Tourism in Vernon was up more than five per cent this past summer despite fires and floods. 

Local businesses and Tourism Vernon came together Thursday afternoon to discuss goals and plans for the city. 

"[It's] An open house for Tourism Vernon," said Kevin Poole, manager of economic development and tourism. "We're just giving all of our stakeholders a better opportunity to understand how we are structured, what type of revenues we have and our programs."

"That's the biggest one we want to talk about, some of our marketing and campaigns that we're doing and undertaking. Where they could partner with us." 

Tourism was up 5.4 per cent in 2017, in comparison to 2016. 

"We're a little surprised," he said. "We weren't sure how it was going because July was flood season and it was a record July for us. August the numbers were down a little bit because we had some smoky skies." 

"September they rebounded right back and a lot of it, I think, was due to the 55+ games that were held in Vernon."