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NEWS: Quadra elementary undergoes major surgery /A3 ARTS: Ballet B.C. comes back from the brink /A12 SPORTS: UVic Vikes swimmers look toward nationals /A16
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Sharon Tiffin/News staff
Gung hay fat choy Chinese Public School students Jonathan Lin, left, and Perry Young hold dragon heads outside the school on Fisgard Street in advance of this weekend’s Chinese New Year festivities. The students lead the annual parade, guiding the dancing lions around the Chinatown neighbourhood on Sunday. See story on page A5.
New tourism boss ‘cautiously optimistic’ about 2014 Hotel occupancy boost is promising
seem earthshaking. For Greater Victoria’s tourism industry, however, that increase – representing the uptick in average hotel occupancy for 2013 over 2012 – is a sign the overall economic picture is brightening, said Tourism Victoria’s new president and CEO, Paul Nursey.
Don Descoteau News staff
On the surface, a two-per-cent increase in business might not
the
“What it tells me is that we’re firmly in a recovery phase now,” said Nursey, who began his second week on the job Monday. “It’s been a challenging few years stemming out of the global financial crisis and other challenges. But Greater Victoria is now really starting to see recovery.”
The city’s new tourism boss hails from Tsawwassen and already has a good handle on Victoria’s tourism challenges. He comes to the job with a broader perspective, however, having most recently served as vice-president of strategy and corporate communications for the Canadian
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Tourism Commission. The position allowed him a unique vantage point on the state of the industry internationally, as well as its critical role in world economies.
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