The Duecks wanted to rent a crew trailer in January 2012 and found nothing available. They quickly researched the local marketplace, incorporated Fisher Peak RV Rentals in February, and immediately started accepting bookings.

It’s an interesting concept. Want comfortable camping but don’t own an RV? Love camping but dread towing the unit on the highway? Want to try RV camping to see if your family will like it? Want to take a mini-vacation close to home but don’t want to stay in a motel? Fisher Peak RV Rentals has an option for all of these scenarios. Choose your destination—anywhere within a two-hour drive from Cranbrook—sign your rental agreement, pay your deposit and you’re all set.

Equipped with a hitch lock so that only an authorized driver can move it, your RV unit will be delivered to the camping spot of your choice between 4 and 6 p.m. It will be clean and stocked with cooking utensils, dishes and cutlery, and the hot water and refrigerator will be available and working. You will need to supply your soft goods (pillows and sheets) and consumables (food and bathroom supplies) and to clean the unit at the end of your stay.

The recent retirement expos in Fernie and Cranbrook provided a great launch for Fisher Peak RV Rentals.

“The Cranbrook expo was a very fine starting point for us,” said Christie, “because not only did we have a group of vendors that had never heard of us, we also had people our age who were coming to us. There is a huge potential for local people to use this service.”

While the Duecks are happy to provide RV units to vacationers from Alberta and elsewhere, they are especially enthusiastic about helping local families and retirees get out and enjoy the amenities of the beautiful East Kootenay.

This annual get together provides an opportunity to share experiences and information about tourism development throughout the province. The agenda included a review of the various programs related to  community development, such as the Community Tourism Foundation (CTF), the Community Tourism Opportunities (CTO), Tourism BC’s Business Essential guides and workshops, an overview of regional priorities and key marketing strategies.

Emilie Cayer-Huard commented: “The community programs are all designed to support local tourism organizations in building capacities and increase efficiency—from providing the tools to develop a comprehensive tourism plan, to cost-sharing key marketing initiatives and facilitating industry workshops, there is a wide range of resources available. My role is to keep the communities throughout the Kootenay Rockies informed on those resources and to support co-ordinate initiatives.”

One of the main agenda items was to review all the project proposals for the upcoming year from the communities participating in the Community Tourism Opportunities (CTO) program.

“The CTO program is really tailored to be community-driven. There is a lot of flexibility in the projects that are approved because we, as the Regional Community team, want to ensure that the communities can achieve what is on their priority list,” said Cayer-Huard.

During the fiscal year 2011-2012, 16 communities in the Kootenay Rockies participated in the CTO program. They completed various projects, all cost shared with the province up to a total budget of $254,000. The projects included pieces such as the design and production of brochures and maps, community branding activities, mobile websites and the production of promotional videos.

The new resort is located in the mountains on the west side of Lake Koocanusa at the end of the road at the Canada/U.S. boundary. The property is covered with a variety of fir trees and is just a few minutes' walk to the beach —it's like being "in the middle of nowhere."

Madera RV Resort sites have been thoughtfully carved out of the forest. They were very careful to leave as many of the trees as they could and still build wide roads (dust-free) and level RV pads with lots of room to spread out. Once you're all set up, you'll feel like you have your very own cabin at the lake.

Madera Ranch RV Resort is scheduled to open in June of 2012.

The new restaurant is located across the parking lot from Save-on-Foods in the former Max's coffee house location—a location briefly inhabited by Cranversations, another fine dining establishment.

The new eatery promises to add some spice to the Cranbrook/Kootenay restaurant scene. Watch for notices of opening in the near future.

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.