Alberta town wants to focus on Aboriginal culture and historic sites

Lethbridge is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta.

Lethbridge is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta. It is Alberta’s fourth-largest city by population after Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, and the third-largest by area after Calgary and Edmonton

The Lethbridge area could attract more visitors to the region by focusing on aboriginal culture and historic sites, a new provincial report suggests.

Alberta is aiming to drive up its tourism revenue by more than 30 per cent over the next seven years, hoping to attract enough visitors to make the industry worth $10.3 billion by 2020.

The province recently released an 82-page โ€œTourism Frameworkโ€ as a starting point toward that goal, setting out an overview of the industry with an eye to its future.

The framework is a blueprint for industry growth, according to Richard Starke, minister of tourism, parks and recreation.

โ€œWe believe that our industry is very much poised on the cusp of a time of significant growth,โ€ he said.

Growing the industry from $7.8 billion to $10.3 billion is ambitious but attainable, Starke said.

โ€œThe trump card that weโ€™ve always had in Alberta are our iconic destinations, whether it be the Rocky Mountains or our northern lakes and forests,โ€ he added.

โ€œOur landscapes are known world-wide. We have locations in our province that are recognizable by people all over the world.โ€

The report highlights the provinceโ€™s need to work with the federal government on making Alberta more accessible by air, to research and market tourism effectively and to work together among regions. The report gives a regional breakdown of tourism supply and demand. The south region, including Lethbridge, has strong supply and demand for specialty lodging and historical tourism, it notes, but while the region also has a strong supply of aboriginal cultural activities, those activities see only moderate demand.

Thereโ€™s opportunity to put more focus on sites such as Writing-On-Stone and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump as well as events like Lethbridgeโ€™s international powwow, according to Nikolaus Wyslouzil of Chinook Country Tourist Association.

โ€œThe challenge is, youโ€™re not going to grow (tourism) in the mountain parks because the mountain parks, for parts of the year, are full. So how are you going to grow tourism? Well, the only opportunity that you really see is the other parts of the province,โ€ said Wyslouzil, who was involved in consultations for the provincial framework.

โ€œWe have a very unique opportunity. We have very strong aboriginal product that is in high demand from some overseas markets,โ€ he added.

But to meet any provincial tourism goals, distinct regions in Alberta canโ€™t operate as silos, he said. Instead, collaboration is key.

โ€œIt will be difficult to grow tourism to those numbers without the regions of the province working stronger together. Thereโ€™s no point in Lethbridge fighting over the same people as Medicine Hat,โ€ even though both cities may appeal to similar markets, Wyslouzil said.

In 2011, according to Statistics Canada, 2.8 million people visited southwestern Alberta. They spent $331 million in region on things like food, accommodations, transportation, retail and recreation.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...