Building Tourism from the Ashes Up in Burns Lake, British Columbia

Babine Lake north of Burns Lake is British Columbia's largest fresh water lake.

In British Columbia, Canada there is a small village named Burns Lake. For a long time forestry and the Babine Forest Products mill were the towns  biggest employer… that was until Friday January 20th, 2012 when a fire raged into the night eventually burning the mill down to the ground.

Now what? Many people became instantly unemployed. Some grieving lost lives. Even more became scared. How about rebuilding the mill they ask… well… it is not looking good.  So, what now they ask? What does the Village of Burns Lake do? How is the region’s government and associations going to help? So many questions.

We will find out soon enough – as the big wigs of tourismopoly are meeting. The tourism associations and local governments are holding talks and mapping the future out for Burns Lake. We are holding our breathe for greatness because the area is absolutely beautiful!

Please check out our Burns Lake section on our Plan a vacation to North British Columbia, Canada. Check it out yourself. Just gorgeous wilderness. Make sure to check out the photo gallery too. And, if you can, travel there for great adventure opportunities.

Unfortunately history has a poor track record in these kind of situations. As sad as it is… this is not the first time a community has lost their main employer and are looking for answers and jobs. Times our changing. Fishing communities and forestry, mill, factory, mines and others have had tough times. How did these communities get on their feet again… or did they? What have we learnt? Anything?

Wetlands and walking trails in the Rod Reid Nature Park in Burns Lake.

Too many times we see communities “put all their eggs in one basket”. Surely you would think a community would have one or two secondary industries in play. But Burns Lake seems not to have one. But this is not unusual for many smaller towns and villages in BC. There are too many factors that limit options in small towns. So what do they do? In BC a higher number are turning to the tourism industry.

Burns Lake is now in a situation full of choices. But first… it is important to know who is Burns Lake and what resources do they have to work with. [ Burns Lake website link ]

Burns Lake is in the heart of “Lake Country” in the northern British Columbia region. British Columbia’s largest fresh water lake – Babine Lake – is located north of Burns Lake surrounded by hectares of forests, racing rivers, wildlife and other popular lakes like Pinkut, Augier and Taltapin Lakes.

To the south of Burns Lake, BC is Francois Lake – the second longest lake in BC. There is a great little ferry ride that takes you across the lake.

During the summer months the activities in the area include fishing, canoeing, sailing, swimming, hiking, water skiing, off roading, mountain biking and boating activities to name a few. In the winter months there is ice fishing, xc skiing and snowmobiling.

Francois Lake is BC's second longest lake

The region around Burns Lake has backcountry gravel roads, hiking trails, day use picnic sites, parks and thousands of lakes and rivers.

You would think with such a beautiful backyard Burns Lake would be on the high road to a successful adventure tourism atmosphere in the region. According to this article… they received tourism funding in the amount of $9200 for the fiscal 2011-12 tourism season?

Here is a section of a news release from the BC Government Newsroom.

“The Village of Burns Lake currently participates in co-operative tourism marketing initiatives funded in part by the Province and coordinated through the Northern British Columbia Tourism Association. For fiscal 2011-12, Burns Lake has been approved for up to $9,200 in co-operative tourism marketing funding to assist in the production of a community trail map and mountain bike brochure, and to updating their photo image bank.“

Wow!

Sigh?

Ugh?

Let me get this straight… a $9,200 investment in tourism! And tourism is going to replace the jobs lost by the mill. Good start. Not.

Plans for developing a mountain biking trail brochure, a picture bank and.. what was the third one… it was so ground breaking… oh yah.. a community trail map. All fine and dandy but for tourism to take hold you need allot more than maps and brochures.

Lake in the Mountain Bike Park in Burns Lake.

Mountain biking is a blast but it does not really generate big spending tourists or jobs unless you have infrastructures in place like a ski hill. The community has a mountain bike park (here is our mountain bike park link) and some great established gravel road and single track trail systems. But… hmmm… the reality is that the demographic of mountain bikers is very young, often low income and can not afford many of the tourism services provided by a community.

A community path is great idea for the community but it will do nothing to draw spending tourists to the community. ” Hey… I am going to Burns Lake on my holidays to walk the community path!” Not going to happen. It needs to be bigger than a community path.

And …money for a picture bank… well… all I can say is “no comment” because that is just ridiculous. There are many other ways to develop programs for increasing a picture database. Like we mentioned earlier… tourism is not an after thought. It takes effort, resources, long term vision and funding.

Here are some thoughts for Burns Lake from the backbenchers of tourism.

Jobs is number one in any community. So we need to generate jobs which in turn generates revenues spent in the village stores. Everyone is happy when there are jobs. So… what to do. Lets look at what we have to work with.

Burns Lake is beautiful country. There are thousands of lakes and forests everywhere. It is remote and wild with lots of wildlife. It has a year round activity season (but not a year round tourism season). It is located on a main highway with a high drive thru rate. Floatplane services are available from private resorts located on Babine and Francois Lakes and there is a small plane airport west of the community. Trains run through town.

Pinkut Lake is another wilderness lake in the Burns Lake region.

What Burns Lake needs is investment. Forestry is important but it is not the boom times of the past. They need to decide what direction they want to go now? How and where does the community want to grow? In the past we have seen some communities say, “Yah… lets go, lets do it, hooray!” but when it comes down to making the tough decisions and life style changes… egos begin to battle.

Tourism requires change… ask Tofino, Ucluelet, Parksville, Saltspring Island, Golden, Victoria, Osoyoos and on and on we go.

Some ideas to consider… there are many, and there are complications and legalities and paper work… yes, yes.. we know. There are lots of stuff behind the scenes we may not know about either. These are just thoughts anyway… take them with a grain of salt. But why not start the dialogue now when you are starting over. It is the best time to set up a long term tourism strategy.

Here are a few tough questions to maybe ask yourself .

(a) What demographic of tourism do we want to attract? (age, level of income, hobbies, geography, etc.)
(b) What outdoor activities are in place and what needs developing?
(c) How do we make Burns Lake a tourism destination, a go to place… the branding of our community?
(d) What current facilities do we have to work with and what do we need to develop?
(e) How do we stop drive through traffic on Highway #16
(f) How do we increase the average room nights and money spent in the community?
(g) How do we attract investment dollars?
(h) How do we develop multi-day events and tournaments drawing more sponsors and tourism dollars to the region?

And always begin discussions on an action plan for a community beautification program. First impressions are huge in tourism. Entrances and exits need to leave an impression. Try and tie it in with the community brand.

A beautiful community equals happy and proud residents. Soon the local residents will gladly take pride of ownership in the community and participate, volunteer and gladly take over the continuation of the beautification of their village. Because of the increase in tax revenues to the community base the community takes over the costs of keeping itself beautiful. Gone full circle.

Investment in a community comes from local efforts and from outside parties working together.

(a) Bring in cottage resorts, fishing lodges, outfitter camps and/or a select few big money resort investors. Tailor your investment – make it a green tourism investment if you want. Make it so they must assist in marketing the region as a year round winter and summer tourism season. And part of the deal would be to allocate funds for the downtown beautification program.

Another perk with resorts is that they advertise heavily. Why not let them help market Burns Lake and spend the big marketing dollars putting Burns Lake on the adventure destination map advertising in every magazine, newspaper and online resource available to them. And good facilities and accommodations attracts events, conferences, festivals and more.

(b) Many people would like to be their own boss. Many dream of a day when they can make their favorite outdoor pastime a career. Provide government resources for entrepreneur programs in the region. Some could be funded by tourism associations and industry. Developing the tourism infrastructure, putting the tools in place, will increase more self employment.

(c) Moneys for the infrastructure programs need to come from a strong partnership between business, local associations and government.

How far they want to take tourism is up to Burns Lake and their round table of industry experts.

Here… well, we are just talking out loud. Call it tourism babble.

We wish Burns Lake all the success in the world! It is such a beautiful part of the country!