Year in Review: Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce

Posted

Our mandate is to promote our wonderful town, both in general to draw visitors, and support all our individual businesses.

We produced a new rack card  “Visit Point Roberts - Only 15 minutes from the Ferry Terminal.” 2,500 were distributed on the Tsawwassen B.C. Ferries.

Throughout the year the chamber supported local businesses and events with advertising in the Delta Optimist and Washington state tourism magazines, always encouraging overnight stays. $8,000 was spent in Canada and $4,900 in Washington. Overnight stays generate lodging tax and the chamber benefits from a grant awarded by the Whatcom County Lodging Tax Fund to market Point Roberts to Canada and the rest of Washington state. 2025 advertising included promotions for Spring/Summer/Fall including Easter, July 4th events and Strings and Things, the Apple Harvest Festival, restaurants and golf course. 

Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism ran a digital Instagram campaign in Canada for Point Roberts during the summer.

The chamber took over the sponsorship of the July 4th parade this year, and while not without growing pains, it turned out great!  Many thanks to Elliott Smith of the chamber for coordinating along with lots of help from Allison Calder, Kara Smith, Bronwyn Glor and many others!

Our website provides a helpful and welcoming format for getting information about Point Roberts and its Chamber members. A new, complementary site is being developed – explorepointroberts  - which will promote more of the tourism aspect with photos and videos of beautiful Point Roberts on Instagram.

Our monthly meetings format changed this year and now all members can attend all meetings. This is a wonderful and welcome change! Meetings are the second Tuesday of every month with the venue shifting between locations.

Shortly you’ll see a brand new Welcome to Point Roberts sign up by the border. A colorful upgrade and long overdue!

With the U.S./Canada tensions over the trade wars, we were interviewed numerous times on TV and with print/digital publications and while we obviously had challenges this year, we always took the “half full” approach and promoted our amazing and unique town!

We maintain a visitor kiosk in the Point Roberts Marketplace with our great Point Roberts map available. 

Looking ahead at 2026 we see many opportunities. To highlight a few:

• America 250 Celebrations all summer with focus on July 4th

• World Cup Games in Vancouver – in late June and July – visit and stay in Point Roberts

• Strings & Things International Music Festival on July 11

• Working with other agencies to develop more walking trails

• Exploring a Point Roberts Free Trade Zone

• Looking at opportunities for a Resilience Hub and other items as laid out in the Point Roberts Economic Study

• Expanding our membership base

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here


OUR PUBLICATIONS