A key cog in Ucluelet’s tourism wheel is moving on.
Denise Stys-Norman’s final presentation to the town’s municipal council on behalf of Tourism Ucluelet was an emotional one as she announced her departure from the organization after accepting a position with B.C.’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Sport and Arts.
Stys-Norman had spent the past 10 years with Tourism Ucluelet and concluded her Dec. 7 presentation by thanking the Tourism Association of Vancouver Island (4VI) for agreeing to step in to steer Tourism Ucluelet while a new executive director is sought.
She also thanked Tourism Tofino, Parks Canada, the Ucluelet Chamber of Commerce, Ucluelet’s past and current municipal councils, the West Coast’s tourism businesses and Tourism Ucluelet’s board of directors and staff.
“Without all of those individuals up there, Tourism Ucluelet really would not have got to the point that it has reached,” she said. “I really can’t thank everybody enough…It really has been amazing to watch everybody grow and flourish over the years and just building those relationships and I wouldn’t have been able to do what I’ve been able to do for the last 10 years of course without my board of directors and my staff.”
Mayor Marilyn McEwen thanked Stys-Norman for her work.
“It’s been quite a journey,” McEwen said. “I’m thrilled that you’re staying in the community and best wishes in your new position with the Ministry of Tourism.”
Prior to announcing her departure, Stys Norman explained that Tourism Ucluelet was established in 2009 and is constructed of a 10-member board of directors, two representatives and an executive director charged with supporting the local tourism sector.
She suggested the organization shifted gears several years ago, moving from a Destination Marketing Organization to a Destination Management Organization.
“Bringing people to the community is not just solely about bringing visitors here and marketing it as a place to visit, but also the responsibility of managing the expectation of visitors and supporting the community in the needs that they have as well and maintaining that balance of the tourist economy as well as a thriving community for the locals to live,” she said.
She added the shift came with a “full rebrand” and new vision statement redefining the organization’s purpose that reads:
“By 2028 Tourism Ucluelet will lead Ucluelet’s vibrant and sustainable tourism industry through industry collaboration, responsible and authentic promotion, visitor and community education, support for community priorities and accountability in our operations.”
She said Tourism Ucluelet had done that in the past as well, but the statement brought increased awareness to the organization’s scope.
“This way, we were putting our actions down on paper so the community as well as our partners could see that as the tourism economy in Ucluelet grows and flourishes, we do have intent to support the community as it develops as well,” she said.
She said 2023 was a tough year that presented a variety of hurdles for the town’s tourism economy, still limping from financial injuries brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She noted the Cameron Bluffs wildfires that shut down Hwy. 4 east of Port Alberni for several weeks during the summer had massive impacts on local businesses.
“The impacts of having the highway closed for as long as it was as well as the continued closures throughout the course of the summer created detrimental effects to the businesses within the community, which also in turn affected the locals because its comes down to groceries, it comes down to maintaining staff, it comes down to providing viable employment opportunities for locals throughout the year,” she said.
She added the pandemic may have also created an over-confidence in the town’s visitation as travellers had limited options to spend their vacation budgets.
“We’ve always been quite busy during the summer and there is an artificial inflated sense of busyness just coming out of COVID because people were still limited as to where they could travel,” she said. “The last few years have created this artificial sense of busyness in town because there were compounding factors around that that prevented people from travelling elsewhere…They were trying to feel somewhat, for the lack of a better term, normal again, which is why we saw so many people here shortly after we were allowed to travel again.”
With travelling now opened up, Stys Norman suggested travellers are searching for the best bang for their buck, which might not be in Ucluelet.
“While costs in general have gone up, it’s definitely been interesting to see that now that choice has returned, markets and people who had the ability and capacity to travel when and where they wanted to are choosing other locations that their dollar will either go further,” she said, adding travellers with larger budgets are opting for locations more in tune with “what the expectation is when you’re paying a higher rate to stay someplace overnight.”
She said Tourism Ucluelet ran revenue management workshops for local accommodation providers to help them understand what the overall market is dictating.
“We did have a good turnout for that. It would have been nicer to have more there, but it’s definitely something that, when you look at the incident at Cameron Lake and how the media managed that entire conversation, reeling and trying to recover from COVID and now you’re back in this market of dealing with inflation, opportunity and flexibility to do what you want it’s starting to see those ebbs and flows of what tourism used to look like in Ucluelet,” she said.
“It might be busy during the summer but, as you can tell, it is extremely quiet right now in town…Which is why you see some businesses have actually closed for the season, which normally they haven’t, and it’s because they want to make sure they’re viable for next year because they’re reeling still from everything that’s happened over the last three years.”
She suggested Tourism Ucluelet will continue to strive towards its goals of sustainability and supporting destination development.
“One of the things that we are circling back to is one of our original statements that we had used quite some time prior: ‘Choose to be here,’” she said. “It is a trademarked statement that we have and it is still very much relevant today as it was eight years ago when we came up with it.”
She said the statement is about finding visitors who make the choice to come to Ucluelet.
“It is off the beaten path, while it is gaining popularity it is not like other destinations where you’ve got tons of amenities and tons of access to everything. There’s something inherently special about this community and it’s finding those visitors who connect with this community and what we have to offer,” she said.
“We have inherently found that people intentionally come to Ucluelet because there is something special about it and it’s a family-friendly community to come to. So, you’ll start to see more of that language in the marketing in months to come as well as moving forward, but it will still continue to be targeted to the visitors that really do connect to what it is that we are trying to achieve as a community and find that balance and preservation of not just the community itself but also the natural surroundings that really is what bring people to the area.”
She said the five priority areas Tourism Ucluelet plans to focus on over the next 10 years are environmental stewardship, diverse and authentic year-round offerings, managed growth, vibrant businesses and communities and a robust tourism foundation and relationships.
She said tourism is the province’s largest sector and a vital driver of the local economy.
“When you look at what logging and fishing had done in the community in the past, without tourism within the community, you wouldn’t have a healthy economy,” she said.
“We wouldn’t have the restaurants that we love, the shops we shop locally at, jobs would be affected within the community and those community members whether they have been born here and are generational or have just recently moved here to make new lives for themselves, they would go elsewhere to thrive…Investment goes away if they don’t see a thriving economy, even in a small rural community like ours.”
She added that Tourism Ucluelet must continue to work at preserving the environment that makes the community so special.
“It really is our goal to share it with the right people so they understand why we love being here as much as we do and without having that beautiful surrounding, we can’t have the lovely community that we do have,” she said.
“The intent of what Tourism Ucluelet aims to achieve is to make sure that we work towards finding that balance so everybody can thrive.”
Don’t miss out on reading the latest local, provincial and national news. Join our community and receive daily news alerts & breaking news, right to your inbox. www.westerlynews.ca/newsletters.
READ MORE: Ucluelet kayaking company’s regenerative tourism efforts earn EcoStar nod
READ MORE: District hands MRDT budget keys over to Tourism Ucluelet
READ MORE: Tourism Tofino’s new executive director looks to improve resident relations