• Client: Town of Banff/Banff Lake Louise Tourism

    Project: Sustainable transportation solutions for Banff/Lake Louise

    Working together with Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners, Suzanne was engaged to recommend transportation strategies for the Banff Lake Louise area.  The project included documentation of current reality with regard to year round transportation in Banff/Lake Louise including the guest experience, cost of services provided and a preliminary assessment of opportunities to improve guest experience and resort competitiveness.  This review was supplemented by a summary of market perspectives on year round transportation in Banff/Lake Louise based upon interviews with summer and winter tour operators and other documented market research.

     

    A review of competitive/best practice destinations was conducted to understand alternative approaches to transportation including guest experience, funding models and transferable lessons.  The final report resulted in the conceptual development of a transportation strategy for Banff/Lake Louise that addressed the transportation needs of destination skiers as well as transportation initiatives focused on year round visitors, the resident population and seasonal employees. The strategy addressed the nature of transportation, the key characteristics of this transportation system including summer/winter implications, best practices for funding and cost sharing recommendations and next steps to proceed to implementation.

     

  • Client:  Province of British Columbia

    Project: Best Practices Guide for Resort Development and Operation

    Suzanne participated on a multi-disciplinary team to create a best practices guide for resort development and operation in British Columbia.  Suzanne assessed opportunities to pursue sustainable tourism development, the role of destination marketing organizations, associated governance and funding best practices and marketing/sales strategies to grow tourism revenues.

  • Client: South Coast/Mountains Regional Transportation Advisory Group

    Project: Stakeholder Recommendations to the Minister of Transportation – 2005, 2007 and 2008

    Suzanne was asked to coordinate and facilitate workshops to develop and prioritize regional transportation recommendations for the Minister of Transportation as part of the Regional Transportation Advisory Committee process in the Province of British Columbia.   Suzanne organized the logistics and facilitated stakeholder workshops beginning in 2005.  She was asked to facilitate workshops again in 2007 and 2008.  In addition to facilitating the input sessions, she was responsible for summarizing findings and working together with the appointed Committee members to prioritize and report to the Minister a comprehensive set of recommendations for the South Coast/Mountains region.

     

    Quote:

    “Suzanne is an expert facilitator and was able to merge the many and disparate views on transportation in our region into a comprehensive and defensible set of transportation priorties for consideration by the Minister.”

     

    Mr. Douglas Miller

    Chair, (2005-2009)

    South Coast/Mountains Regional Transportation Advisory Committee

  • Client:  Resort Municipality of Whistler/Tourism Vancouver

    Project: Tourism Representative in Land Use Negotiations - Sea to Sky Land Resource Management Plan (LRMP)

    For four years (2003-2007), Suzanne sat as the tourism representative on the Sea to Sky Land Resource Management planning process leading interest based negotiations related to land use on behalf of tourism interests in the corridor.  Areas of controversy requiring resolution included permitted industrial uses and their impact on tourism experiences being offered including impacts on global brand impression.  As well, within the tourism industry itself, conflict between motorized and non-motorized users in both summer and winter required resolution and Suzanne participated in these intra-sector discussions.  Suzanne’s leadership and partnership with other sector representatives supported the direction taken in the Squamish Nation Land Use Plan and served to enshrine tourism priorities in land use planning in the region.

     

    Quote:

    “Suzanne played a pivotal role in securing protection of designated areas for backcountry tourism and preservation of the wilderness experience that is fundamental to the region’s global brand and marketing efforts.  She is a relationship builder and expert negotiator.”

     

    Eckhard Zeidler

    Former Councillor

    Resort Municipality of Whistler