Tourism Richmond is looking for a new boss – less than a year after Bruce Okabe took over the CEO hot seat.
A mere 11 months into the job, Okabe, 62, announced last week that he was stepping down from the role to retire earlier than expected.
Okabe told the Richmond News that he didn’t want to go into too much detail, adding only that “an opportunity arose, in my personal life, to accelerate my retirement.
“It’s safe to say that this allowed me to have the means to do this.”
Asked how long he had envisaged heading up Tourism Richmond, Okabe – who officially took over from Tracy Lakeman on March 27 last year – said the development was certainly not on his radar.
“Believe me, if this change hadn’t happened (in his personal life), we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he added.
“The (Tourism Richmond) team is in great shape, the industry is in great shape. However, all the stars aligned for me to do this.”
He will officially call it a career on May 15, explaining that he wanted to give the Tourism Richmond board “plenty of time” to look for a replacement.
Despite his brief tenure, Okabe believes he’s covered a lot of ground in that time, including “developing a strategy allowing us to hit our targets,” “developing our brand” and “getting the right people in the right places.”
“You’ll have to ask the board (if he’s achieved those goals), but I feel a lot has been done in a short space of time,” he said.
“But that was because of the team; they were the key.”
Talking of his team at Tourism Richmond, Okabe admits they were likely surprised by his announcement, but has no reservations about their attitude or ability looking forward.
“They are a very resilient group and they know that change happens. I think they are very well prepared for the future.”
In terms of challenges still facing Richmond in the tourism field, Okabe said the city needs to focus on delivering a “more diverse product.”
“There is lots of unrealized potential, with bike tourism and food tourism,” he said.
“We have several kilometres of flat and paved bike trails but we don’t yet have a strategy in place for bike tourism. Something is coming very soon with the City of Richmond on that, though.
“And food tourism; we have loads of local growers here, we could easily market the farm to table theme; we have great opportunities still to be leveraged.”
