It all started in 2004 when the founder bought vacation property at Fernie Alpine Resort. He considered putting it into a rental pool, but, for better or worse, he decided to market it independently.
Business was slow. It was hard to get visibility. Where to advertise? Can he afford it?
A new web site. Business better, but still slow. Need more visibility. There are tourism portals, but they either don't concentrate on the local area, or they're expensive to advertise on, and hence have sparse content and don't draw enough visitors.
So, where do people look if they're planning a trip to Fernie?
Craig's Unofficial Fernie Alpine Resort Page! Craig has done an excellent job with his reports and his free listings. Business increases dramatically from the free advertising offered by Craig.
With all kudos to Craig, what if his idea was taken one step further and really focused on the needs of Fernie businesses?
With a background in e-commerce, thoughts of destination marketing and online booking soon overcame the founder, and he began to research commercial travel and hotel software. But as he soon found, nobody with decent software wants to sell to a startup with no clients - they want to deal with the big guys.
Ok, so what if the ski hill or another large organization began to offer the services he wanted? Well, they'd probably look after their own business interests first, the other large accommodators a close second, and then see how to make money from the independent operator. Shady dealings at Whistler confirm that this happens.
There has to be a better way! Doesn't anybody else see this? Couldn't you attract more people to Fernie if each business wasn't struggling on their own to be seen? And what about online booking? Surely with the rise of e-commerce, Fernie is missing out on a whole segment of people who prefer to book travel online?
So why is Fernie so slow on the uptake of e-commerce and destination marketing? It must be a sign to do something about it!
Little does he know, Fernie, (or at least an elite group of business leaders), was starting to do something about it. A consortium of the City, RCR, and the large accommodators was beginning to follow the path of Whistler and had formed the Fernie DMO (Destination Marketing Organization).
Unaware of the DMO, the founder made the decision to develop the software himself using popular open source technologies as a base. Six months of evenings and weekends, and then after convincing his employer to a allow a six month sabbatical, full-time development commences. Another software developer is hired, and the result is what you see now.
Flip forward to the next section to see what this can mean to you!