According to the statistics released by the Bowen Island Visitor’s Centre, the total number of visitors greeted by staff there this summer was 5,388. This number is down from last year’s number when staff greeted 7,668 visitors, but the decline corresponds with statistics coming from other visitor centres in the region.
Jacqueline Massey, a member of the tourism committee and also the executive director of the Bowen Island Arts Council, which ran the visitors centre this year, says that a major reason for the decline both on Bowen and regionally, is that people are not using Visitor’s Centres the way they used to.
“Mobile technologies are making it really easy for people to do their research on destinations ahead of time,” says Massey, noting that the regional decline in customers at visitors centres is 28.3 percent. “The people we saw come through the doors of our visitors centre hadn’t done any research at all. They knew nothing about Bowen, and really needed our advice about where to go and what to do.”
Massey adds that hits to the Bowen Tourism website have been consistently strong throughout the summer, at upwards of 400 hits per week.
Murray Atherton, the chair of the Bowen tourism committee, says that he is hopeful the tourism infrastructure that is currently being built will have a significant and positive impact on the number of people that come to Bowen.
“In 2009 we had almost 14,000 visitors through the centre in the months of June, July, and August. The Chamber of Commerce had been working on a tourism strategy for five years, and because it was connected to my job at the time, I was talking to hotels in Vancouver and telling them about Bowen. I used to go through a case of brochures every three weeks at the Fairmont Hotel,” says Atherton. “I see a lot of positive momentum happening right now. For one, the tourism committee is applying for society status, which will make us a recognized player in the industry. In October, a Welcome Centre will start to be built down at the pier. Also, thanks to Jody Lorenz, we now have a tour guide operator. All of this is infrastructure that will serve us well in building up our clientele.”
Atherton also says that more accommodations providers on Bowen are paying an 8 percent tax that goes into provincial coffers to support tourism initiatives. If this grows, by way of more and larger accommodations establishments being built (any provider who rents out more than four units has to pay the tax) the municipality could add on an extra 2 percent to collect and devote to local tourism initiatives.
“The numbers collected by the visitors centre do not paint a bleak picture,” says Atherton. “There are so many visitors to Bowen who are not recognized immediately as tourists, they are our friends and family. They come here and spend time and money, and they love it here.”
A few more statistics collected by the Visitors Centre
Where visitors to Bowen came from this summer:
- 74% were BC residents (up from 66% the previous year)
- 8% were visitors from other parts of Canada and the United States
- 10% were visitors from Europe
- 8% from Asia and Australia
The busiest day of this summer was August 4, with 189 visitors.
The day with the fewest visitors was May 29th, with just 4 visitors.
The average number of visitors per-day to Bowen Island this summer was 52.
