Airport Funding to Boost Tofino Tourism

September 25, 2015

TOFINO – Last month’s edition of Business Examiner VI detailed the many recent improvements and expansions happening at Vancouver Island’s airports. While our west coast airport is smaller in scale, its importance to the region weighs heavily.

Not only does the Tofino Ucluelet airport (aka the Long Beach Airport) cater to tourists seeking a more direct route to the west coast than Hwy. 4, it has also represented a vital emergency and medical link since its earliest days as a Second World War airbase.

That’s why the recent announcement of much needed lighting improvements to the airport runways was met with such appreciation from local leaders. The province, through its BC Airport Access Program, is contributing $1.27 million to the upgraded lighting, and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District is funding the remaining $424,000. Currently planes cannot land in the dark or dusk, and the new runway lighting will mean a significant increase in service. Not only will this provide a boost to the tourism industry by increasing flying time, but it also allows for added emergency and medical flights, crucial to this remote region. Next up will be a global positioning system that will allow aircraft to land in low ceiling and foggy conditions.

This recent funding announcement comes as the ACRD reports an increase in air traffic of 33% from January to June (over the same period in 2014).

In response to the increase in passenger traffic, Orca Airways announced in early August that the company will start flying its twin-engine 15-passenger Beech 99 Airliner on its Tofino-Vancouver route. This change not only doubles the passenger capacity of previous Orca Airways flights, but also cuts the travel time from about 45 minutes down to half an hour. It just got much easier to fly to Tofino – and your long weekend just got longer thanks to these two recent developments.

A great time to fly here will be during the surf months of September/October, times when surf-related events are combined with fall swells. In September, the 2nd Annual Bruhwiler Kids Classic fosters the surfing tradition among the mini-groms in an all-day contest on Sept. 19.  A fun day at the beach, there will be different competitive sections, as well as an ‘expression session’ for those kids not interested in competing. For more information, visit Tofino Paddle Surf’s website (www.tofinopaddlesurf.com).

In October, the 6th Annual Queen of the Peak is scheduled for Oct. 2-4. This is Canada’s only all-female surf contest, and attracts competitors from as far away as the east coast of Canada and California. Shortboard and longboard divisions run throughout the two days of this amateur competition. Please visit www.queenofthepeak.com for more information.

For more on surfing in Tofino, check out Tourism Tofino’s website at www.tourismtofino.com.

We here at the Chamber are gearing up to start our regular events again after a busy summer season. Our new and improved website is coming by the end of September, and we look forward to the many events that will be listed (www.tofinochamber.org), including: our Members’ Only Cruise aboard Jamie’s Whaling Station’s Leviathan, as well as the federal All Candidates Meeting, scheduled for October 8th at the Tofino Community Hall, and much more.

– Jen Dart is Executive Director of the Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.

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