Whistler Resort to Expand
The 342-room Chateau Whistler Resort has announced plans to add 221 guest rooms and a 12,000-square-foot ballroom with drive-in access, plus four breakout rooms and a rooftop garden terrace. These projects are slated for completion in December 1997.
The expansion will cover 150,000 square feet on the north side of the hotel. The new guest rooms will include 53 "Entree Gold Rooms," which will include fireplaces, Jacuzzi tubs, private check-in and concierge service, and access to a 46-seat lounge, and boardroom facilities for up to eight. All of these rooms will be fitted with data ports and in-room safes. The new rooftop terrace will feature two outdoor fireplaces and built-in marquee tenting for 550 persons. The resort is also adding a spa with 11 treatment rooms and a hair salon.
According to director of marketing Janet Hart, the expansion is in response to the area's growing popularity as a year-round destination. In addition to world-class skiing, Whistler offers four championship golf course, five lakes, and a village cultural scene.
Coming Your Way: Great Canadian Adventures Information on 48 incentive-caliber itineraries featuring outdoor adventure, urban adventure, historical/cultural activities, sports adventure programs, and experiential learning programs is being released in the U.S. to qualified incentive and corporate meeting planners. The Great Canadian Adventure itineraries will be highlighted at the specially designed Canadian exhibition area at the IT&ME in Chicago in October. For more information, contact Frank Verschuren, marketing officer, CTC's U.S. Business Travel Program, 235 Queen Street, 4th Floor East, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0H6; Phone: (613) 954-3947.
Quebec Touts Wine Route It may not be as big as those in California or France, but Quebec does have its own wine route, one that is very popular with local and visiting wine lovers. The route runs through the Eastern Townships, a region with a relatively mild microclimate, where wineries have set up a very successful network, allowing visitors to tour the vineyards, meet the wine makers, and sample the wines. The rolling countryside is full of historic monuments, and a wine program can make a wonderful pre- or post meeting program.
One of the area's outstanding wineries is Le Cep d'Agent, established in 1986, located near the magnificent 25-mile-long Lake Memphremagog. In addition to a wine tasting at Le Cep d'Agent, the facility can host medieval banquets, or groups can take a lake cruise or tour of the nearby Saint-Benoit-du-lac Abbey.
Build It and They Will Come In less than a year, the long-awaited expansion of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will be completed, doubling the capacity of the facility from 20,000 to 40,000 delegates and restoring the center's ranking as one of the biggest convention facilities in North America.
The first large group scheduled for the expanded facility is the Clinical Laboratory Management Association, with 4,500 delegates in August 1997, followed in September by the American Society of Microbiology with 12,000 delegates.
New Web Site For British Columbia The Council of Tourism Associations of British Columbia (COTA) has launched a web site for the region that is being touted as "the largest single tourism site of its kind on the World Wide Web." The site, at www.travel.bc.ca, includes more than 4,000 pages of information especially designed for visitors to British Columbia, including information on accommodations, attractions, events, and activities. The information was compiled by COTA, which includes more than a dozen tourism-related BC associations.
Tourism Vancouver Goes Environmentally Friendly Tourism Vancouver announced this summer the creation of a nonprofit foundation committed to the creation and promotion of environmentally responsible tourism practices in Greater Vancouver. Called Oceans Blue, the foundation will offer practical programs such as training manuals for hotels to use in running their operations. They will also offer tip sheets for hotel guests, as well as initiate community projects like the Keep Greater Vancouver Spectacular, which saw 400 blocks cleaned by volunteers earlier this year
In other news from Tourism Vancouver, in July Ava Jarrett Sones was appointed manager, sales and market development, Washington, DC and Northeast United States. Based in Tourism Vancouver's Washington, DC office, Sones is responsible for convention and corporate meeting sales and market development activities in the region. Her most recent position was director of association sales for Canadian Pacific Hotels in DC. Prior to joining Canadian Pacific, she was the national sales manager for Le Meridien Hotels.
