Nancy Stibbard to be awarded the Tourism Toronto Canadian Tourism Lifetime Achievement Award

The Tourism Industry Association of Canada has announced that Nancy Stibbard, owner and CEO of the Capilano Group, will be awarded the Tourism Toronto Canadian Tourism Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Canadian Tourism Awards.

Nancy was raised on tourism. Her father, Rae Mitchell, purchased Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in 1953 and put her to work scooping ice cream, even though she was only a child! While raising her own family, she made the decision to purchase Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in 1983 and since then has revamped the attraction. Nancy also purchased and rebuilt Moraine Lake Lodge in 1991 and Cathedral Mountain Lodge in 2002. In 2014, the Stanley Park Pavilion and Prospect Point were added to the Capilano Group portfolio.

Over the years, Nancy has mobilized others in tourism to work toward common goals, creating cooperative organizations such as the Tourism Industry Association of BC and the Vancouver Attractions Group. She has also contributed to countless Boards and Committees, including recently completing her 6-year term on the Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s (TIAC) Board of Directors. She has returned to the Board of Tourism Vancouver, which she had chaired.

Nancy’s accomplishments have not gone unrecognized, award highlights include Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year (Pacific Canada) (1996), Business in Vancouver’s Influential Women in Business Award (2000), Tourism Vancouver’s Harold J. Merilees Award and being inducted into Canada’s Tourism Hall of Fame (2007). In addition, the Capilano team has been honoured with three of TIAC’s National Tourism Excellence Awards, Tourism BC’s Outside the Box Award for Innovation, Tourism BC’s Best Marketing Campaign and the American Marketing Association’s (BC Chapter) Marketer of the Year Award.

Nancy’s vision ‘to create experiences that people are amazed by’ means she is always seeking new ways to “wow” her guests. At Capilano that has meant two major additions: Treetops Adventure in 2004 and Cliffwalk in 2011. Both are unique, state-of-the-art, thrilling attractions, giving visitors reasons to return again and again.
(As reported by TIAC)