Roundup: Pursuit Extends Tourism Empire with Vancouver Island Acquisition
Plus: Rogers is cutting front-line customer service jobs, StubHub gets sued in Canada and Netflix gets into Monopoly
PURSUIT, the Denver-based company that has drawn criticism for its monopoly over paid tourist attractions in Banff and Jasper, is expanding onto Vancouver Island with the purchase of a local whale-watching business.
The company on Wednesday announced a $24 million acquisition of Victoria-based Eagle Wing Tours, which serves about 50,000 customers annually.
Pursuit expects the deal to net annual earnings of $3 million to $4 million in its first full year, according to an investor document, with Eagle Wing Tours further benefiting from its marketing and commercial capabilities, additional resources and expansion to new audiences.
The deal also serves as a beach head on the island for Pursuit, with a “path for incremental growth investments and increased presence in [sic] region,” according to the document.
Pursuit’s purchase of the Jasper SkyTram last year drew criticism from the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, as it brought the company’s share of paid tourist attractions in the two national parks to more than 90 per cent by visitor volume. Pursuit owns six of nine attractions in the parks, including the Banff Gondola, the Columbia Icefield Adventure and several lake cruises, among others, and is the third largest hotel operator.
CAMP noted in a December brief that Pursuit’s market power had allowed it to increase prices for attractions across its properties by 16 per cent year-over-year, with Banff and Jasper representing about 50 per cent of its annual revenue.
Eagle Wing Tours did not return a request for comment, but co-founder Brett Soberg told the Times Colonist this week that whale watching in Victoria has been experiencing contraction lately, with two operators going out of business in the past year. “There used to be 12 companies in Victoria,” he said. “There’s now only four.”
The other three operators – Prince of Whales, SpringTide and Orca Spirit Adventures – also did not return requests for comments on whether they had concerns over Eagle Wing Tours’ purchase, or if they have been approached by Pursuit in regards to an acquisition.
Pursuit says it has not approached them and that its focus is currently on supporting Eagle Wing Tours through its busy season.
“The acquisition aligns with Pursuit’s strategy of growing through organic investments and strategic acquisitions in destinations with strong, long-term visitor demand,” said chief operating officer Stuart Brand in an email.
“Over time, we can bring broader marketing reach, demand generation, commercial expertise and long-term investment. But just as importantly, this is an opportunity for us to learn from a team with deep expertise in marine interpretation, conservation and responsible tourism.”
Eugene Thomlinson, a travel industry expert and part-time hospitality professor at Royal Roads University, says whale-watching operators are indeed experiencing challenges despite a healthy and improving tourism market on Vancouver Island.
Gas prices, cost-of-living issues and a generally poor economic environment could be causing travellers to think twice about higher-priced activities.
“A lot of things have come together to hurt whale watching in particular,” he told Do Not Pass Go.
Pursuit’s entry into the region bears watching, he added, because of the company’s size and ability to cross-market with its own holdings and other tourism operators. As with Banff and Jasper, the company could try to corner the region’s tourism market.
“They already have a good database of people that buy their product, so they could use that information in further marketing,” he said. “If they haven’t already, they’ll be talking deals with cruise ships and tour companies.”
In a recent newsletter, CAMP lamented that its call for government action earlier this year regarding Pursuit, which also owns attractions in the United States, Costa Rica and Iceland and has history in Banff and Jasper dating back to the 1960s, has so far been ignored.
“Six months since we published [our] brief, nothing has changed,” the organization said. “Past acquisitions should be reversed and Parks Canada must be given a mandate to protect competition and Canadian ownership in our national parks.”
Check out our podcast episode on Pursuit’s operations in Banff and Jasper here.
🎧 ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK:
What Every Pet Owner Should Know About Rising Vet Bills
If you’ve got a pet in your household - and half of all Canadian households have at least one - this podcast episode is for you. We’re talking about how consolidation in the veterinary industry is rapidly driving up prices, and what’s being done about it.
🕺 ENTERTAINMENT
Ticket reseller STUBHUB’s woes continue to deepen as a new class action has been filed against the company, this time in Canada. Vancouver resident Mark Gallagher launched the lawsuit on Wednesday on behalf of Canadians who had bought World Cup soccer tickets only to have those purchases cancelled by Stubhub at the last minute. Gallagher had bought two seats to a June 18 game in Vancouver for Canada and Qatar for $11,407, only to have the tickets cancelled hours before game time. He says he received repeated assurances that his tickets were real and would arrive before game day, and that he is now suing for punitive damages to force change at the company. “I just think the truth needs to come out on what’s really going on here,” he told CBC News. A similar class action has been filed in New York, while British Columbia has launched an investigation into the company. Ontario has also added Stubhub and fellow ticket reseller SeatGeek to its Consumer Beware list. For more on Stubhub, see the “Coming Up” section below.
The $111 billion (U.S.) mega-takeover of WARNER BROS. by PARAMOUNT hit significant roadblocks this week, with 12 U.S. states and the Writers Guild of America both separately suing to block the deal. The states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, say the merger will result in higher prices for consumers, fewer movies and TV shows being made and lower quality of content overall, while the writers say it will harm wages and working conditions by creating a single employer with outsized power. Paramount has fired back by calling the the states’ lawsuit “one of the weakest merger challenges in modern antitrust history,” saying that competing studios have low barriers to expansion and that the transaction will actually increase competition for television and movie production. In Canada, the Competition Bureau is reviewing the merger while the Network of Independent Cinema Exhibitors, which represents 140 independent theatres, opposes it on the grounds that it would consolidate as much of 40 per cent of combined Canadian and U.S. box office revenues into a single studio.
Of special interest to us here is the news that NETFLIX is getting into Monopoly – the board game (not necessarily the abuse of its own power). The streaming company has green lit a reality TV show based on the classic board game, with 12 players competing for a $2 million prize. Contestants will “be immersed in a life-size Monopoly Town Square where they’ll have the opportunity to earn money, buy properties, negotiate deals and hopefully stay out of jail.” The show will premiere in 2027 and the producers are taking applications for contestants. Sadly, it’s only open to U.S. residents (trust us, we looked into it). Check out one of our early podcast episodes on the lost origins and meaning of the board game.
And speaking of NETFLIX, after losing out to Paramount on Warner Bros., the streaming company is now pegged as being after LETTERBOXD, the movie-rating-meets-social-network website that’s something of a sensation with film buffs. Founded in 2011 in New Zealand, the company grew to more than 10 million users before attracting the interest of Tiny, a Canadian holding company based in Victoria, B.C. Tiny, which proclaims on its website that “we buy great companies and leave them alone,” purchased a 60-per-cent stake in 2023 and has reportedly been shopping its stake in Letterboxd around since the spring. To say that users of the service are not impressed would be an understatement. As Salon reports, the service’s X account is being bombarded by messages such as “PLEASE. DON’T. SELL. OUT.”
📱 TELECOM
The recent job cuts by ROGERS are worse than initially reported, according to a CBC report this week. Last week, the company made news for shuttering six local radio stations and cutting 230 related jobs, but Rogers has also been quietly laying off front-line customer service representatives, the broadcaster reports. While Rogers confirmed it is cutting a “small percentage of our workforce, including corporate and front-line roles,” a union lead says that possibly hundreds of people are being terminated, with customer service jobs being relocated overseas to Morocco.
Speaking of customer service, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission this week issued a reminder about its ongoing review of the various codes of conduct that telecom companies are bound by. The CRTC is looking to unify four separate sets of rules – covering wireless, internet, deposits and disconnections, and television services – into a single code and is seeking input from the public on the process. The regulator is accepting comments until Aug. 11, with a public hearing happening Nov. 30.
✈️ AIRLINES
Flight attendants working for WESTJET have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike, which could begin as soon as Aug. 2. Members of CUPE 8125, the union representing the attendants, voted 99.4 per cent in favour of authorizing the strike action, with the main issue being unpaid hours worked while on the ground. Air Canada flight attendants went on strike over similar disputes last year and, after disobeying a return-to-work order from the federal government, ultimately won concessions from the airline in a settlement. WestJet says it is committed to resolving the dispute before the union implements a work action.
Speaking of strikes and AIR CANADA, the airline has avoided the possibility of another one by reaching a tentative collective agreement this week with its technical operations, logistics and supply employees. The four-year agreement will run until Mar. 31, 2030 and must still be ratified by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union.
💾 BIG TECH
The board of PAYPAL says a $53 billion (U.S.) acquisition bid by STRIPE and private equity firm ADVENT is too low, according to reports. While the company has not yet formally responded to the bid, these reports say PayPal management wants a richer offer. Aside from the price tag, management is also concerned about the regulatory risk that such a deal – which would bring together two of the largest online payment platforms – might incur.
🥊 COMPETITION
If you’ve got thoughts on how the Competition Bureau should go after CARTELS, now is your chance to have your say. The agency is inviting public comments on how it should take action against illegal business agreements until Sept. 13. Such agreements include bid-rigging, price-fixing, market allocation, supply restriction, and wage-fixing and no-poaching deals. The final rules will ultimately replace the Bureau’s existing Competitor Collaboration Guidelines and Enforcement Guidelines on wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements.
Speaking of the COMPETITION BUREAU, it’s been a bit more active as far as merger reviews go so far in 2026 compared to last year. The agency completed 116 reviews through the first half of this year, compared to 105 in the same time frame last year, according to Blakes Competitive Edge report. The primary industries related to these reviews were manufacturing (21 per cent); mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (16 per cent); real estate and rental leasing (12 per cent); and finance and insurance (9 per cent). Forty-three transactions received Advanced Ruling Certificates representing clearance, 64 got a “no action” letter, four were completed via negotiated settlements – known as consent agreements – and one was abandoned by the parties.
🚨 COMING UP
As noted above, StubHub is in a world of trouble. From investigations by regulators to multiplying class-action lawsuits, the ticket-reselling site is being besieged on multiple fronts for its questionable business practices. Much of it is due to reporting by CBC investigative reporter DAVE SEGLINS, who has broken multiple stories including StubHub selling fake tickets and its chief executive officer Erik Baker operating a side business revolving around mass-scalping. Seglins joins the Do Not Pass Go podcast this Tuesday to take us behind the scenes of the mess that is the live event ticket business. If you go to concerts or sporting events, you won’t want to miss this one.