A tourism specialist has come to Nanaimo with a goal of expanding the Harbour City’s reputation as a travel destination.
With more than 15 years’ experience in the industry, most recently with Destination Campbell River, Carly Pereboom will take on executive director duties with non-profit Tourism Nanaimo effective Monday, May 1. Among her first orders of business will be spearheading a three-year destination strategy.
“It’s really more of an exercise of taking an assessment of where the industry is currently, what community partners have in their forecasted plans … seeing where they see the potential opportunities and challenges and really making sure that we’re finding those synergies,” Pereboom told the News Bulletin.
She said the strategy could influence an upcoming five-year strategy renewal with the province that will be coming in the next year and a half.
Pereboom said Nanaimo has strengths as a tourism destination and “has a very layered portfolio” with the ability to attract people for recreation and leisure, business, and sports and other events.
“You’re really capturing a diversified net of visitors with that and that provides an increasing opportunity for people to really learn about Nanaimo and really depart from Nanaimo with more positive sentiment of their experience,” she said. “Like with anywhere else, there’s challenges with shortages and workers and inflation … looking at ways to be more collaborative and combat the challenges is where active engagement comes in.”
Pereboom said she will concentrate on short-term goals initially.
“I think for me, right now, the focus is the next 30, 60, 90 days,” she said. “It’s a big organization, it’s a really large portfolio. There are a lot of partners in play and so I think, first and foremost, for me, it’s going to be establishing those relationships, and really understanding the nuances of everything and how I can best come in and make sure that the momentum that’s been created continues, and continues in a positive way for everybody,” said Pereboom.
Tourism Nanaimo said in the release that it is pleased to be bringing aboard an experienced destination marketer with a passion for building relationships.
“We have a solid plan to ensure we are moving the society forward while ensuring our marketing efforts have continuity,” said Ian Simpson, Tourism Nanaimo Society chairperson, in the press release.
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