Introduction
As part of my EVNT
2500 class, our faculty went on a Field Trip to Vancouver. During our stay in
Vancouver, we went on many adventures such as Vancouver Place, Rogers Arena,
Grouse Mountain and our first dinner as a group at La Bodega. All of these
places were learning experiences or an experience of a different culture.
Furthermore, during these excursions, our group learned many useful tips on how
the real world operates in a job setting in the tourism field.
Industry Meeting
Tourism Vancouver was a very
intriguing place to visit during our time in Vancouver. The presentation was
very well organized and our tour guide, Susan Graham, seemed to enjoy her
job. Tourism Vancouver was looking ahead
to what conferences they were hosting in Vancouver. For instance, she showed us
a schedule of events for the future. It was interesting to note that they
planned ahead all the way until 2022.
The presentation touched on how much competition they had with the rest
of North America and the world. In addition, Tourism Vancouver was very
organized. They understood their limits of the number of large events they
could handle as a city. A very interesting fact that they mentioned was that 2011
was a very busy year for Tourism Vancouver. This was due to many conferences
that may have avoided Vancouver in 2010 but were happy to return after the Winter
Olympics.
Venue Tour
My favorite venue tour of our field
trip was our tour at Rogers Arena. We entered into a room filled with Canucks
pictures and Canucks facts from their existence. Despite my knowledge of the
majority of their achievements and milestones already, it was still great to
read them again.
When I was a kid, it was a dream of mine to
work at a sports venue in a professional league. Our tour guides were very
professional. They knew their duties well and were able to confidently answer
any questions that my classmates or I had. Unfortunately, during our tour, the
Canucks players had just gotten into the arena and were preparing for their
game the next day. Therefore, we were unable to see the Canucks’ dressing room.
However, we were able to see another dressing room instead. This locker room was
also the Vancouver Grizzlies locker room when they played in the NBA from 1995
to 2001. As a huge basketball fan, I found this really cool. Unfortunately, the tour seemed too short for
me. I would have really liked it if we could have seen the Jim Robson Broadcast
booth. After years of listening to the Canucks’ broadcasts on the radio, I
would have appreciated a chance to see the broadcast room. Despite all that,
this tour was very important to me considering I am a currently an event
volunteer at the Interior Savings Centre.
Activity
My favourite
activity during our field trip was going to Grouse Mountain to go ziplining,
because it is something I had never done before and was very interested in
trying it. We took the Sea Bus to Lonsdale Quay and then a bus to Grouse Mountain.
I really enjoyed the Sea Bus because I had never been on it before and I always
wanted to see what it was like. When we got to Grouse Mountain, we took the gondola
up to the top. This was also a good experience as we got to see the city of Vancouver
from another perspective. I found it interesting how it was a nice day in the
city, but it was snowing quite hard at the top.
Ziplining was one
of my many highlights of our trip to Vancouver. Our instructors were very
knowledgeable and well trained on what to do when we were on the course and
made me feel safe. I was nervous at
first and was thankful that the instructors were able to help me relax. More
importantly, the instructors were very cautious and demonstrated safety first
throughout our lesson. Ziplining is a fast paced activity where you are
harnessed in and hooked up to a line that takes you down at a speed that rivals
a roller coaster in my opinion. There were three small courses that we got to
go down on. After the Ziplining, our instructor arranged for me to ride on a
snow mobile down to the lodge. This was very professional of them as it was a
good hike to the lodge and would have been very hard for me as the mountain was
super icy for me.
Culinary Experience
Our first group
dinner was at La Bodega. I really enjoyed the restaurant because it gave us a
variety of different foods for us to nibble on. I would have like to order a main
courses instead of sharing appetizers because while some people eat fast, I like
to take more time when eating. My favorite food was the chicken wings. In fact,
they were so good that I wish they served more. For instance, when they served
the chicken wings, they went really fast because everyone likes them. In
contrast, there were less people interested in the salad. In other words, it
felt like we had too much. Aside from the food, the servers were really good as
we got our drinks in a timely matter. Another highlight from La Bodega was when
we were walking towards the restaurant, Kalvin and I walked into Krzysztof
Orman. Krzysztof was another Sport Event Management student that Kalvin and I
got to know really well last year. Krzysztof was invited to dinner with us and
it was great to catch up with him, as I hadn’t seen him in a very long time. He
is now working in Vancouver in the industry, so that was very encouraging for
me.
Personal
Reflection
I thought the value of the trip was
exceptional. Because we walked to the majority of our events, we were able to
feel comfortable with the city and familiarize ourselves with the major
streets. I thought we had a very good mix of professional meetings, fun
activities and free time. Fly Over Canada was a really good thing to experience
because it reminded us how fortunate we are to live in such an amazing country. Most importantly, the field trip was a good chance
to see what jobs that are open to us after we finish our degree or diploma. Previously,
I was not aware of the large assortment of jobs available in the Tourism field
and how much effort goes on behind the scenes.
Also, I found this a very good
bonding experience with my classmates. Most of us are quite busy during the
semester as we try to balance our school life and our work life. It is often very
hard to get together outside of school to hangout and get to know one another.
Therefore, it was really nice to hangout with classmates that I usually
wouldn’t get a chance to if we were at school in Kamloops.
For future trips, I would suggest
looking into going to Seattle or Whistler. I would recommend Seattle because
it’s a different culture and we would be able to do a lot of similar things on
a bigger scale. For instance, it would be very interesting if we got to tour an
NFL stadium because Vancouver will never be in a position to have its own NFL
team. Unfortunately, this might be a tough trip to pull off if there are a
number of international students in the class. I would also suggest Whistler
because I think it would be cool to see what tourism looks like on a smaller
scale. If the field trip remains in Vancouver, I would want the class to take
in a Whitecaps game. A Whitecaps game is the best value for your money for a
sports event in Vancouver. I would be interested to know what types of
challenges the Whitecaps marketing staff face while involved in a sport where
the best players in the world are playing in other continents.
I appreciated staying at the Four
Seasons Hotel. It was good to see the
high standards that are set by the Four Seasons as it helps to prepare us for
what it will take when we get a job in the industry. The collection of experiences has helped me
to better understand the scope of the Tourism industry and where I feel I do
and don’t belong.
