With summer around the corner, Tourism Lethbridge is looking to draw some extra attention to local attractions with a bit of collaboration between destinations.
The VIP (Visitor Information Provider) Tour for frontline workers at local attractions took staff to Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, CASA, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, the Galt Museum and Archives and the Helen Schuler Nature Centre.
Dominika Wojcik, the senior director of communications for Tourism Lethbridge, says expanding the visitor experience is key.
“We all know that as a visitor, we want the local input of: where are the hotspots to eat and what’s there to do? So, we’re just trying to inform the community and showcase some of our best of Lethbridge items so they can create that experience for our visitors.”
Fort Whoop-Up site coordinator Connor Kenny says visitors often ask about other attractions.
“Even down at the Galt and the Fort we get a lot of people being like, ‘Hey, what’s next to do?’ So, it’s nice to be able to have a more robust kind of chain of people to recommend and be like: ‘Yeah, there’s actually a lot of cool things happening here.'”
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The local attraction tour gave attendees, like Payton Grindle, a Downtown Lethbridge BRZ Ambassador, a chance to discover what each site has to offer during their peak visiting season.
“Getting to walk around and actually see all these things that we tell people, ‘Oh, go see this,’ is super important.”
Wojcik goes on to explain the tour not only benefits the attractions around town, it also helps to bolster the economy.
“Visitor experience directly leads to economic impact because we know that the more visitors we have, the better experiences they have.
“They’re going to want to extend their stays, come again, tell their friends and family and that’s our main goal here… to create a better visitor experience which ultimately leads to more economic impact for our city.”
Kenny adds there’s always something happening in the city and recommends locals explore Lethbridge.
“You know a lot of us might have been visiting these when we were kids, especially for schools. But they’ve kept growing and there’s a lot of new programming, especially as young adults, I really encourage you to check out your local tourism spots.”