THE ORGANIZATION

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains, a Tourism Region of Super, Natural British Columbia, includes four destination areas: Metro Vancouver, Sea to Sky Country (including Whistler Resort), Mighty Fraser Country (including the Fraser Canyon) and the Sunshine Coast.

Business Objective: To implement one-to-one business practices that enhance the relationships between our partners, customers and Vancouver, Coast & Mountains. Vancouver, Coast & Mountains, a non-profit society, is governed by a private sector board of directors who represent business and community tourism interests from throughout the region.

WHAT THE ORGANIZATION DOES

Vancouver, Coast & Mountains staff, develop, co-ordinate and deliver tourism marketing programs aimed at motivating potential visitors to come and stay in the region. We measure our successes by conducting extensive conversion studies of callers to our 1-800 number, to determine when they visited, how long they stayed, where they visited and how much they spent. Through our advertising initiatives and regional publications we market the region to North America, Europe and Asia. We also work closely with travel writers, and assist tour operators and travel influencers with familiarization tours and itinerary planning.

QUIRKY REGION FACTS:

Did you know that there are over 200 climbing routes on the rock face at the foot of Squamish called The Chief? Find out more quirky regional facts, and if they don’t lead to a story, they might lead to a definite win in your next game of Trivia Pursuit!

Metro Vancouver
Sea to Sky Country
Mighty Fraser Country
Sunshine Coast

 

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METRO VANCOUVER

• Some say Vancouver was founded on a pub. In 1867, the same year Canada became a country, a retired riverboat pilot named Gassy Jack built a saloon with the idea to make money selling whiskey to the loggers and millers in Burrard Inlet.
• Gastown has a historic clock powered by steam. Every quarter-hour it plays a short tune on its steam whistles, and every hour it gives a loud blast.
• Stanley Park is the largest urban park in North America (1000 acres) and home to the Vancouver Aquarium and an exceptional collection of Totem Poles.
• Lion’s Gate Bridge linking Vancouver to the North Shore over Burrard Inlet was opened in 1939. The bridge is lit at night, creating a spectacular evening landmark. Lights were added in 1986 in time for the world’s fair.
• The population of Greater Vancouver is 2.1 million, which represents 51% of the population of British Columbia. The City of Vancouver is home to only 545,000 people.
• The Fantastic Four, X-Men 1, 2, and 3, Paycheck, X Files, The Outer Limits, iRobot, The Scarlet Letter, Jumanji, Scooby Doo 2, Legends of the Fall, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Best in Show, The 6th Day, Supernatural and Smallville are just of a few of the films and TV series produced in British Columbia.

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SEA TO SKY COUNTRY

• The Sea to Sky Highway opened in 1958 and was then called the Seaview Highway.
• The small village of Lions Bay started as a site for a church camp in the 30s.
• In 1985 the Nakaya ship was purposefully sunk here to create an artificial reef for scuba divers.
• Britannia Beach once had the largest producing copper mine in the British Commonwealth.
• Shannon falls is 6 times higher than Niagara with a 335 meter (1099 feet) drop.
• There are over 200 climbing routes on the rock face at the foot of Squamish called The Chief.
• The Royal Hudson Steam Train was built until 1940, taking passenger to Squamish, and is now on display at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park.
• Blackcomb Mountain is a little bit higher than Whistler Mountain, at 2284 metres (7494 feet) above sea level.
• Local Whistler snowboarder Ross Rebagliati became the world’s first snowboard gold medallist at the Nagano Olympics in 1998.
• Pemberton Valley is known for its seed potatoes, and sometimes called “Spud Valley” by locals.
• Lillooet was Mile 0 on the Gold Rush Trail.

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MIGHTY FRASER COUNTRY

• Pitt Lake is the only freshwater tidal lake in North America.
• The chainsaw carvings in Hope started in 1991 when a large tree in Hope was diagnosed with root rot. A local artist, Pete Ryan, suggested leaving a 12 foot stump behind that he would carve into a bald eagle with a salmon in its talons. Locals loved it and the idea caught on. There are now more than 20 carvings on display around Hope.
• Yale is home to St. John the Divine Church, thought to be the oldest church in BC.
• In 1808 Simon Fraser was the first European to see the Fraser canyon. He thought it resembled the “Gates of Hell”. He and his men had to climb on hands and knees and use bark ladders built by aboriginals to make their way through Hell’s Gate.
• China Bar Tunnel is one of North America’s longest vehicle tunnels. It lies between Spuzzum and Boston Bar, and measures 610 metres (2,031feet) long. The tunnel is named after a gold bearing sandbar in the Fraser River below. Here the hardworking Chinese gleaned a fortune by reworking a supposedly exhausted area after others moved on to newer creeks.
• Chilliwack means “people of the river”.
• Agriculture in Abbotsford includes: berries, tulips, kiwi, llama, ostrich, and poultry and dairy farms.
• Langley was originally called “Innes Corners”, after 2 brothers who came from Ontario with the intent of freighting to the Cariboo goldfields.
• Canada's first train robbery took place in Mission in 1904. The perpetrator of the crime was the elusive Billy Miner.
• Mission is the site of BC's first rail link to the United States, and also the site of the world's shortest railway (only 6 kilometers (3.75 miles) long!)
• Mission has been a place of many names including St Mary's Mission, Mission Junction, Mission City, Village of Mission, Town of Mission and now the District of Mission.
  

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SUNSHINE COAST

• The Sunshine Coast gets its name from the annual total of between 1,400 and 2,400 hours of sunshine - that’s an average of 4 to 6 hours per day.
• The seaside village of Gibsons is home to Molly’s Reach Restaurant, a famous landmark built as a set for The Beachcombers, the longest running Canadian TV series. It started in 1972 and ran for 19 years.
• About 30% of the population of Sechelt are retired.
• The word Sechelt is an aboriginal word means land between two waters.... on one side of Sechelt is the Strait of Georgia and on the other side, Porpoise Bay.
• Pender Harbour is famous for its ocean fishing and warm lakes. It’s often referred to as the Venice of the North because of its complex maze of waterways.
• Powell River is a renowned “hot spot” for scuba diving with over 100 dive sites in the immediate vicinity.
• The world’s finest underwater statue, a 3 metre bronze mermaid, is located at Saltery Bay Provincial Park.
• Powell River was the home to the first and largest newsprint manufacture in Western Canada.
• The world’s longest highway, the Pan-American (also named Highway 101 in parts of the United States and Canada), stretches 15,020 km (9,312 miles) from Castro on Chile’s south coast to Lund.