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LETTERS: Hotel needed in Penticton to attract business

Communities that do not move forward ultimately die because young people and businesses will move somewhere else.

I just cannot let the letter (Penticton Western News, May 8, No need for a new hotel) go unchallenged.

Whilst we may well, “already have enough accommodation” the vast majority of it (and I am not going to name names) is of a very poor run-down standard and does not befit a town of Penticton’s beauty and charm. Frankly most of them are an embarrassment and I wonder just how many people do not return here because of the sub-standard, out of date accommodation we have to offer. And I am not talking about the old 1960s motels which frankly would not look out of place in old black and white movies.

I am speaking from experience, having myself stayed in many of the existing hotels (as have family members) over the past five years. In each case everything looked tired and in need of a good update with new furnishings, decoration and other amenities that hotel guests expect in the year 2015. You can only rest on your laurels for so long before they begin to crumble and fall over.

We have heard that the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre has lost business because of the lack of quality accommodation to offer potential delegates. And, I can well believe that. This town needs to attract people outside of the main, very brief, tourist season. If it doesn’t, then a lot of our favourite shops and restaurants may well close down due to lack of patronage. Is this what everyone wants?

The comment in the letter “why don’t we check out what worked for Penticton in the past and try that again?” left me speechless.

This is 2015, not 1965. Communities that do not move forward ultimately die because young people and businesses will move somewhere else.

I refuse to sit back and watch Penticton slowly die. I retired here because it is a beautiful place to live with fantastic, friendly people but I just ask for some of those people to please take off your blinkers and stop objecting to every new idea or development that is proposed for this great city. It will never become like Kelowna, thank goodness, because of the geological restrictions, but it could become a ghost town within the next generation if we are not careful.

Alan Warren

Penticton