In an interesting presentation at the monthly Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce luncheon, tourism committee members Dave Butler and Tristen Chernove unveiled a new vision for tourism in Cranbrook.

They advocated a unified approach to marketing and packaging of the area's diverse tourism products and companies.

In their presentation they pointed out that tourism already generates some $100 million in the Cranbrook economy—with 108,000 visitors passing through the Canadian Rockies International Airport on an annual basis and 1.3 million vehicles passing through the city on busy Highway #3.

The goal of the new tourism strategy would be to build a sustaining business model and establish a full-time tourism co-ordinator to administer the program. Another priority would be the co-ordination of tourism packages that would be easily accessed from a central source.

Key to a sustainable tourism development project would be the establishing and building of a new Kootenay Culture Centre that would house a visitors centre/convention bureau organization, which would serve as a central hub for tourism information and booking of tourism activity packages.

No cost estimates were presented and no funding formulas have been worked out at this point. However, other Kootenay communities like Fernie, Rossland, Radium and Kimberley have established Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO) which are funded through a 2 or 4 per cent accommodation tax.

Interested parties can contact the Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce tourism committee for more information.