New Westminster Quayside, B.C.Tourism New Westminster
When The Price is Right offered up “an amazing trip to beautiful Canada!” as a prize on a recent episode, the photo on the screen showed Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Over the show’s theme music (the soundtrack to many Canadians’ childhood sick days), the announcer added that the package included round trip airfare from Los Angeles to Vancouver.
And then? “Head to New Westminster, British Columbia in your rental car!”
New West, as we call it out here, is on the Fraser River, about a half-hour from the City of Vancouver on the SkyTrain (or by rental car). B.C.’s first capital, it calls itself the Royal City. It is a heavily residential area sometimes described, aspirationally, as the Brooklyn of Vancouver and well known for its abundance of bridal shops. Its most recognizable landmark, arguably, is the world’s largest tin soldier (standing at attention at 9.75 metres, the sign along the riverfront boardwalk says).
Not exactly a tourist hot spot.
On its website, Tourism New Westminster calls the city “Metro Vancouver’s Best-Kept Secret.”
But somehow, it attracted the attention of a Price is Right producer, who put together the prize package, including airfare and six nights at a waterfront hotel.
“It was a surprise for all of us, even for the Inn At The Quay,” says Tourism New Westminster executive director Gerardo Corro. He explains that the show had contacted the hotel’s then-sales manager last spring to inquire if they could include it in a prize package. But even Tourism New West did not know the city was being featured until after the episode aired last month.
Arizona resident Phillip Fitzpatrick, 64, bid on the vacation prize. A retired IT guy, he is a big fan of the show. He spent more than a year preparing: checking prices, watching previously aired episodes, studying the games. He created spreadsheets, made notes.
Phillip Fitzpatrick visits Meet & Greet, Pier Park on the vacation prize gifted to him by the town of New Westminster, B.C.Tourism New Westminster/Supplied
So when he was called to come on down, Fitzpatrick was ready. Once he made it from Contestants’ Row to the stage, he was presented with the Balance Game, which involves putting weighted bags representing dollar amounts onto a scale.
“My first thought was, I love Canada,” says Fitzpatrick, who grew up on the U.S. side of Lake Erie, and had previously visited Ontario and Quebec but had never been to B.C.
When costing out the package to make a wager for the game, he weighed several factors. “I knew this part of Canada generally was pricey,” he said. Further, he had determined in his research that the correct price in the Balance Game was rarely the least expensive possibility. So he went with the middle option, US$8,280. “I was pretty sure I had won. I was very sure.”
But his guess tipped the scale. The correct answer was, in fact, US$5,280.
“I was crushed,” says Fitzpatrick. He had never heard of New Westminster, but he has been on a quest to visit every North American city that has hosted the Olympics and was keen to see Vancouver.
The clip of his loss went viral; New West as a game show prizeworthy destination? It even made the news (“The Price is Right features B.C. city” read a CBC chyron).
Local tourism officials recognized a good marketing opportunity. They cooked up a plan to offer Fitzpatrick the same trip he had lost. First, they had to find him. Efforts to locate Fitzpatrick through The Price is Right went nowhere, so Tourism New West launched the social media campaign #SearchForPhillip.
They found him. (But not before two other people contacted Tourism New West, pretending to be Fitzpatrick.)
Fitzpatrick at Mosaic Art Studio Vancouver.Tourism New Westminster/Supplied
By the time the real Fitzpatrick flew to Vancouver on Dec. 5, the initial plan to match the game show prize package had been far outdone, thanks to contributions from local restaurants, attractions and other businesses and organizations. He and his travel companion arrived at the hotel to a hero’s welcome – a private party attended by dozens of local dignitaries and media.
“Walking into a room with that many people smiling and wanting to see you … it was definitely a high point,” said Fitzpatrick the following morning, after breakfast with the Rotary Club. As he made his way through the city’s Anvil Centre, decked out in a New Westminster sweatshirt and lapel pin, he shared his idea for a new tagline for the city: “New West is Best.” (As it turns out, Tourism New West adopted a new tagline in November, but it’s “Where Stories Meet.”)
He was loving his room at the Inn At The Quay, with its balcony view of the river and the city’s resident paddleboat.
His schedule for the week was packed, including lunch with the mayor, VIP tickets for the Hidden Wonders Speakeasy Magic Experience, and private tours of the New Westminster Museum (home to the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame) and the New Media Gallery.
During the museum tour, Fitzpatrick learned that the Royal City moniker was the result of Queen Victoria giving the city its name. At the gallery, he geeked out over technology-inspired artworks.
Fitzpatrick rides a police boat on the Fraser River.New Westminster tourism
He then headed off for an archery lesson before lunch at Steel & Oak Brewing Co. and a police boat ride on the Fraser.
There was much more on the five-day agenda, including a full day set aside to visit that other city a little west of here, a place Corro likes to call New West’s “most famous suburb.”
Fitzpatrick advises residents of that other city, Vancouver, to come on down (sorry) to New West. “Make the train ride over,” he said. “Make a Saturday night of it.”
He was making the most of it. “It’s been a punctuation point in my life that something like this would happen,” he said. “One of my close friends in Phoenix is helping me count down how many minutes I have left in my 15 minutes of fame.”