A Message from the Minister of Tourism, Culture
and the Arts

Kevin Krueger

Hosting the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was a tremendous time for British Columbia, and I am proud of the achievements of our province. We are told that we have achieved the best Winter Games ever, and that we are a model for others going forward.

These accomplishments are the result of many strong partnerships, including all levels of government, VANOC, and of course, our tourism industry. In the earliest days when we were going through both the national and international bid phases, it was clear that tourism would be among the key areas of focus – both in supporting our efforts to win, but also providing a significant part of the rationale for bringing the games to British Columbia.

As we saw the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics come to a close, we reflected upon our long road to the Games. We have a long and happy road ahead, after this once in a lifetime opportunity of attracting tourists to the beautiful province that the world watched so closely in February. Happily, our collective efforts have laid the foundation for this next journey - one of growth and success in every corner of our province and in every community. The unprecedented global awareness of B.C. as a destination is being capitalized upon to drive tourism business growth and economic success. To accomplish this, our Ministry is committed to delivering an integrated approach to strategies and actions converting this awareness into economic growth. We look forward to providing updates on that long-term strategy over the coming months.

As a reminder of how successful our 2010 Winter Games were, please find below a selection of key achievements resulting from our collective efforts.

Sincerely,

Kevin Krueger
Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts

Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games: Successes and Achievements

Overall Impact on the Economy
  • The Conference Board of Canada says the Games will bring an additional $770 million to B.C.’s economy in 2010 alone, with B.C. leading GDP growth at 3.7% this year.
  • This is on top of the $884 million and over 20,000 jobs created between 2002 and 2008 before the Games had even started (PriceWaterhouseCoopers report).
  • A total of $4 billion in investment is expected by 2015 as a result of the 2010 Games (Intervistas).
  • The delegations of sponsors, suppliers, networking businesses, athletic teams and visitors are adding over $2 billion in spending to the economy.
  • VISA reports spending by international visitors on Visa cards at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and in British Columbia topped US$115 million during the Games.
  • Visa also reports international transactions in Vancouver were 93% higher than usual.
Provincial Funding for the Olympics
  • The Province committed $765 million to the Games operations (on budget).
  • The operating budget for the Games was about $1.7 billion and most of that came from ticket sales, international broadcast rights, national and international sponsorships and merchandising.
  • The security budget for the Games was a federal responsibility, and by agreement, the Province capped its commitment for security at $87.5 million.
  • All 2010 competition venues were completed one season ahead of the Games and were fully tested with international competitions.
The Provincial Hosting Program
  • The Provincial Hosting Program held more than 100 networking events with more than 10,000 participants. 2,500 people attended events at the B.C. Showcase, including more than 750 from outside B.C.
  • More than 4,000 people attended business and celebration events at the B.C. Canada Pavilion.
  • More than 65 meetings were held between provincial ministers and B.C., Canadian and international businesses and government leaders.
Public Opinion
  • Over 70 per cent say the Games will leave a lasting legacy for B.C. (Vision Critical).
  • More than 50 per cent feel these Games will be more defining for Canada than prior Canadian Olympics, Expos and even the 1972 Hockey Summit Series (Ipsos).
  • 89% gave the Opening Ceremonies a positive review (Ipsos).
  • 8% more Canadians strong they are a Canadian nationalist compared to the same period last year (Ipsos Reid).

Tourism Highlights

Games Time
  • 250,000 visitors are estimated to have attended the 2010 Games (Intervistas).
  • 262,813 visitors were served through the Olympic visitor centre network in February – including Peace Arch, YVR and 16 additional visitor kiosks during Games time in key venues in host cities.
  • Over 1.5 million people have visited Robson Square (averaging 75,000 – 100,000 every day).
  • 2.2. million people, including 4,000 artists at 600 events over 60 days, engaged in the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
  • Over 80,000 people visited the B.C. Canada pavilion.
  • Over 8,000 rode the Zipline (700 daily).
  • Over 12,000 people skated on the GE Plaza rink (1,000 per day).
International Media Statistics
  • 3.5 billion people (over half the world’s population) watched the Games on TV, the internet or mobile by the end –making these the most-watched Winter Games in history.
  • Over 300 TV stations and 100 online services showed B.C. to the world.
  • There was over 50,000 hours of Olympic coverage by the end of Games – 47% more coverage than in Turin.
  • 190 million US viewers have watched on NBC alone, marking a 20 per cent increase in viewership through 13 nights over the 2006 Winter Games.
  • Daily US viewership was nearly 90 million households – putting average daily viewing 27% higher than Turin, the highest viewership since the scandal-fuelled Lillehammer Games in 1994.
  • Over 2,000 domestic and international media through the B.C. Media Centre broadcast around the world, facilitating extensive profile for B.C. through shows like Oprah, NBC News, and the Today Show -- the Today Show alone reaches almost 5 million viewers a day.
  • In total, there were 10,800 media representatives: 7,000 rights-holding broadcasters, 2,800 press reporters and photographers and non-rights holding broadcasters, as well as 1,000 host Olympic Broadcast Service personnel.
  • Yahoo took the gold in Olympics web traffic, besting NBC's site for the games. Yahoo's Olympics-devoted site received 32 million unique visitors during the two-week event. NBC's Olympics site drew 18.9 million unique visitors (Web tracker ComScore).
Canadian Media Statistics
  • CTV estimates that 99% of all Canadians (nearly 33 million people) watched, read or listened to the Games - roughly 25 million Canadians each day watching TV and 12 million page views online.
  • 22 million Canadians watched the gold medal men’s hockey game on February 28th.
  • 69% of Canadians watched the Opening Ceremonies – the most watched TV event in Canadian history.
  • Men’s hockey alone garnered over 10.5 million Canadian viewers per game – the most watched sports programming in Canadian history and ratings were higher than the 2002 Canada-US matchup in Salt Lake City.
The Province’s Marketing Campaign
  • Total number of impressions by media:
    • Television – 968.7 million impressions
    • Digital Ads – 258.2 million impressions
    • Print Ads – 11.6 million impressions
    • Out of Home – 315.7 million impressions
  • HelloBC.com recorded 2.05 million visits in February (590% per cent increase over February 2009).
  • The You Gotta Be Here site received 104,159 visits over the 17 days of the Olympic Games.
  • To date there have been over 480,000 views of the 102 videos on the You Gotta Be Here YouTube channel.
  • The You Gotta Be Here free attractions page has recorded 17,000 views.
  • There are 5,600 fans on the You Gotta Be Here Facebook page.
  • There are 1,850 followers of the You Gotta Be Here Twitter feed (1,484 tweets to date).
  • There were 14,722 total click-throughs on the You Gotta Be Here Twitter feed from the day Olympic Flame returned to BC (Jan. 21) until the end of the Olympics.
  • There are 3,500 photos on the You Gotta Be Here Flickr collection.

2010 Spring/Summer Consumer Marketing Campaign

Be Here

After hosting one of the largest and most successful Winter Games, British Columbia is enjoying the “afterglow”...

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