The Nakusp village, after reviewing a business action plan for the Nakusp Hot Springs completed by Norm Carruthers Consulting earlier this month, is hoping to have the facility finish this coming fiscal year above even.

“If we go and meet our budget for 2009, we should have a net profit of about $45,000,” says village treasurer Richard Mahoney. “There’s a significant improvement this year compared to last year. We’ve got our concentration on improving revenues and keeping costs under control and we’re certainly going to do better.”

The first six months of the year in 2008, January through June, had the springs at a net loss of $155,000, whereas this year there’s a net loss of roughly $64,000. Mahoney states the biggest months of the year have yet to be calculated as July, August and September are the main money-makers for the springs.

The push after reviewing Carruthers’ report includes a guerilla marketing campaign which Nakusp Mayor Karen Hamling says will hopefully put a hot springs poster in every business in the downtown core. Other issues being taken care of include giving out too many freebies and surveying guests to track patterns for further marketing opportunities.

“One of the biggest surprises that they pointed out is that the average person is paying $5.50 to $6.00 to get in, and that really shocked us because our rate is quite a bit higher,” says Hamling. To date, the numbers show only 48 per cent of adults were paying full price whereas the other 52 per cent were being discounted, hence the lower average for how much is being paid per customer.

The village will also be getting rid of the passes given out by hotels and bed and breakfast businesses which were discounted to clients and billed to the Nakusp & District Chamber of Commerce. In its stead, a new 10 per cent off coupon will be available to all business license owners in the village. Hamling says this will hopefully help as it will cut down on losses, adding the village will also be looking into making packages with different businesses in the village.

When asked if these issues have been a long time coming, Hamling says “it’s hard running a village and running a business” and these issues should probably have been addressed in the past. “It kind of got pushed to the back burner,” she says.

When the village held a referendum in November 2008, 341 of 607 voters were for selling the facility while 266 were against - a split 56 per cent to 44 per cent decision. At the time, Hamling addressed her new council saying a decision would need to be made by the end of March this year, which was pushed back to June, but with things looking up, Hamling says, “selling is still not out of the picture; we’re not out actively pursuing it right now, and if somebody came along and offered a really good plan that would benefit the village, then I think council would consider it.”

Hamling says local businesses can help the process by putting up the posters in their windows and making sure owners and staff spend time touting the springs to visitors of the community. The report completed by the consulting agency says the village is missing out on a lot of ‘chance’ visitors - people who come to Nakusp, not for the hot springs, but end up going up out of recommendation or interest.

The staff at the facility are now also taking daily surveys as well. Hamling says each employee is to ask three specific questions to different visitors and track the answers to help with marketing. The tills at the facility have also been rigged up so the employee at the counter can enter in whether the person visiting is a local or from out of town.