Complete: Developers are walking away from older buildings in the downtown HUB because the cost of bringing them up to code is too prohibitive, according to the city’s Rosser Ward councillor.

Coun. Corey Roberts said establishing a building code equivalency program is "very, very crucial" for revitalizing downtown.

"Building code equivalencies are very important to make projects feasible when you’re looking at a 100-year-old building," Roberts said.

In older buildings, for example, width and height of stairwells are much different than the current building codes.

"You might be a couple inches out on head room on a stair case, and that could mean that the project isn’t going to move forward," Roberts said. "If you’ve got to rip stairs out and adjust floor spaces to accommodate a current building code, it just doesn’t make sense in a building that age, and developers will walk away and go into other areas of the city that’s more feasible to do renovations in, or build new for that matter."

Unfortunately, the city’s building equivalency standards project, which was laid out in the Roadmap for Growth strategic plan in 2011 is considered a "red" item, which means it will not be completed within the Roadmap’s timeline of 2014.

"My wish was that, come the building season this year, that we would have had some marked headway in the program so that we could get things moving along," Roberts said. "The building season is short enough, especially trying to deal with antiquated building codes that are going to hold it up even longer."

City manager Scott Hildebrand gave city council an update on the Roadmap for Growth earlier this week. Forty-six out of 62 projects are either already complete or on pace to be completed, which represents approximately 75 per cent. There are nine "pillars" of growth, including infrastructure, affordable housing, downtown HUB and economic development, to name a few.

Nine projects are considered "yellow" which are slightly behind the timeline, while seven projects are in the "red" category.

As pre-building code buildings are difficult to re-fit to residential and commercial standards, Hildebrand said the city was planning to work to "ensure the redevelopment of period buildings, rather than demolish."

The original plan was to set up a review committee in 2012, and connect with the City of Winnipeg.

"That’s who we were kind of trying to model after, they’ve done a lot of the pre-work for us," Hildebrand said.

They were also planning on reviewing the legislative requirements and then draft a recommendation.

"It was more of a data-gathering exercise to find out what we could and couldn’t do, because there might be some bylaws or things within our planning regulations that we need to alter and/or change, so really it was just starting that process," Hildebrand said.

The project will be more of a team effort, as fire inspection staff, building inspectors and the planning department need to work together.

"We just haven’t been able to pull that together, and haven’t been able to connect as we’d hoped with the City of Winnipeg," Hildebrand said.

Despite the project being considered "red," Hildebrand said it’s definitely still on their radar.

"Right now it’s just been prioritized kind of down the list," he said. "We need to find a way to bring it back up."

Hildebrand said building code equivalency standards are an "important step" to downtown development.

"I know that we’re doing well with or without it," he said. "I think we’ll find ways to make it work but it would just … help developers have a bit more flexibility when developing that kind of space. It’s something that we’ve never done before that we need to make sure we do it right the first time."

Shaun Cameron, chair of Renaissance Brandon agreed that equivalency standards are an important piece of the puzzle, when revitalizing a downtown.

"I hope that there is still a commitment there," he said. "It’s definitely something that we’re going to commit to as a board to keep working towards. I think there’s challenges wherever people are looking to develop, it’s just about putting the right steps in place to make it an appealing option for them to be downtown."

http://www.brandonsun.com/breaking-news/crucial-project-wont-be-finished-by-14-186151382.html

The upcoming closure of the Imax theatre in downtown Winnipeg has some suggesting that a perception of the city core as being unsafe may be a factor.

The Forks North Portage Partnership, which owns the 25-year-old cinema on the third floor of the Portage Place Shopping Centre, says it will shut down the venue on March 31.

Officials say the theatre, which has been showing films on the extra-large Imax screen since 1987, has been losing money and viewers in recent years.

The closure of the Imax theatre will mean Portage Place will lose one of its largest tenants.

On the streets outside the mall on Tuesday, some Winnipeggers told CBC News they avoid downtown — including the area around Portage Place — at night because they don't feel safe there.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/01/08/mb-downtown-winnipeg-safety-imax-theatre-closure.html

Complete: OTTAWA - Statistics Canada says tourism spending rose 1.0 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, following a 0.1 per cent increase in the previous quarter.

The agency says higher tourism spending by Canadians at home more than offset a decline in spending by international visitors.

It says tourism spending in Canada has risen every quarter since the second quarter of 2009. Spending rose 11.6 per cent over this period.

Tourist spending by Canadians at home rose 1.6 per cent in the third quarter, following a 0.4 per cent increase in the previous quarter. Spending by international visitors fell 1.5 per cent in the third quarter following a 1.3 per cent decline in the second quarter.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/tourism-spending-up-in-q3-continuing-three-year-rise-statscan-186156742.html

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Fewer business travellers are likely to hit the road this year as the travel industry is challenged by corporate America's persistent economic fears.

Business travellers are expected to take 431.8 million trips in 2013, the Global Business Travel Association said Tuesday. The industry trade group had forecast 435 million trips back in July.

The latest estimate would mean a 1.1 per cent decline from the 436.5 million trips taken in 2012. Fewer people travelling, however, doesn't mean lower costs. Airfare, hotel rooms, meals and car rentals have helped to push up the overall price of business travel.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/companies-will-be-sending-fewer-employees-on-the-road-in-2013-those-travelling-will-spend-more-186059112.html

Over the past few decades Iceland has turned into one of the world's premier tourist locations, despite its relatively expensive price, remote location, and the fact that the country's trademark cuisine is fermented shark.

Greenland, the bigger yet less populated country to Iceland's west, has no doubt been looking on with jealousy. Greenland is not thought of as a tourist destination by most, and instead finds its way into the wider public consciousness largely as a place where evidence of global warming can be found.

As such its not too much of a surprise to find that 2013 is seeing a big push from Visit Greenland, the official tourism organization for the country. Skift News points to a series of videos Visit Greenland has produced showing off the country's natural beauty and the remote nature of the life there. Here are the first three videos, another three are due to be released soon:

http://www.businessinsider.com/visit-greenland-releases-tourism-videos-2013-1

SAVANNAH, Ga. - A proposal to put double-decker tour buses on the streets of Savannah's historic district has residents rallying to bring the plans to a screeching halt, with critics fearing the buses would hit ancient oak limbs and give sightseers a peeping Tom's view into Victorian homes.

Two Boston businessmen are lobbying Savannah City Hall to end a 17-year prohibition on double-decker buses in the coastal city's downtown historic district, which draws 12 million visitors a year. Savannah's Downtown Neighborhood Association is urging officials to deny the request.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/too-many-tourists-savannah-ga-debates-whether-to-make-room-for-double-decker-buses-186072882.html

Switzerland’s natural beauty is no longer enough to draw tourists. Each year, the government sets aside millions to promote and reward innovation in tourism. One new project teaches people in mountain resorts how to be nice.

The regional tourist office in the Upper Engadine valley has developed a programme to “coach” warmth and affability in response to a perceived “lack of friendliness” in its mountain resorts, which includes St Moritz.
 
“In the beginning we had to be very proactive, going to companies or hotels and saying, ‘Can we do this with your employees?’” says Eva Reinecke, manager of Projekt Herzlichkeit (Project Friendliness). “Now the companies contact us.” By the end of December 2012, around 1,050 people were due to have taken part in the coaching.
 
It’s an awareness-raising effort. “At first attendees say: ‘We are friendly! What do you want to teach us?’” says Fadri Cazin, a project coach. “And then at the end of the seminar you hear, ‘Oh no, okay, there are a few things we could change.”

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Swiss_invest_in_innovation_to_boost_tourism_.html?cid=34575122

Complete: VANCOUVER -- The U.S. Department of Transportation has ordered a Coquitlam, B.C., tour bus company involved in a fatal crash to get off American roads because of its "continuing and flagrant" safety failures and violations.

The order for Mi Joo Tour and Travel Ltd. to cease operations was issued Tuesday as the transport agency revealed the driver of the bus had been on the road "well beyond" the 70-hour maximum limit.

The fully packed vehicle careened off an Oregon highway, plunging down a snowy embankment, killing nine people just before the new year.

A 55-year-old man from Maple Ridge, B.C., Seokmin Moon, was the only Canadian killed, while most of the other 38 victims were from Washington state and Korea.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/in-brief-186128542.html

(Excerpts from an article published originally in the WFP, Jan.  '73)

A word of warning to the 1.5 million citizens of Minneapolis-St Paul — Larry is coming to get you. Larry, for the uninitiated, is the honorable Laurent Desjardins, Manitoba's minister of tourism. Mr. Desjardins and his department colleagues are unhappy because Manitoba is attracting only a small number of tourists from the prosperous Minneapolis-St. Paul region. So they have decided to bombard twin-cities residents with a saturation tourist advertising campaign in the near future. Strangely, Manitoba officials had been laboring for some time under the mistaken impression that thousands of Minneapolis-St. Paul families were flocking here on a regular basis. However, tourism department research has recently proved that this is not the case. "We found that we are only tapping three or four per cent of the potential market," Wilt Organ, director of the province's tourist branch, said in a recent interview. "Consequently, we will hit the twin-cities with a saturation campaign this year because we want to get those people moving up here. Generally, they have high income levels, making them most desirable tourists…       …While many twin-cities citizens have been neglecting Manitoba, this is far from being the general pattern. Tourism is currently reaching record proportions in Manitoba, with an estimated 3.5 million people having visited here in 1972. During the first 10 months of the year, Manitoba experienced a 25 per cent increase in tourism while Canada as a whole was recording a five per cent decrease. By the time final 1972 figures are in, visitors will have spent more than $200 million in the province, as compared to $192 million in 1971. "1 think we still have to reach a peak as far as tourism is concerned," says Mr. Desjardins. "The arrival of the convention centre will open up new fields that have never been tapped before. Furthermore, our department is setting up a Manitoba package tours program that will encourage visitors to stay a few days longer than they sometimes did in the past." Discussing the convention centre, Mr. Desjardins says the new facility will spark both increased tourism and more development in downtown Winnipeg. "While the department of tourism is not directly involved in the centre, we intend to work closely with the centre operators . . . And we are considering the idea of having a department office or display in the lobby of the convention centre." Mr. Organ, for his part, is always eager to cite the economic benefits that the tourist industry brings to Manitoba. Based on the latest, figures, tourism now ranks as Manitoba's fifth largest industry, employing almost 11,000 people. "The key thing about tourism is that it creates a lot of employment,' he says. "For example, about 800 new jobs were added when the Northstar and Winnipeg Inns opened in Winnipeg." To reap these benefits, Mr. Desjardin's department annually spends about $450,000 a year on tourist promotion and advertising. This finances print and radio advertising, schedules participation in U.S. travel shows, shopping mall promotions and writers' tours of Manitoba. "While most of this promotion takes place in the United States, we have also embarked on a campaign to persuade Manitobans to see more of their own province," says Mr. Desjardins. "We have a unique situation here where 500,000 people - more than half of the province's population live in Winnipeg . . . And we think they should get out to discover the rest of the province."