Research, Planning and Evaluation at the 2010 Winter Games

During February hundreds of thousands of people engaged in the Olympic experience by attending a sporting event or free events at celebration sites spread throughout the host cities. To understand their experiences, the Research, Planning and Evaluation team partnered with Olympic host cities and municipalities including Tourism Whistler, Tourism Vancouver, Tourism Richmond, the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, the Vancouver Economic Development Corporation as well as Simon Fraser University's Centre for Tourism Policy and Research to conduct a survey of Olympic event attendees.

With the support of VANOC and the IOC, the Research, Planning and Evaluation team and partners used a team of more than 50 researchers at over 25 sites throughout the three host cities (Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond) to intercept both visitors and residents at the Olympic Sporting Venues and free celebration sites and pavilions. The team conducted a two-stage survey, the first stage was the on-site survey and the second stage was a follow up online or mail-back survey.

The overall objective of the project was to understand attendee’s perceptions of and satisfaction with their experience and games-time trip within British Columbia. Specifically, the project aimed to understand:

1. Visitor’s general trip characteristics (origin, length of stay, activities, trip planning, composition of travel party)
2. Resident and visitor satisfaction with the Games experience, hospitality and visitor servicing
3. Visitor perceptions of Vancouver, Whistler and British Columbia as a tourism destination
4. Visitor intentions to return to British Columbia and/or attend future Games
5. Resident and visitor methods of communication about their 2010 Winter Games experience (storytelling, blogging, Twitter. etc.)

The team conducted 5,450 completed interviews with 3,330 people agreeing to complete a follow up survey. The final reports are expected to be complete sometime in early June. For more information please call our research information phone line at 1-877-877-8811 email at tourismresearch@gov.bc.ca or visit the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts website and click on “Tourism Research”.