Tourism Town Halls enhance Alberta’s “Visitor Economy”

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Travel Alberta hosted a Tourism Town Hall in Rosebud, May 10, presenting strategies, services and resources for people in the tourism industry. The Rosebud event is one of many being held across the province.
“It’s about supporting our industry operators and demonstrating the programs and services that we offer,” said Shelley Grollmuss, vice president of Industry Development at Travel Alberta. “[We] talk about how our partners can participate and be involved in the programs and how we’re there to help support them. And essentially [how they can] get their business information and travel deals and festivals and events out to travelers.”
Alberta tourism is an 8 billion dollar industry, and supports over 127 000 jobs. “Especially now with oil and gas and some of the economic challenges that we’ve been facing, tourism does provide an opportunity for us to focus on other areas,” Grollmuss said.
“We refer to it as the visitor economy,” she said. “So when people are traveling, whether they’re staying overnight in your hotels or campgrounds or eating at your local restaurants, filling up at the service station, all those folks are visitors to your community…. That spending has a trickle-down effect.”
The Town Halls encourage Albertans to use the low Canadian dollar as an opportunity to attract more American travelers, and to invite more Albertans to travel locally. “With the current economic situation and now unfortunately with the wildfire devastation … we’re expecting people to maybe vacation a little closer to home,” Grollmuss said. “We’re expecting a strong summer season for the province as far as leisure visitation.”
The Town Halls also describe an opportunity that will open to Albertans when Hainan Airlines starts a Beijing to Calgary service, June 30. “That’s opening up a new market for us in China, which has lots of growth opportunities, so we’re very excited to welcome them starting at the end of June,” Grollmuss said. The Town Halls offer information on training opportunities and services, including how to prepare for Chinese travelers.
Alberta Tourism also uses Town Halls to introduce their free service, ATIS 2.0, Alberta Tourism Information Service. “It’s really a back-end database system that we ask all of our industries to sign up and put their business information in,” Grollmuss said. “They load the profile of their particular business. They can put in pictures and images. They can attach news articles and clips. They can put in travel offers and deals. Communities can load festivals and events.”
That information is then shared with travelers at travelalberta.com. “We’re really encouraging all operators and businesses to ensure that they’re listed on the site,” Grollmuss said. “We can’t help promote their business if they’re not listed in the database.”
Tourism industry partners can find ATIS 2.0, plus other free resources, information, programs and contacts, at industry.travelalberta.com.
She encourages all Albertans to travel locally this summer. “I would want to encourage people to get out this summer and do something here in the province of Alberta,” she said. “Check out our consumer website [travelalberta.com] and go to a local festival and event outside of your community. Go visit somewhere that you haven’t been before and just help contribute to your own province’s economy this summer. It would be great for all of us.”
For information about how to promote your tourism-related business, venue or event, or to upload information on ATIS 2.0, go to industry.travelalberta.com. For information about venues, services and events that you can enjoy around our province, see travelalberta.com.