NEWS RELEASES - 2006 | 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2007 TELUS WORLD SKI AND SNOWBOARD FESTIVAL A RESOUNDING SUCCESS

Whistler’s flagship Festival enjoys banner year


WHISTLER, BC , 15 June 2007 –

Just because the last encore has been played, the Big Air ploughed flat, the scaffolding torn down, and the boards swapped for bikes, doesn’t mean the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival is actually over.
 
Instead, the team behind the flagship event have been hunkered down over facts and figures, to ensure the 2007 event is probed, analysed, deconstructed and reported on. And this year’s biopsy shows the patient is in stellar form.
 
Boasting a 97% enjoyment rating, 80% of Festival attendees said it was “likely” or “very likely” that they will return next year.
 
“It was the second largest non-Easter Festival on record, after 2002,” says Festival Managing Director Sue Eckersley, noting that only Festivals that coincide with Easter have seen stronger numbers than the 2007 and 2002 high-water marks, both of which enjoyed the positive impact of the Mountain Travel Symposium. “We saw a 17.6 % increase in hotel bookings for the festival period, over last year, making it the largest single year increase in recorded Festival history.”   
 
Every year, more than half of the media visits Whistler hosts occur during the concentrated 10 day Festival. So far this year, the media exposure tracked is valued in excess of $7 million. In addition, the buzz generated around the announcement of the Peak to Peak gondola during the Festival ensures that Whistler is internationally renowned as the epicentre of mountain culture, still at the forefront blazing trails into the heart of the alpine and freeride experience.
 
"Once again this year, the festival has exceeded expectations in driving room nights and building the Whistler brand, thanks in large part to outstanding leadership from Watermark," says Arlene Schieven, VP of Marketing for Tourism Whistler. "We had about 1,000 mountain travel professionals in the resort for Mountain Travel Symposium, and they were absolutely blown away by the calibre and diversity of events, as well as the quality of the ski experience. When most other resorts are shutting down for the season, these influential people who buy and sell mountain travel experienced Whistler powder and a hopping resort in April."
 
Highlights of the 10 days and nights included enormous crowds rocking out to the biggest line-up of talent ever at Whistler’s free outdoor concert series, sold-out afterdark events providing the most entertaining insights into the core of the mountain scene, and an all-out collection of some of the most epic parties and après-events Whistler has experienced.


Says Intrawests COO, Dave Brownlie, “TWSSF has positioned itself as the must-attend spring event for world famous athletes, the ski and snowboard industry, mainstream media as well as for visitors around the world, and the 2007 Festival did not disappoint. It was a mind-blowing spectacle that captured the spirit of what makes Whistler such an amazing place.”


As the finale to the second snowiest season on record that saw over 46 feet of snow, it was only fitting to wrap it up with fresh snowfall, two Big Airs, and solid eye-candy from the fashion shows to the best pros throwing down in the Stompede, Rail Session, Superpipe and Big Airs.
 

Says Festival Managing Director, Sue Eckersley, “The feedback across the board, from athletes, the filmmakers and photographers, to audience members who came out in droves to support brand new events like the Chairlift Revue as well as the Festival’s signature programs, was overwhelmingly positive. The Festival creates a fantastic ripple effect for the entire resort, because of that buzz from the industry leaders. And we couldn’t make that kind of impact without the support of the entire community. From the accommodation sector, to the business community, to the Conference Centre staff, to the RMOW Village Crew and By Law team, the support has been huge. The support from Whistler Blackcomb, Tourism Whistler, whistler.com and Intrawest Marketing deserves recognition.”


To continue to strengthen that community network, the Festival organizers plan to host open meetings in early July to provide a feedback loop for community members, and to give the Festival organizers a chance to provide insight into the Festival’s ambition to continue to make Whistler the place to be in April.


The 2008 TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival will take place April 11-20.


The TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival is produced by Watermark Communications, a Whistler sports & entertainment marketing company, and presented in partnership with Tourism Whistler and Whistler Blackcomb. Founded by W1’s Doug Perry twelve years ago, and now the largest annual winter sports and music festival in North America, the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival is a high-octane 10 day and night showcase of the best of snowsports, music, arts and mountain life. Featuring major professional ski and snowboarding competitions, the largest free outdoor concert series in Canada, the legendary Pro Photographer and Filmmaker Showdowns, and many more unique art and cultural showcases, the Festival is the ultimate wrap party. For information on the 2007 TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival , this year from April 13-22, visit whistler2007.com < http://www.whistler2006.com/ >
 

-30-

▫ 10 days and nights of non-stop action - sports, arts and music.
▫ Over 50 free concerts, putting together more than a hundred hours of mind-blowing live music in all weather by Sam Roberts, K’naan, Stephen Marley and Jr Gong, Toots and the Maytals, Buck 65, Finger 11, Alison Crowe, Animal Nation
▫ Over 400 members of the international media in attendance, representing more than 15 different countries (New Zealand, Australia, US, Canada, UK, Sweden, Bosnia, Germany, France, Switzerland, Latin America, Korea, Japan, Finland, Norway)
▫ 45 accredited film and TV crews capturing the energy and the action
▫ More than 200 athletes throwing down, tweaking out, spinning up at 10 days of competitions
▫ Over $5000 donated to local charities WAG, Zero Ceiling and AWARE from event proceeds
▫ 78 filmmaking teams pre-registered, with 64 checking in for a 72 hour creative frenzy, yielding 55 films, 8 stellar finalists, and 1 winner of $15,000 in prizes, Luke and Shawn Divers, with “The Legend of Jacque les Nards”.
▫ Almost 20,000 hits on the Babe Reel highlights, 50,000 of Stephen Marley’s Buffalo Soldier and 16,000 of the Filmmaker Showdown highlights on www.yahoo.ca < http://www.yahoo.ca/ > (key word: TWSSF) in 3 weeks of uploading.
▫ Over 200 videos online of Festival highlights sprouting forth since April 13 2007
▫ More than 30 pieces of underwear (making up approximately 1 metre of fabric) modeled in 2 high-energy, high-exposure fashion shows
▫ 187 hours spent by James Lemon in a Wave to win the Pontiac Ride the Wave contest
▫ 50,000 bunny hops performed by trials rider Ryan Leech during the free outdoor displays, and his guest appearance at the Schick Xtreme 3 Fashion Exposed, with one flat tire…on the Norco 1979 artefact…
▫ 145 dogs at the Dog Parade
▫ 10 nights of sold-out shows for Words and Stories, the Chairlift Revue, the Pro Photographer Showdown, Yahoo! 72 Hour Filmmaker Showdown, Schick Xtreme 3 Fashion Exposed, and DJ Experience
▫ 3,065,461 hits on www.whistler2007.com < http://www.whistler2007.com/ >  during the Festival
▫ 5,837,047 hits on www.whistler2007.com < http://www.whistler2007.com/ >  in April 2007
▫ An unprecedented amount of zap-straps used to hold up banners and scrim.

Contact:
Lisa Richardson
Communications Manager
Tel: 604 938 3399 x21
Email: lrichardson@watermarkinc.ca
Watermark Communications Inc
10-1006 Lynham Road
Whistler, BC V0N 1B1
www.whistler2007.com
Fax: 604 938 3398