With the Winter Olympics close enough for Washingtonians to practically feel the heat of the Olympic flame, the state stands to collect some gold scraps from the Vancouver games.
But not many.
Some Washington businesses have been welcomed into the Olympic fold. And as a gateway to Vancouver, B.C., the state could see a flood of tourists passing through and spending money along the way.
However, from the moment Canada won its bid to host the Olympics in 2003, organizers made it a priority to keep the economic benefits of the games there.
About 95 percent of all Olympics-related contracts were awarded to Canadian companies, said Mary Fraser of the Vancouver Olympic Committee. Most of the contracts went to British Columbia companies, said Greg Dickson of the B.C. Olympic Winter Games Secretariat.
“This is a Canadian event,” said Marsh Massey, Washington’s director of tourism. “We are not the main event.”
Massey says she would have loved to have launched an international campaign promoting Washington during the Olympics, but that was not feasible given the state’s $7 million annual tourism budget.
Instead, the primary promotion was adding an Olympics page to the state tourism Web site, ExperienceWa.com.
Bill Taylor, executive director of the Renton Chamber of Commerce, doesn’t think that’s enough.
“I don’t know if it’s being in the middle of the forest and not being able to see the trees or a lack of money or what, but there is definitely an opportunity here and (the state) hasn’t done a lot of promotion,” he said.
The biggest possibility for economic gain for Washington comes through tourism, Massey said.
When Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, the economic impact on the adjacent state of Idaho was more than $100 million, Carl Wilgus, Idaho’s director of tourism, told The News Tribune in 2006.
Massey isn’t ready to predict a similar windfall for Washington.
“I’m not into crystal balling,” she said. “It’s hard to say what the impact will be.”
While her budget doesn’t allow her to launch an international ad campaign, Massey expects most of the economic impact will happen naturally.
She believes some bargain-hunting Olympic fans will head south of the border for lodging, and Canadians looking to escape the hubbub of the games might do the same. Plus, those traveling through Washington to the games are bound to stop, maybe even for a day or two.
Taylor agrees, and that’s why Renton spent about $5,000 on a regional television commercial campaign in January. The 15-second commercials promote the city as an inexpensive place to take a break on the way to and from the games.
Activity on the city’s Web site and calls to its 800 number have increased since the advertisements began, he said, but “it’s hard to quantify if it’s a success right now. It’s something we really won’t know for awhile.”
In Tacoma, effort to capitalize on the Olympics amounted to “guerrilla” marketing, said Zak Nelson, spokesman for the Tacoma Regional Convention & Visitor Bureau.
In addition to piggy-backing off the state’s tourism Web site, Tacoma’s primary effort has been e-mails to the media, Nelson said. He’s e-mailed travel writers around the world encouraging them to write about Tacoma and Pierce County as an alternate destination during the games, or a good stop on the way to and from the games.
He says money spent by the bureau was “purely staff time.”
The Washington city that has benefited the most so far is Spokane. The Lilac City hosted a U.S.-Canadian Olympic women’s hockey warm-up match in October and the U.S. Figure Skating Championships last month.
With 10 Olympic berths on the line at the skating championships, a record 156,000 fans flocked to the city. Spokane officials estimated a $25.7 million impact.
But the true impact will continue for years to come, said Harry Sladich, president of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hosting what essentially were Olympic trials helped Spokane pop up on the radar of travelers who previously never would have considered visiting the city, he said.
The same can be said for having the Olympics in Washington’s backyard, Massey says. The real gold will be collected in the future.
“Whether people are watching the Olympics in New Jersey or New Delhi, they will probably be thinking, ‘I had no idea it was that spectacular,’” Massey said. “… When they look into visiting, they will see very quickly that this is one of the greatest regions in the world for a two-nation vacation.”
Craig Hill: 253-597-8497
craig.hill@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/olympics
WASHINGTON BUSINESSES AT THE GAMES
Only a few Olympics-related contracts were won by non-Canadian companies At least seven went to Washington companies: (The B.C. Olympic Winter Games Secretariat does not release the amount of the contracts.)
• Microsoft implemented servers for the Olympic committee.
• Holland America, whose corporate offices are in Seattle, won a bid to provide a cruise ship that will be used for extra lodging.
• Seattle’s 4Culture won two contracts to plan public art for the athletes village and the speed skating oval in Richmond.
• Soft Resources of Kirkland provided financial account systems for the Olympic committee.
• Bellevue’s Buckley-Christison served as a consultant for the Vancouver Convention Center.
• Seattle’s Sparling Inc. served as a consultant for the Vancouver Convention Center.
