Northwest Living | Bellingham Real Estate Market

Just two years from today will be the opening of the 2008 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. The entire Northwest will have the spotlight of the world focused on the area and the events just north of the border. Tickets will actually go on sale starting in October 2008.

This week Canadians will kick off the two-year countdown. Opening ceremonies will start Feb. 12, 2010. That still seems like a long way off for people who want to attend, but for organizers this is a crucial time.

Loni Rahm, president and CEO of Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism, has been in regular contact with her British Columbia counterparts and described this stage as controlled chaos.

“It sounds like things are moving at a good pace, but they are very busy right now,” Rahm said.

Rahm’s agency is also getting busy. Along with a training company called Evergreen Team Concepts, they’ve organized a 2010 Service Initiative, a series of seminars to help local business owners prepare for the thousands of travelers expected to come through Whatcom County.

The Service Initiative will have an open house on Feb. 21, followed by its first seminar, called “Developing a Plan for Success,” starting March 26. Other seminars related to the Olympics will be held throughout the year.

Rahm said Whatcom County is already getting inquiries related to the 2010 Olympics. And the region is being visited by people who put together documentaries.

“They want winter footage now for documentaries they want to release in 2009,” Rahm said. “It looks like they are able to get some great footage with all the snow we’ve been getting in the mountains.”

Rahm also noted that as Vancouver, B.C., hotels start filling up for 2010, Whatcom County innkeepers need to start getting ready.

“Not only are local hotels starting to get inquiries from people who want to attend, but also from a variety of media outlets who are putting together stories that have hotel rates,” Rahm said. “Having a rate structure in place now is important, because publications from all over the world are already looking for that information.”

As Rahm sees it, this area is preparing to accommodate two very distinct groups in the next 24 months: One is the media, which will be hunting for stories about the Pacific Northwest. The other is the people attending the games.

“The first group is actually a much bigger market; what they end up reporting will go out all over the world,” Rahm said.

She said the best thing for businesses to start doing is making sure employees are familiar with the local resources and what makes this area special.

“Since we live here, it’s easy to forget about all the things that make this area special, and where people can find out more information.” Rahm said.

NORTHERN NEIGHBORS

The Canadian economy continues to show surprising strength even while the U.S. may be headed into a recession. Early last week the Canadian dollar dropped to about 98 cents compared to the U.S., as investors speculated that the U.S. economy would start dragging Canada down. On Friday the Canadian dollar jumped back up to parity after a report showed better than expected job growth. It’s been interesting watching their economy.

The theory used to be that when the U.S. economy sneezed, the rest of the world caught the cold. Several economists have speculated that the global economy has reached a point that a slowdown in the U.S. may not mean a recession elsewhere.

With it’s abundance of natural resources, including oil and timber, Canada is a good example to test that theory. Via BellinghamHerald

Jerry Campbell - Muljat Group Realtors - Bellingham Real Estate