When it comes to event ticket sales these days, plenty of promoters and organizers — volunteer or paid — cross their fingers and hope there will be enough last-minute crowds to make their endeavours worth while.
That’s just the facts these days, for community events and even holiday travel, and plenty of people do not make up their minds to go until the last minute. In fact, there has been a shift in how tourism-related businesses plan their year.
Instead of being able to rely on people who plan trips well in advance and book them as such, more are looking for those last-minute deals.
It can cause plenty of anxiety and uncertainty on the part of event organizers.
Take B.C.’s first Family Day holiday. Come that morning, the SidneyLand event at the Mary Winspear Centre had not sold all of its tickets. By opening time that day, however, they were sold out. Some 1,000 people came out for family fun and games.
Down at the Sidney Pier Hotel, their Lego-building exhibition was a hit, with line-ups down the street in front of the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre.
There must have been a collective sigh of relief when all of those families turned out for the day. It’s also testament to good planning. The organizers and planners hit on a great idea — Lego and the attention it’s getting thanks to the Sidney Museum — and used it to mark the province’s first Family Day with an inexpensive event for the young at heart.
While the organizers might not have known how the day was going to pan out, in the end they made the right choices and it appeared that the people in town for the day really were enjoying themselves.
Family Day helped showcase Sidney as a great place for families.
