Peaches and beaches.
That’s been both Penticton’s description and what has drawn visitors and residents here for decades, if you are looking at it from the tourism angle.
But it’s pretty descriptive from an economic standpoint too. Agriculture and tourism have been the mainstays of this community for decades.
But just as Penticton’s economic base has widened to include a growing industrial and entrepreneurial sector, so has Penticton’s tourism offerings. There are the long-running events like the Elvis Festival, the Beach Cruise and PeachFest — reaching its 70th year this summer.
However, recent years have seen the introduction of the Gran Fondo, the Dragonboat Regatta, Challenge Penticton, and this year the ITU Multisport World Championship, each of which is responsible for bringing thousands of competitors and fans to visit experience everything Penticton has to offer.
That’s just a few of the major events. Sometimes it seems like there isn’t a weekend from June through August that doesn’t include a special event. Events are rapidly filling up the shoulder seasons and the rest of the year, like our bookend music festivals: the Dream Festival in May and the Pentastic Hot Jazz Festival in September.
These events often claim to be “putting Penticton on the map,” but if you look at the overall view of nearly year-round offerings, it’s pretty clear that Penticton already has a virtual forest of pins on the map.
Peaches and beaches just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore, but that motto is probably here to stay. After all peaches and apples and cherries and wine and manufacturing and hi-tech and cycling and music and rowing and running and swimming and Elvis and classic cars and … well, it just doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way does it?