When Rod Harris goes to work as chief executive officer of Tourism British Columbia, he’s fulfilling two lifetime passions: B.C. and marketing.

Perhaps that would explain Harris’s unbridled optimism about an industry that has been rocked in recent years by terrorism, the outbreak of SARS and mad-cow disease, as well as forest fires.

To Harris, who was instrumental in the formation of Tourism BC as a Crown corporation, pitching tourism in B.C. represents the best of both worlds. The 56-year-old native of Kimberley has spent his entire working life in marketing and advertising – while spending much of his leisure time travelling throughout his native province.

1. What were your passions as a youngster?

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
Rod Harris has come a long way from the ski slopes at Kimberley to CEO of Tourism British Columbia.

“I was involved in a lot of sports. Being born in Kimberley, I was pretty well brought up on skis. I skied and ski-raced until I was 21, and also did gymnastics through my high school years. In university, I fenced. I also played rugby. Actually, my dream was to ski all of the great mountains of the world, but I haven’t done that. Often, I think of sporting analogies. I think the experience of picturing in one’s mind about what the place will be like under different circumstances has helped me in my career. You can get better prepared because you can visualize where you’d like the ball to be and where you’re going to place it.”

2. You’ve spent most of your career in advertising and marketing. What drew you to that career?

“I found as I did my commerce degrees that I was also very interested in psychology and fine arts. So I was taking elective courses in both of those fields and recognized that in actual fact, the field of advertising represented a point at which business, psychology and the visual arts came together. When I finished my MBA, I worked for a number of years as a brand manager overseeing the development of a number of products.”

3. How do you reflect on your experience as an entrepreneur in the dried snack-food business with EDG Foods?

“We started with virtually no money and 100-per-cent sweat equity, basically $2,000 each, into that business. It was definitely the most challenging thing I’ve ever had to do because we were creating technology at the same time as we were building a market for a brand that had never existed and a product that had never been sold as a commercial product to the broad market. So that really drew upon all my skills, both my formal training from university plus my consumer marketing background. I ended up selling my shares and did well with that. From my perspective, it was a great experience.”

4. From your experience, what are the keys to being successful in marketing and advertising?

“Understanding the customer’s wants and needs, and ensuring every activity throughout the entire purchase cycle is developed with the thought of providing ways of satisfying them. I think that consumer orientation needs to be pervasive in all business aspects, regardless of the product. Recognizing and understanding evolving needs and wants of individual customers and how they come together in an aggregate sense is absolutely critical, and different disciplines are used to shepherd that forward. Probably equally important is recognizing the skills of individuals who are members of the organization and how their unique skills can come together to form a very co-operative and integrated approach to fulfilling those customer wants and needs.”

5. How did you wind up working for Tourism BC when it became a Crown corporation in 1997?

“I took an opportunity to work for the province of British Columbia in the Fisheries Department. That led to an opportunity in the food side of that business and I was fortunate in being instrumental in developing a Buy B.C. program to encourage consumption of B.C. foods and beverages. That program was quite successful and it created an opportunity to work for Tourism British Columbia. I think it represented a very attractive coming together of all my experience.”

6. What has it been like leading Tourism BC through very challenging times?

“It has been a very exciting time and not without its challenges, particularly market-driven challenges that started with September 11 (terrorist attacks) and evolved with other issues with SARS, mad-cow disease and forest fires. But it has also presented some significant growth opportunities for the British Columbia tourism industry that have been a real pleasure. The industry is made up of a vast array of operators, many of whom are individual private-sector entrepreneurs. I’ve gotten a real sense of loyalty to those operators who are putting their own resources at risk in building their businesses. I think it’s that complexity of seeing ways in which we could build opportunities for our industry to grow and deal with a very geographically diverse industry made of many different sectors such as fishing, golfing, skiing, outdoor adventure and so on – that’s been quite an experience.”

7. How has Tourism BC managed to deal with all the unexpected events such as terrorism, SARS, mad cow and so on?

“Well, it’s been quite a challenge. Our funding source comes from revenues we generate as a corporation, coupled with a portion of hotel tax. The last few years have been even more challenging because we’ve had to arrange our financial disciplines to manage under tight financial circumstances and reduce program expenditures in some areas, while identifying ways in which we can become much more effective and efficient in terms of our marketing. So we’ve been through a very turbulent phase, but we believe we’re on track to significant recovery and we’ve got our eyes firmly set on 2010 (Olympics).

“That will become a huge opportunity not just to showcase British Columbia, Vancouver and Whistler, but all of Canada to the world.”

8. How much of an impact do you expect the Olympics to have on tourism in the province?

“If we do a good job, this will be the largest opportunity we’ve had for us to springboard our industry forward, other than Expo in 1986. Expo had a huge and lasting effect on British Columbia’s tourism industry and I believe the Olympics, properly capitalized on, will give us a similar opportunity.”

9. What’s your current budget for tourism for this year and do you foresee a budget increase in the future?

“We are anticipating about $25 million in hotel revenues, plus we expect another $6 to $7 million to come from corporate activities.

That (increased budget) might occur, but I couldn’t effectively speculate on that.”

10. Is that enough to achieve your goals?

“No. What’s happening on the world stage is that a very large number of jurisdictions have recognized that the ability to attract foreign visitors brings with it foreign cash. And the cash is invested in the countries that are being visited and it then stimulates not just economic development but also produces tax revenues for municipal, provincial and federal organizations. So it represents a tremendous foundation for wealth generation. As the other jurisdictions are starting to recognize this, they’re also ramping up their expenditures in the world markets. So we’re finding that it’s getting increasingly more competitive day by day.”

11. What sort of budget would you be comfortable with in doing everything you can to market tourism?

(Laughing) “I’d love to have $100 million, to tell you the truth.”

12. So how can you succeed marketing tourism in B.C. in these challenging times with such a limited budget?

“By having the best employees that you can attract and we have that.”

13. What specifically are you doing to drum up interest and gain market share?

“We have a number of ongoing marketing initiatives in both the domestic and international markets. We work with travel trades, tour operators, media and travel writers, and we also have consumer-based marketing programs. For instance, we have the B.C. Escapes program which is in its sixth year in operation and produces concrete results. We run a call centre to book reservations so we know exactly how many reservations we book based on our marketing campaign. In addition to that, probably the most critical opportunity for gaining competitive advantage will be technology.”

14. What are you doing in that area?

“We are in the process of building an electronic, live data base that will allow visitors to access all types of information as they prepare and plan their trips. We also have live information from our operators, so we have a time-sensitive and live inventory of product available for prospective consumers. The ability to accomplish that is extremely complex from a technical perspective. The destinations that can do that most successfully will be the destinations that are poised to capture market share over the long term.”

15. Tourism was on the decline in 2003 in B.C. So how is 2004 shaping up?

“It’s starting on the road to recovery. The last several months have been very positive. Accommodation revenues this April were up 12 per cent over the previous year, May was up 10 per cent (over 2003), June was up 10 per cent and July looks like it’ll come in up close to 10 per cent as well. We’re hearing good early reports on August but we’ve been fairly cautious on making any conclusion about this year because we saw how quickly issues such as SARS, mad cow and forest fires can hit us. Our numbers haven’t yet surpassed the peak. Our best year was 2000.

2001 was close behind, but obviously it was affected by September 11. We’re still a good ways shy of accomplishing the levels of visitation and expenditures that we had in those years. Now the U.S. market is not as vibrant as we had hoped, but the European and Asian markets are showing significant strength. China will become the most critical market (B.C. tourism) after the United States.”

16. What’s your long-term vision for tourism in B.C.?

“I believe that British Columbia is the greatest place on Earth and obviously I’m biased in saying that. I would like Tourism British Columbia as a corporate organization to reflect the same degree of excellence that our province provides to our visitors in the way of natural wonders and cosmopolitan experiences.”

17. How can you achieve that vision with such a limited budget?

“If we hope to compete successfully on the world stage, a level of resources that gives us a competitive footing against that of other jurisdictions is important. I believe that we are very effective in what we do and I believe that our company is a good company. Probably, one of our greatest achievements was to be rated the 12th-best company to work for in British Columbia. I think the key ingredient here is to ensure that we have a very positive working environment in which our great staff is able to achieve successes in individual areas of endeavour.”

18. What’s the key to attracting quality staff, retaining them and motivating them?

“I would say there needs to be a nucleus of professionals who have significant private-sector experience who are respected in the marketplace as high achievers and highly professional individuals. When you’re able to do that, that nucleus tends to attract more like individuals, and then you need to ensure that individuals in the organization are given the scope to be able to achieve the excellence that we’re encouraging. I’m totally dependent upon our staff. Being sensitive to the needs of the people in the organization who do the work is absolutely critical. Sometimes, that’s called teamwork, and obviously teamwork is a critical aspect. But probably what’s more important is having a sensitive awareness of the needs of the organization and an ability to consistently support the staff.”

19. What do you think sets British Columbia apart from other jurisdictions as a tourism destination?

“Every time I travel overseas or in other parts of North America and I come back to British Columbia, I’m just overwhelmed by what an incredibly beautiful place it is. It doesn’t matter where you are, it’s just breathtaking.

But what’s totally unique is that we have exciting cosmopolitan centres that are sitting right in the heart of nature. That doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world, with the possible exception perhaps of Down Under and New Zealand. Because Canada is such a cosmopolitan country, we’ve got a very, very unique and welcoming travel experience for our visitors. I think the beauty of working in the tourism industry is that the people are friendly, personable and entrepreneurial. It’s just got to be the greatest industry in the world to work in. I’ve been purely lucky in where my career has taken me and fortunately the marketing background gave me that opportunity.”

20. How long do you hope to stay in this job?

“I’d like to be here past the Olympics. I was lucky because I lived in Calgary during the 1988 Olympics (working for Labatt) and was able to experience that. To be able to do this in my native province and reflect to the world what British Columbia is about would be a tremendous privilege that very few people have. I love what I do and find this extremely challenging, so at this point in time I’m not thinking about any other opportunities. I’ve had lots of challenges and the normal ups and downs in my career, but to see it all come together in the tourism industry is like magic.”

IN PROFILE: ROD HARRIS
* Title: President/CEO, Tourism British Columbia.
* Born/raised/age: Kimberley, B.C./56.
* Education: University of British Columbia, bachelor of commerce, MBA; Institute of Canadian Advertisers, professional certification.
* Career: Harris was appointed president and CEO of Tourism British Columbia in 1997 after working as assistant deputy minister with the B.C. Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture. He previously worked in marketing and advertising with several organizations, including senior executive positions with McLaren Advertising and Labatt. He has been a senior marketing manager in charge of brands such as Colgate-Palmolive, Sara Lee, Sunlight and General Foods. His entrepreneurial experience includes a stint as part owner and president of EDG Foods, a producer of dried fruit snacks. He was a board member of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Bid committee.
* Moonlighting: Harris is on the board of directors of the Canadian Tourism Commission.
* Passion: Sports.

THE AGENCY: TOURISM BC
* Brass: Rod Harris, president/CEO; Len Dawes, chief financial officer/executive director.
* Profile: Tourism B.C., established as a Crown corporation in 1997, promotes and develops tourism throughout the province.
* Facts: B.C.’s tourism industry generated $9.3 billion in 2003 while hosting nearly 21.9 million overnight visitors.
* Awards: Tourism B.C. has received gold medals from the Canadian Marketing Association (2001), the Pacific Asia Travel Association (2000) and the Canadian Direct Marketing Association (1998). It was named B.C. market of the year in 1999 by the American Marketing Association and also recognized as B.C.’s 12th-best employer.
* Website: www.tourismbc.com
* Head Office: 12th Floor, 510 Burrard St., Vancouver, B.C., V6C 3A8.
* Phone/Fax: 604-660-2861/660-3383.
* Victoria Office Phone/Fax: 604-356-6363/387-2815.

(Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at gyle@businessedge.ca)