‘Slow travel’ trend to be found about the Rocky Mountaineer – with options for higher adventure

Slow travel, a new travel trend, means saying "bye bye BlackBerry” and "hello” to glacier-fed lakes, lush ranchlands and the breathtaking Canadian Rockies. Travellers looking for a trip that makes them slow down, but still offers a little adventure, are finding it on the railways of Western Canada with Rocky Mountaineer Vacations.

Coined after the slow food movement, slow travel (www.slowtrav.com) is defined as an "easier, simpler and slower way of travel” and includes rail and cruise travel. RMV reservation agents and train staff are seeing an increase in guests looking for a vacation where the journey is the destination, with a little off-the-beaten path excitement thrown into the mix.

"People want to slow down and have a relaxing vacation, but they still want an experience. Our guests see that train travel offers a way to do both,” says Tertius Serfontein, RMV’s director of reservations. "Guests want scenery that will inspire them. They want to be off the beaten track, where only a train can take them, and they want a chance to get off and explore for themselves.”

According to the U.S. Tour Operators Association, slow travel remains popular: however, the quest for adventure is on the rise, and is a growing trend in the leisure travel industry. Rocky Mountaineer Vacations has a variety of packages that allow travellers to enjoy the spectacular scenery à la window seat, and to pair it with a wilderness adventure. The key is that the rail packages can be customized, allowing travellers the freedom to choose their own level of adventure – slow or fast!

Rocky Mountaineer Vacations’ new Rail and Wilderness Adventures combine luxury comfort and adventure in the great Canadian wilderness. Options include the eight-day Rockies, Whales and Bears tour with its magnificent Pacific Coast scenery and chance to visit a natural hot spring and search for black bears and whales. The Gold Rush, Rails and Rockies package is a 14-day Canadian outback experience in British Columbia's Cariboo Region that includes five days of action added into the middle of a two-day journey on the Rocky Mountaineer Fraser Discovery Route. In addition to a tour of Banff, Jasper and the Icefields of the Canadian Rockies, a ranch stay offers adventure options such as gold rush, aboriginal cultural and wildlife tours, and even a cattle drive.   

For additional information or to book a Rocky Mountaineer vacation package, contact your local travel professional or Rocky Mountaineer Vacations directly at (800) 665-7245 or visit: www.rockymountaineer.com

Rocky Mountaineer Vacations looks to grow BC champion skier

Rocky Mountaineer Vacations (RMV) is offering a helping hand to a local athlete by investing $15,000 over a three-year period supporting a program developed by 2010 Legacies Now called Growing Champions. Since one of RMV’s routes travels through the Cariboo Chilcotin region, the company has decided to support an athlete from the region: downhill skier Christopher Campbell from 150 Mile House.

Selected for the BC Junior Development team this year, Christopher Campbell has been racing since the age of six. This past season, he won the downhill at the Mars Cup at Apex Alpine, and placed second and first respectively on the two days of giant slalom racing at the Pontiac Cup at Sun Peaks. Outside of skiing, Christopher has an unusual hobby: he likes to ride a unicycle. “I juggle pins and balls while riding,” he says. “I also enjoy playing computer games and deep sea fishing. However, my major interests involve sports such as mountain biking, water skiing, dirt biking and soccer.” An active community member, Christopher participated in his local 4-H Club for two years. As a role model and mentor at his ski club, he helps his coach by setting the course for training and leading warm-up exercises for the younger racers. “At zone races, I also help the younger racers tune their skis,” he says.

Growing Champions is a financial assistance program that connects BC businesses and individuals with local high-performance athletes in their journey to the top of the podium. These are athletes that compete at national and international levels, but have not yet qualified for Canada’s national teams and have limited access to funding. Each Growing Champion athlete has been identified their sport as the next generation of high performance athletes that deserve extra support.

For Campbell, the Growing Champions funding will help pay for the five pre-season training camps he needs to attend this year. With too few members in his local club to cover coaching fees, Campbell will have to train at Sun Peaks. The cost of room and board and training away from home will increase his expenses significantly and a Contributor’s assistance will make all the difference.

Thanks a million: Rocky Mountaineer Vacations celebrates one million guests

Rocky Mountaineer Vacations has a message for past and future guests from around the world: thanks a million. This spring, one million guests will have experienced the vast beauty of Western Canada while onboard the world-acclaimed two-day all-daylight Rocky Mountaineer train.

“Welcoming our one millionth guest is a spectacular milestone for us,” says James Terry, executive VP & COO of Rocky Mountaineer Vacations. “It means our company’s efforts to provide a unique, quality travel experience are being recognized and enjoyed by many people from around the world.”

To celebrate this milestone, guests who booked packages by January 2008 were entered into the One Millionth Guest draw to win back the value of their trip. Ten winners from around North America were selected at random. “For ten lucky winners, their vacation is on us,” says Terry.

In all, RMV gave away $40,000 of spectacular vacation travel.

Green Team highlights

Rocky Mountaineer Vacation’s Green Team is the company-wide group that spearheads the company’s many green efforts. The following are some of the initiatives and projects underway via the RMV Green Team. The Office Paper Reduction Project has been launched and posters are up. Poster outlines top 10 ways to reduce Consumption. Some departments have already identified areas where they have reduced paper consumption. The goal is 20% reduction of paper consumption by the end of 2008 fiscal year. Department leaders will be recruited to help monitor paper usage and to help keep the staff motivated.

Composting on the Whistler Mountaineer and Fraser Discovery Route -- Carney’s in Whistler will collect composting from these two routes to deposit in a new composting facility in the Whistler area. Both trains will be installed with special buckets for collection. A possible composting site in Quesnel is being investigated.

The company-wide Litterless Lunch Day took place February 22. The intent was to explore the best ways to make a sustainable lunch with less paper waste by re-using items and buying bulk foods that require less packaging. Staff were invited to pack a waste-free lunch and gather to share creative lunch packing ideas. Participants entered a prize draw and met a Tupperware representative who demonstrated sample products. Twenty per cent of sales went directly to Loving Spoonful, RMV’s our flagship charity. A Kamloops Litterless Lunch took place March 5.

The Kamloops cleanup for Adopt-A-Road took place on April 2. Staff are also planning company participation in the Keep Vancouver Spectacular program.

The Employee Service Recognition tree-planting program began on April 1. On the anniversary date of each year of employee service, Armstrong Group will plant a tree in that employee’s name as part of a new partnership with Tree Canada. This lets the company recognize the important contributions of its employees, while making a continued effort to build awareness and fulfill our corporate commitment to environmental sustainability. Tree Canada, a non-profit organization based in Ottawa, will plant the trees in areas of BC that are affected by the mountain pine beetle. The trees will be planted close to the rail lines in the Williams Lake area along the Fraser Discovery Route. We can aspire to create our very own Armstrong Forest. This year alone, we could be planting over 600 trees!

Guest Services is continuing to seek ways to reduce the number of meal trays being used on all routes.

Green Team member profile – Glenn Broad

Glenn Broad is one of the Green Team’s original members, and he’s witnessed a turnaround in corporate and individual awareness of environmental initiatives in the past two seasons. Broad, who is Manager of Destination Guest Services in Vancouver, says the Green Team approach to greener policies helps ensure good communication – from the team down to company departments and individuals, and from those departments and individuals up to the team, which can then disseminate policy changes company-wide.

“We’ve done an incredible amount of things in a very short time, but there’s a lot more we can do, and the Green Team is a good way of pushing new projects and policies forward,” says Broad. “Our company is trying to take a leadership role. It’s good corporate policy, because we’re traveling through environmentally sensitive natural areas, and those natural areas are what we’re selling to our guests. These are also the areas where we, the employees, live and work. But it’s more than that; sustainable practices are the right thing to do because they’re the right thing to do.”

Broad says tourism operators can generate large amounts of waste, but they’ve implemented extensive recycling projects to deal with the cans, bottles, cardboard and other recyclable materials that flow from each train trip and from the destination stations. “We’re now doing a good job of processing the waste stream, and even though there’s often a cost incurred to deal effectively with waste, the company has shown a willingness to do what it takes to make it work,” he says. “There’s much more that can be done, and we’re doing it. Small steps add up to big changes. There is lots people can do to participate.”

A project that is working well is the Green Team’s paper reduction program, and Broad says its success is an example of how the increasing awareness of green practices and company-wide commitment means everyone can be involved in green practices on some level.

Efforts to clean up the tracks around the stations and train yards are another project Broad is excited about. Some of the track areas are strewn with refuse, particularly the area of East Vancouver known as the Cut. He says there are opportunities for partnering with other railways and municipalities to clean those areas up. “It’s a work in progress, but I think we can make some good changes there, beginning to clean up sections of track and enhancing the views. We’re investigating possibilities in each of those locations.”

Salmon Heroes honoured by the Fraser Salmon & Watershed Program

The Fraser Salmon & Watersheds Program and Rocky Mountaineer Vacations have announced the winners of the inaugural Fraser Salmon Hero Awards. The awards honour people who have made a tangible contribution to the preservation, enhancement and improvement of the Fraser River watershed and its populations of Pacific salmon. The program addresses four areas, and a recipient for each program area directs a $1,000 contribution to the project or group of their choice.

Tina Donald of Simpcw First Nation in Barriere is the Salmon Hero in the area of Collaborative Governance. She has worked with Simpcw fisheries for 15 years. Under her guidance, the Simpcw communal fishing program in the North Thompson and Upper Fraser drainages has expanded into a sustainable selective harvest program in partnership with DFO and with other First Nation organizations. Her award will benefit the Raft River Interpretive School Program.

In the area of Education and Engagement, Victor Elderton of the North Vancouver Outdoor School in Brackendale is the Salmon Hero. A recognized centre of excellence that has operated for 30 years, the school is an international benchmark in environmental action education, providing life-changing hands-on experiences with salmon for everyone from elementary students of the Lower Mainland to national and international policy makers and the general public.

Chief Fred Sampson of the Siska Band in Lytton is honoured as Salmon Hero in the area of Fisheries Management. He has led the Siska towards innovation and partnerships that allow them to selectively harvest higher-value salmon products. By generating more revenue from less fish, the hope is that economic needs can be met while also rebuilding weak salmon runs. The youth program of the Siska Traditions Society will receive the award money.

Matt Foy of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Delta is the Salmon Hero in the area of Habitat & Water Restoration. He has combined his technical ability to pioneer and localize habitat improvements with a
talent for coalition-building to the benefit of hundreds of habitat restoration projects in the Fraser Basin. The Salmon River Enhancement Society is the beneficiary of this award.

The Fraser Salmon & Watersheds Program is jointly managed by Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) and the Fraser Basin Council (FBC). Rocky Mountaineer Vacations sponsored the awards. Nominations were sought from throughout the Fraser Basin via ThinkSalmon.com and other outreach. The Salmon Heroes being honoured were selected from among the nominees by advisory teams for the program.

“All these winners are to be congratulated for the leadership and vision they’ve demonstrated as they work to protect this precious natural resource and important symbol for BC and Canada’s West Coast,”
said Ian Robertson, executive director of corporate communications and public affairs for Armstrong Group, which owns RMV. “These people are Salmon Heroes, and heroes to the ecosystems of which salmon are a vital part. We are pleased to be able to provide them with recognition for their work.”

“It is an honour to recognize our 2008 heroes for their tireless efforts and dedication to restoring salmon in the Fraser Basin,” said Dr. Paul Kariya, PSF executive director. “The work these people do is invaluable and inspirational, and the groups which receive the award money are doing important work too. ”

“The leadership and positive impact of these honorees is a role model for the youth of British Columbia. We salute them for their efforts and commitment, and we encourage others to do the same. All of us need to work together to protect and enhance the Fraser Basin, truly one of most important natural systems in BC,” added David Marshall, FBC executive director.

Rocky Mountaineer Vacations is a co-host of the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference 2008 (ESTC 2008). Leaders in sustainable tourism from across North America and beyond will meet in Vancouver, BC, on October 27-29, 2008. Hosted by the British Columbia Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, the BC Sustainable Tourism Collective (of which RMV is a founding member) and the Council of Tourism Associations of British Columbia, the conference will provide opportunities to gain knowledge of the latest trends in ecotourism and sustainable tourism, learn practical skills, and participate in invaluable networking and knowledge sharing.

“We’re extremely excited about hosting this conference,” says Ian Robertson, RMV’s executive director of corporate communications and public affairs. “This gives BC tourism operators the opportunity to be on the leading edge of something that the tourism industry knows it needs to achieve – sustainability.”

The ESTC 2008 will be held at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, and will also include pre-conference trips to both Whistler and Victoria, B.C.’s capital city.

This is the third conference by the International Ecotourism Society (TIES) focusing on sustainability in travel and tourism in North America. Recognizing the importance of this movement for the region’s tourism industry as a whole, TIES is holding the ESTC yearly to expand the network of industry practitioners and experts and to encourage greater awareness and implementation of the principles of ecotourism and sustainability.

RMV helps with greening of Canada Media Marketplace

Canada Media Marketplace is an annual event that brings tourism operators together with US travel and tourism media. It’s an opportunity to make personal pitches about a company’s tourism experience as a story to travel journalists. This year, the event was held in Beverly Hills, California.

Large conferences like this one can consume many resources and generate significant amounts of waste. Rocky Mountaineer Vacations, as a founding member of the BC Sustainable Tourism Collective, helped to make this year’s Canada Media Marketplace a much greener event.

This year, for the first time, Canada Media Marketplace was committed to helping protect the environment by instituting a significant number of green practices for the meeting. The goals were to reduce waste and resource use by promoting recycling, energy efficiency, water conservation, air and water quality and environmentally responsible purchasing. Thanks to sponsorship from the B.C. Sustainable Tourism Collective, Canada Media Marketplace was able to secure the services of a meeting planning company with significant green expertise to consult with and guide organizers on reaching green goals.

The BC Sustainable Tourism Collective was founded on the vision that travel within BC can foster appreciation and stewardship for the natural environment, regions and communities. For this purpose, sustainable tourism is defined as travel that ensures destinations remain unspoiled for future generations through commitment to environmental, social and economic responsibility as it relates to a company, its people, guests, local communities and the environment.

Through its Community Spirit committee, Rocky Mountaineer Vacations continues to seek ways to support local charities and local families struggling to make ends meet. The latest addition to the list of community organizations it supports is the Salvation Army. For Vancouver and Calgary train arrivals, all unopened extra food from breakfast and lunch is donated to the Salvation Army. This includes fruits and vegetables, bread and sandwichses, snack food like potato chips and cookies, boxed Red Leaf meals, and beverages like milk and juice. An average drop-off to the Sally Ann is anywhere from one box to four or five boxes of meals, along with fruit and perishables, although on some occasions the donated food fills an entire cube van!

Rocky Mountaineer continues its support of The Loving Spoonful, a Vancouver-based organization that provides free meals & other nutritional support to people living with HIV/AIDS who experience nutritional risk for medical reasons. The last Friday of every month is Denim Day at Rocky Mountaiiner; on those days, a toonie is collected from all staff who wear jeans to work. Also popular is email bingo, where staff play bingo via email for a fee; half the money raised goes to the winning staff person,and half goes to The Loving Spoonful.

Rocky Mountaineer collects unclaimed lost & found clothing items from the trains and donates them to the Union Gospel Mission, an urban relief organization that helps the hungry and homeless in the Lower Mainland. The company also collects hats, scarves, mittens, coats and other clothing donations from staff for the Union Gospel Mission.