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Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre wants to make Sidney a family-friendly place to visit

Marine wildlife discovery centre in Sidney hopes for cash to embark on marketing plan to boost Sidney's image
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Moon jellyfish at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre.

 

The Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre will seek a cash infusion from the Town of Sidney to implement a four-pronged focus.

The Peninsula aquarium that ranks third in Island attractions behind Butchart Gardens and the Royal B.C. Museum celebrated its two year anniversary last June and is building a plan for growth.

"We see the centre as needing to take a leadership role in promoting Sidney," said executive director Angus Matthews. "We are expected to be an economic generator in the community."

The marine centre drew 287,000 visitors through its doors and into the downtown core over the past 30 months. Matthews said 53 per cent of visitors came from Vancouver Island and half of the other 47 per cent came with people who live in the area.

"The message we've taken is, tourists aren't strangers they're friends and family of locals."

Along with the just over $42,000 grant from the town each year – the same as the previous marine ecology centre – they'll seek $37,500 to add to a $60,000 budget from SODC to start marketing Sidney as the gateway to the Salish Sea.

"We need to do more to promote Sidney as a family destination," Matthews said.

Their approach includes four initiatives: branding; destination marketing both regionally, nationally and internationally; added product and focus on community quality of life issues.

A community branding process started last year and in the next two months, those working on branding, including Matthews, will finish up discussions with businesses on the Peninsula and plan to ask the public for input.

"We really need to invite all sectors," Matthews said. "We see Sidney as the capital of the Peninsula."

Input from residents and businesses, and those across the entire Peninsula, need to be considered, he said.

"Branding isn't just about slogans and logos," he said. "It's about values you represent. You can't promise stuff you can't deliver."

Destination marketing would also be diverse.

"We see the first market as the 360,000 people who live in the [Capital region],” Matthews said. A larger goal is to see the Salish Sea have name recognition like Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

"Gulf Islands National Park is one of the great secrets of the West Coast," he said.

Sidney would be the gateway.

"We think we can claim that identity," Matthews said.

SODC is already working at adding new product to its lineup, expanding programming outside the building at the base of Beacon Avenue to span the Gulf Islands. He says the Peninsula is also interested in seeing the long-contemplated trolley become a reality. It would be a shuttle connecting the major destinations including the aquarium, Town of Sidney, Butchart Gardens, Brentwood Bay and both local Washington State and B.C. ferry terminals.

The fourth need to focus on community is one of creating inclusivity. SODC has a group of 160 volunteers that begins at age 11 and a staff that includes First Nations members. The aquarium has taken "inclusive steps" including having a small group of elders that advises the centre as it teaches visitors about the Salish Sea. It's a good starting place for building on a relationship that exists with First Nations in the area, Matthews said.

"It's four unusual roles for an aquarium to take on," Matthews said. "We feel we have a duty to contribute to community building."

The Town of Sidney's finance committee will discuss the $37,500 funding request in advance of the budget in February.

"The centre is prepared to allocate $60,000 to this initiative," Matthews said. "If there isn't money behind good ideas, they're just good ideas."

reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com

 

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Did you know?

The Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre has 17,000 seasonal pass holders.

The granddaughter of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, Celine Cousteau joined First Nations elders and other local dignitaries to officially open the ocean discovery centre in June 2009.

From giant octopus to microscopic plankton, the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre showcases the marine life of the Salish Sea. Seventeen aquarium habitats filled with 87 tons of seawater are home to thousands of fish, invertebrates and marine plants.

Four years and $8 million in the making, the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre is named for the largest donation, $1.5 million from Shaw Communications.