Impact of Olympic exposure on Vancouver

[mr.x]

^ not even close. Torino is in the state of Piedmont while Milano is in the state Lombardy. Both cities are more than 100-kms apart. It would be like calling Vancouver a suburb of Seattle.

[crazyjoeda]

Vancouver is getting a lot of exposer especial in the United States media. I think the recession will be beneficial to the success of the 2010 Olympics as more people will be watching. Most people have heard of Vancouver but the Olympics will show people what Vancouver has to offer; we live in an exceptional city so no doubt it will be a big boost for tourism. I really disagree with people who think hosting the Olympics will be a waste of money; in my opinion the benefits of the international exposure, badly need infrastructure and the long term economic benefits outweigh the small inconveniences and the financial costs.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ not even close. Torino is in the state of Piedmont while Milano is in the state Lombardy. Both cities are more than 100-kms apart. It would be like calling Vancouver a suburb of Seattle.

Torino is a big city and the surrounding areas population dwarfs Vancouver and the Pacific North West. Milan and Genova are both under a hour drive and around a hour train ride from Torino, hell there is probably 20million people within a 1-1.5 hour drive of Torino. Oh and yes I have been there, I have crisscrossed that entire area.

Just saying , Torino and its surrounding area dwarfs Vancouver and its surrounding area. Hell there's well over half a billion people within a two hour flight of Torino.

[mr.x]

^ lol, well tell that to NBC: "Vancouver, the largest city to ever host the Winter Olympics..."

[crazyjoeda]

Originally Posted by cornholio

Torino is a big city and the surrounding areas population dwarfs Vancouver and the Pacific North West. Milan and Genova are both under a hour drive and around a hour train ride from Torino, hell there is probably 20million people within a 1-1.5 hour drive of Torino. Oh and yes I have been there, I have crisscrossed that entire area.

Just saying , Torino and its surrounding area dwarfs Vancouver and its surrounding area. Hell there's well over half a billion people within a two hour flight of Torino.

None of that matters though Milan is not Torion; no one in Torino would tell you they live in Metro Milan. This is just silly, thats like saying Salt Lake City is bigger because the United States in bigger.

Fact, Metro Vancouver is the largest city to host the Winter Olympics.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ lol, well tell that to NBC: "Vancouver, the largest city to ever host the Winter Olympics..."

well their right but its misleading. Vancouver and the surrounding area is actually relatively underpopulated for a Winter Olympic host region.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by crazyjoeda

None of that matters though Milan is not Torion; no one in Torino would tell you they live in Metro Milan. This is just silly, thats like saying Salt Lake City is bigger because the United States in bigger.

Fact, Metro Vancouver is the largest city to host the Winter Olympics.

Thats all nice but there are over 20million people that can be in Torino in half the time that it takes to drive to Whistler from Vancouver. Also Vancouver has only 600,000 people if you want to be specific.
The point is Torino and the surrounding population dwarfs Vancouver and our area(including Washington).

Anyways im just saying that Vancouver is a pretty small region to host the Winter games, contrary to popular belief.

[mr.x]

Lets just say that Vancouver is the largest Winter Games host city, and keep it at that.

[raggedy13]

Population numbers aside, I think Vancouver will at least "look" like a much bigger city than Torino, or at least to people in NA that would generally associate number of highrises with population (for example, some visitors think Vancouver is larger than Seattle, whose metro numbers are much higher than Torino's or Vancouver's). This perceived size may help it out when it comes to attracting tourism/investment.

Also, I think Vancouver will look more attractive to potential foreign investors who view a sea of shiny new glass towers versus centuries old European buildings. The fact that so much of the city (especially downtown) is newly built will give the impression that Vancouver is a dynamic, high-growth, and economically prosperous city (which I'd argue it is), and hence a lucrative place to invest. Not that having old buildings necessarily makes a European city look like a poor place to invest but it may give Vancouver an edge, at least in terms of real estate investment.

Torino may be 2 hours flight from a larger population than Vancouver but Vancouver certainly boasts geographic advantages not possessed by Torino such as its proximity (not to mention family, business, and cultural connections) to Asian economic powerhouses, being in an English speaking country (the language of international business), being in close proximity to American markets, having a huge resource-rich hinterland at its disposal, having few nearby competitor cities (only Seattle and it doesn't really carry any more weight than Vancouver from an international perspective despite the fact it is a larger metro and is the home of well-known international corporations; Torino has a plethora of large internationally recognized cities surrounding it), etc.

Overall, I don't know if Vancouver will be able to benefit substantially from the exposure but I'd say it possesses more advantages and has more potential than any previous Winter Olympic cities regardless of our immediate surrounding population. From a foreign investment standpoint, I don't think local market size is even all that relevant these days, but rather the connections a region possesses.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ not even close. Torino is in the state of Piedmont while Milano is in the state Lombardy. Both cities are more than 100-kms apart. It would be like calling Vancouver a suburb of Seattle.

its closer than vancouver and whistler - my ex is from Milan we talked about it

its not some little remote place - is all i am trying to say

Salt Lake City and Vancouver in comparison though "bigger" are much more remote

[SpongeG]

when i was in san fran in june talking to a Local he had no idea Vancouver was hosting the olympics

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

when i was in san fran in june talking to a Local he had no idea Vancouver was hosting the olympics

And then he probably immediately booked a ticket to Vancouver, WA.

[SpongeG]

haha yah

they could be doing more

he did say oh they are hosting it again? i think he was thinking of montreal and the summer olympics - we said the winter ones and he didn't seem to care

[vansky]

vancouver is well known in the pacific rim. eye candy, shots of beach and mountains should drive some ppl here, so at the end it will increase immigration. more people more economic power, more status...more condos, more shops...all the good to come later.

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by vansky

vancouver is well known in the pacific rim. eye candy, shots of beach and mountains should drive some ppl here, so at the end it will increase immigration. more people more economic power, more status...more condos, more shops...all the good to come later.

How about some more office buildings?

[raggedy13]

In terms of international immigration, I think the most we will potentially benefit is by attracting people already coming to Canada that would previously not have chosen Vancouver to settle in, perhaps because they didn't know much, or anything, about it. So, for example, a family (with no other family connections to Canada) originally planning on going to Toronto because it is the only city they know about, might (after the Olympics) consider Vancouver because they've now heard about it and perhaps liked what they saw (i.e. no snow on the ground in February). I think Vancouver stands to benefit more in this regard than previous Winter Olympic cities because Canada is a country with high international immigration and only a handful of major cities to choose from (and even less than a handful of major cities that are well-recognized internationally).

In terms of domestic migration, the Olympics might help boost the number of people moving to Vancouver if it gives the impression (or makes it a reality) that the economy is doing well. Or if they're just the sort of person that is unfamiliar with cities outside their area and had never really seen Vancouver and then decided they liked what they saw (though this would be more likely to lead to increased domestic tourism than to actual migration, unless after they visited they decided they liked it enough to move).

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

How about some more office buildings?

Not going to happen without some residential component, I'm afraid.

If we ever get to build a 700 - 800 footer, I'd imagine at least 1/2 the building would be residential.

[raggedy13]

Does anybody here think the Olympic exposure could draw new development firms to the city? I know there is already a lot of local competition in this regard which may discourage new firms from trying to enter the market, but perhaps we could attract some foreign firms that wish to gain a foothold in the North American market and see Vancouver as a healthy launching pad?

What I would like to see in this regard is a foreign firm that specializes in commercial office development. They might see our low vacancy rates and (naively?) think it is a wise move to build a large new office tower. I guess that's just a bit of an unrealistic personal fantasy though.

[raggedy13]

Perhaps another thing to consider is the Canada-EU free trade negotiations. If an agreement were reached within the next few years, Vancouver's Olympic exposure could help it to attract much more European investment than it would otherwise.

[SpongeG]

If only Canada were not seen as baby seal killers