The Welcome Hub helps visitors and Calgarians plan their summer

A new pop-up on Stephen Avenue opened Thursday to help visitors and Calgarians have ease of access to all the things Calgary has to do this summer.

Visitors or Calgarians can visit The Welcome Hub from June 15 till August 31.

The pop-up, located near The Bank and Baron P.U.B. between Centre and First Street S.W., will provide tailored recommendations and help you build an itinerary for an eventful summer.

“A lot of time when we have guests coming from out of town (and) we have that panic. Oh my gosh, what are we going to do? We have the answers to those problems,” said Cindy Ady, Tourism Calgary’s CEO.

The Welcome Hub offers advice on hidden gems in Calgary and must-see attractions, current information on events, restaurant recommendations, tour and shuttle booking assistance, insider tips on exploring Calgary, brochures, maps and guides, wayfinding assistance and custom itinerary building.

It is being offered by Tourism Calgary to see how well utilized a service like this will be, especially with event turnouts expected to return to pre-pandemic levels.

The hub can tell you what events need tickets and which don’t, as well as how to navigate them and nail down a time for a person to go so they don’t miss any of the experiences they want to attend.

“(The) Stampede is the big kick off and if it goes anything that we are seeing right now like the selling out of Stampede it’s pretty brisk right now and we are going to have a really good Stampede this year, you can feel it coming,” said Ady.

The first day of the pop-up is Thursday and they will be launching the Ultimate Staycation Contest. There will also be games, prizes and live entertainment.

The hub’s hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.

If someone can’t make it to Stephen Avenue, they can visit the visitor hub section of the Tourism Calgary website that includes a live chat, contact phone number and email for a custom itinerary building or any other services the Welcome Hub offers.