By Dylana Milobar / Jill Sperling

Tourism Kamloops looking within for 2019

Feb 3, 2019 | 1:16 PM

KAMLOOPS — Tourism Kamloops is looking for internal support to drive 2019, after a successful year in 2018.

CEO Beverley DeSantis says the number of visitors who came to the Tournament Capital last year brought a major economic impact to the city.

“So in 2018, we forecasted that we’d welcome 1.84 million visitors to our city, and that’s up from about 1.8 million in 2017,” She explains, “And those visitors generated about $282 million to the Kamloops economy. Up from the $270 million the previous year. If we actually take those numbers and add in our secondary industries, then we’re sitting around $467 million in economic impact to the city from tourism.”

That also meant a total number of 4,154 direct jobs, according to DeSantis, not including secondary jobs, which will be known later in April. 

Along with focusing on international and national markets, such as the U.K, Germany, and a wide variety of Asian countries, DeSantis says they’re taking a local approach.

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“Driving business from Alberta and British Columbia, and the northwestern United States. Those folks will jump in the car and just spend a couple days here in Kamloops,” She says, “And that bodes really well for us and our passions, such as golf, mountain biking, culinary arts and culture, and sports.”

Beyond just getting Kamloops on the map for outside visitors, DeSantis says they want residents to experience things and gain first-hand knowledge of what the area has to offer.

“Tourism takes a village, so we’re reaching out the community of Kamloops,” She explains, “I would love for when a tourist stops at a gas station or a restaurant and asks, ‘What’s there to do in Kamloops today?’, that anybody in our community can list off 3 amazing things and experiences that our visitors can see.”

With some infrastructure needs to begin looking at, DeSantis says sustainability can also be improved to help improve the tourism sector. 

“We can look at things like being a little more responsible when it comes to our environment and sustainability. And really working with industry around here in Kamloops to see how we can mitigate some of that. Including wildfires,” She explains, “Unfortunately, a lot of those wildfires were human started. So we just need to be a lot more diligent with our messaging to the public when they’re out using our natural spaces on being a lot more careful.”