KIMBERLEY TOURISM

Tourism is a key economic driver for our community. Tourism Kimberley is actively working with regional destination marketing organization, Kootenay Rockies and Tourism BC in the Community Tourism Foundations Programs.

The Community Tourism Foundations Programs offer communities support in the different stages of their tourism development process.

Kimberley is 1 of 42 communities that has been accepted by Tourism BC in the marketing and development programs. The development program utilizes a step-by-step approach to developing a 5 year Community Tourism Plan and a research based marketing plan.

http://krrea.org/files/KimberleytourismPlan.pdf

In the Community Foundation Development Program, local representatives from a variety of sectors within the community collaborated with a tourism BC facilitator on a preliminary assessment of the local tourism industry. The next step in the program was a visioning session that was completed on November 21 st. This process has been very productive in helping the community identify key elements of a vision for the tourism industry in the next five years. One aspect that emerged was the need for “effective long term commitment” to the industry that in turn would enable Kimberley to develop a “vibrant-all-season resort community.”

Tourism stakeholders are not working on establishing an official Destination Marketing Organization for Kimberley that will ensure that this commitment is in place and will give tourism a strong unified voice within the community and in the wider national and global market place. The new organization will represent all sectors of the tourism industry, including the City of Kimberley , Kimberly Alpine Resort, the accommodation sector, the golf sector, all attractions and operators, the service and retail sector.