Northwest Living | Bellingham Real Estate Market

 With the Vancouver Winter Olympics set to begin in Febuary 2010, Whatcom County could be at the forefront in assisting our Canadian neighbors the most in preparation for the Games. Whatcom County will be able to provide accommodations with our local motels, bed and breakfast locations, and even private citizens renting homes, rooms and mother-in-law suites to an expected shortage of places to stay while attending the games.

Ray LeBlond of Tourism B.C., recently noted that with all the visitors expected, there will be a need for 500,000 of what he called room nights for the Games. There are even reservations booked already at Vancouver, BC area motels two years in advance. “We do believe that people are going to be looking for reasonable accommodations elsewhere,” he said of Game attendees. “There’s Calgary, about an hour flight away, Victoria and you guys. We do believe the opportunity is there for our neighbors to the south to assist the games with housing.”

I’ve even noticed on the Northwest Living blog here that people are doing searches for “homes for rent during Vancouver 2010 Olympics” and many other combinations of similar searches.  So as the Winter Games gets closer, I’m quite certain many of those travelers will end up in Whatcom County. In fact, I’m betting there won’t be a room available for that period, in all of Whatcom County, months before the games begin.

I would actually expect that travelers to the Winter Olympics will be looking for accommodations in many of the surrounding counties of Whatcom, Skagit, Island, San Juan, Snohomish and even King County. The border crossings are within twenty to thirty minutes from most places in Whatcom County and within an hour of Skagit County. I think that even if someone were to stay at locations in the other counties and had to drive an hour or two…it would be worth it to see a big event like the Winter Olympics.

Whatcom County is the closest U.S. destination to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and is expected to help out by providing available rooms to the traveling public.  While in the area, visitors to the games and Whatcom County will be able to enjoy this beautiful place we call home.  After all, It’s the experience that matters to many attendees, not just the Olympic sporting events.

LeBlond noted that the 1986 Worlds Fair Exposition, and the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta were both catalysts to dramatic growth in tourism in Canada, noting that in both events, tourism rose sharply and never did settle back to the old growth trends.

With over three billion television viewers world wide tuning into the Winter Olympics our area will once again be put on the spot light and center stage.  I really believe that this whole area will see a boom time sometime between 2012 and 2015 following the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.  With real estate down here in the states going through tough times, right now or fairly soon would be the perfect time to look at buying Whatcom County real estate.  Time will tell, but one thing’s for sure…this buyers market won’t last for ever and we’ll soon be back to normal.

I’m going to post an article in a couple weeks about the bed and breakfast accommodations we have available in Whatcom County and some of the surrounding counties.  I will also later post about the rest of the available accommodations that are possible up here in the Northwest area of Washington state.  I’m hoping this might help travelers that are making plans for the up coming Olympics and for tourism in general to our area.

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group - Bellingham, WA 98225 - Bellingham Real Estate