For the first time in its history, the BC Tourism and Hospitality Conference was held in Prince George this week.
Tourism PG CEO Colin Carson recapped the week with My PG Now, saying firstly the conference was “a ton of fun.”
“It was great having around 370 colleagues around the province in Prince George to celebrate and learn more about the Tourism and Hospitality industries,” he said, adding that many of them had never been to the Northern Capital before.
“They were surprised at the infrastructure we have in terms of the conference centre and hotel capacity.”
He said a lot of their first impressions of town were either at Tuesday’s Cougars game or at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club on Wednesday.
“It was gorgeous out there,” he said. “We had 60 or 70 delegates take us up on some snowshoeing or skiing activities, and get some local food, local music, local beer up there.”
Tourism Prince George was a finalist for the Professional Excellence award – Destination Greater Victoria took the top prize.
Tourism Chilliwack was the other finalist in the category, Carson said he was impressed by a lot of the work they are doing and would love to implement versions of it in Prince George.
“[They] are doing some really amazing work with sustainability,” he said. “Making sure that their travelers are responsible in the way they interact with the land… for a destination like Prince George that has so much outdoor activity and beauty, that really resonated with me as something we should align with.”
The north did bring home some hardware at the conference, Northern FanCon won the Remarkable Experience award.
“Norm Coyne and his team do a tremendous amount of work to make sure that event is successful every year, and we were really excited to see that,” Carson said.
Kate Cox, from Barkerville, also won the Businesswoman of the Year award.
For more information on the conference, click here.