Canada, March 08, 2005. The Winter Olympics in this city may be almost five years away, but a new committee of tourism and sport officials is already looking for ways to maximize the benefit of the Games to the rest of Canada.

"Australia was seen as being the most successful in providing long-lasting tourism benefits pre and post their Sydney Games and we're trying to, with proper planning, do the same," said Randy Williams, head of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.

The committee, which includes former International Olympic Committee member Paul Henderson and Alpine Canada chief Ken Read, will hold its first meeting this week to look for ways to squeeze the most out of the Winter Games.

Williams said Australia had a national strategy around the Sydney Games in 2000.

"They actually developed a tourism strategy which included a host of different things which included branding and welcome messages that were consistent across the country and that kind of thing so there were some economies of scale," he said.

The start of work by the committee follows an announcement by the B.C. government last month of plans to spend $14 million to promote tourism, including improving road signs at entry points into the province proclaiming it as the "Best Place on Earth."

Tourism officials are hoping use the Olympics the grow the sector in B.C. and the rest of Canada.

However observers say it won't be an easy task as Vancouver and the rest of Canada are already well known destinations.

UBC economics professor James Brander said the Expo 86 world fair gave the Vancouver tourism industry a tremendous shot in the arm, but the city was not nearly as well known on the international stage then.

"Twenty years later, in relative terms Vancouver is much more known and Whistler-Blackcomb is known as one of the world's top ski resorts," he said.

"There's less room for incremental growth now than there was in 1986."

Brander also suggested finding benefits for the rest of Canada will be difficult.

"What we've seen before is with expos and Olympic events is the effects are pretty local; it doesn't really have an effect on the country as a whole," he said.

"When you're talking about tourists, they aren't going to say, 'The skiing was good at Whistler, so maybe I'll visit Toronto.'"

Williams remains optimistic.

"We're looking at taking advantage of the fact that in February 2010, Canada will have a greater awareness around the world than any other time in our history," he said.

Tourism brings in more than $9 billion a year to B.C. and employs about 115,000 people, making it the third largest sector of the economy.

Source: Canadian Press

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