far north and east as Smithers, the Jasper Marketing Group is busy trying to convince the business community to get onside with their strategy. A quick look at two other prominent tourist destinations in Western Canada shows that while the particulars might vary from place to place, the storyline in Jasper is not unique. Whistler and Banff both face the risk of shrinking market share, while battling against the spending and investment from aggressive competitors close to home and around the world. 

Whistler has come a long way in a short period of time. Founded as a “resort municipality” in 1975, the community has had some distinct developmental advantages, having been planned as a tourist destination from day one. Among the earliest steps was the creation of a dedicated tourism association in 1979. An autonomous body for marketing and promotion, Tourism Whistler has grown in step with the community it serves. That is to say, by leaps and bounds over the past three decades. For Brett Murphy, the manager of community and media relations for the organization, the fact that Tourism Whistler came along so quickly makes it hard to evaluate just how much of a difference it has made on the development of the resort.

“It does become tricky to compare, because Whistler developed with the assistance of Tourism Whistler from the very beginning, but there’s no doubt that with a broad-based commitment and member-driven organization, I believe we have a competitive advantage,” he said.

In Whistler, membership in the tourism association is not optional. If you own property within the municipal limits, you pay dues. If there are commercial operations on this property, there is an additional levy, based on square footage, calculated on top of that. 

The organization also draws a certain amount of funding out of a ten per cent hotel tax that is initially paid to the provincial government. Two per cent of this amount is given back to the resort municipality of Whistler, and 14 per cent of that amount goes to Tourism Whistler. In other words, for every $100 in hotel tax, 28 cents finds its way back into the coffers of the tourism authority. It’s no wonder, therefore, that the group actively pursues corporate sponsorships to help increase overall revenues.

From humble beginnings, Whistler based its growth around the ski season, only recently working towards marketing itself as a four-season destination. That re-branding is working, according to Murphy, who says that the Whistler “brand” is now associated worldwide with more than just skiing and snow. 

“As we are maturing as a resort and growing into our own, we are seeing challenges and opportunities that come along with that,” he said. “One of those is to become known as more than a ski destination and we are increasingly being seen as an all-season mountain destination.”

At any time over 24,000 visitors can be at the resort, according to Murphy. That doesn’t necessarily mean that there are 24,000 visitors in Whistler at most times.

“In the last four winter seasons there has been a cumulative decline in visitation of 19 per cent,” he said. “As the competition has increased substantially, the capacity that we are at is more than sufficient.” 

The community isn’t too worried about what the future may hold for a number of reasons, Murphy believes. First is the concept that the increasing “maturity” of the resort has pushed it into a new stratosphere of competition. Whistler has to hold its own against Aspen, Vail and the exclusive resorts of the Swiss Alps. It takes some time to adjust to those higher standards.

“Whistler is now recognized as one of the number one winter destinations in North America and so we are held, generally, to a higher standard than most resorts,” said Murphy. The other cause for hope is a little known sports festival that Whistler will be hosting in February 2010.

“Obviously 2010 carries with it huge opportunities and the attention that comes with the Olympic Games,” Murphy said. “We are looking to leverage that over the post-games period.” 

In a way, hosting the Olympics will bring Whistler’s journey full circle. 

“The thought initially was to build a venue where the Olympics could be hosted,” Murphy said.

Closer to home, Banff Lake Louise Tourism has Whistler and other prominent competitors in its sights as it plans a great leap forward that would launch into a realm beyond the reach of destinations like Jasper. Our neighbours to the south currently earn $1.5 million per year to put towards their operations. Compared to the $600,000 a Tourism Jasper body would propose to collect, it’s clear Jasper would not be on the same level from the outset. But within five years, Banff Lake Louise hopes to have a budget of $5 million to work with. It’s a matter of staying competitive, according to executive director Julie Canning.

“The first thing that we did is we took a step back and asked where we were in comparison to our competitors,” she said. “When we saw the numbers that were coming out, Banff was not even in the competitive set. We are not competitive at this time and that has some serious long term consequences for us.”

Having been in existence for a little more than a decade, Banff Lake Louise Tourism is evolving to suit the needs of its membership, and the current search for additional revenue is all part of that, Canning said.

Currently, the marketing group earns its money from business licence fees, while not benefiting from any regulated or continual funding from any level of government. The Town of Banff has been able to provide $60,000 dollars in incremental funding in each of the past several years, but there is no guarantee that the tourism authority will continue to have access to that cash in the future. 

Measuring the organization’s impact against a set of domestic competitors including Whistler, Calgary, Quebec City and Halifax proved to be an eye-opening experience for the Banff business community. 

“In our original piece there were three key findings that came out,” Canning said. “First was that our current market share is significantly at risk; second, that our ability to grow that market share was not strong; and third, other destinations are investing more to create their own iconic status to rival Banff National Park.”

Knowing that the attractive power of being located in a national park was losing traction with their target markets was the factor that really motivated the board of directors and membership to act.

As a result, Banff Lake Louise Tourism has spent the past year coming up with an “alternative revenue strategy”, the centrepiece of which is a hotel tax, though Canning prefers to refer to it as a “room levy”. This two per cent surcharge might make it seem like the accommodations sector is being asked to shoulder the burden of boosting revenue, but that’s not the case.

“The strategy actually involves all of our members, not just the lodging sector. It would include increases in fees for all of our sectors and the fee increase for the accommodation sector would be the room levy.”

 Five million dollars to spend might seem like a lot, but it’s not as if Banff Lake Louise will have the biggest budget in the country by the time they reach that amount. That was never the intention of the strategy, Canning said.

“One of the core values that came from our membership was that our organization is a bit scrappy,” she said. “We’re not heavily funded, we squeeze every inch out of every dime that we have. That focus ...  that sort of underdog approach is a core corporate value that our membership wanted to maintain ... It isn’t about being the biggest or having the biggest budget, it’s about having the ability to be competitive.”

According to their own data, Banff Lake Louise spends about $67 per pillow on marketing the area, compared to $518 per pillow in Whistler. After the room levy and higher fees kick in, Banff could afford to spend $349 per pillow.

“What we are looking at right now is a plan that would bring us into the third quartile of the competitive landscape,” Canning said, acknowledging that these figures presume that competitors stay static.

The plan still has to be approved by the organization’s membership. A vote is expected in March. Canning does see certain parallels between Jasper and Banff as one community debates developing a tourism authority for the first time and the other looks for ways to make their own organization more effective. She’s careful not to equate one situation with the other, however.

“One of the things that my associates in Jasper have taught me is that what’s right in Banff is not necessarily right in Jasper,” she said. “You’re choosing a future and I think that Banff has made some conscious choices about its future as well. Maybe the outcomes are the same and maybe they are different.”