Ahead of the unofficial end of the summer tourism season in Calgary, business owners are celebrating a successful year when visitors and their dollars flocked to the city in droves.
According to Tourism Calgary, tourist levels are exceeding pre-pandemic levels and, on average, they’re spending far more than before.
“What we are estimating right now is we will be above 2019 levels, as of this year, and about probably about two per cent above what we saw from an attendance perspective. And much higher revenues than we saw from a tourism spend perspective for Calgary,” explained Jeff Hessel, Tourism Calgary’s senior vice-president of marketing.
Among the attractions that drew both locals and visitors were the city’s rivers, with local rafting companies experiencing record numbers.
“Ooh, very busy and very hot!” laughed Ainsley Guss of Lazy Day Rafting while referencing this year’s conditions, entering the Labour Day long weekend. “(From the river) you get to see Calgary from just a totally different view.”
The perspective from the river greatly differs from what is experienced on the observation deck of the Calgary Tower where Philipp Rackish, visiting from Germany, mustered the courage to brave the glass floor.
“Yah, it’s always that first step,” said Rackish with a smile. “A little shaky, but we made it.”
International travellers, including Rackish who spent a portion of his time in southern Alberta camping with family, are choosing Calgary and the neighbouring Rocky Mountains as top-of-list destinations, with the local travel industry recovering from financial losses felt during height of the pandemic.
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Roughly 167,000 hotel rooms were booked during the ten days of this year’s Calgary Stampede, establishing a new record. Local hotel numbers were also bolstered by the arrival of thousands of evacuees fleeing the wildfires of the Northwest Territories.
The 2023 edition of The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth also came just shy of setting a new annual attendance record.
To the west, Banff National Park is reporting visits to the park up by three to nine per cent each month over 2022, which had been the busiest year in the park’s history.
Waterton Lakes National Park has yet to tabulate its summer attendance numbers, but, anecdotally, local tourism operators are encountering more and more visitors from abroad.
“I’m seeing (fewer) Albertans traveling, and I’m seeing more Americans traveling and more international travel happening,” said Heather Davis of Uplift Adventures. “We’ve made it through COVID.”
— With files from Global News’ Sarah Offin
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