Canmore Business and Tourism is officially Canmore Business and Tourism.
The organization has been operating under two names over the past few years – as CBT and as Tourism Canmore Kananaskis – and CEO Andrew Nickerson acknowledged at the organization’s annual general meeting in June that it has been a confusing way to do business with two different brands.
“As an organization it made a lot of sense three years ago,” he said. “As we move forward we want to get rid of any confusion at this point. Tourism Canmore Kananaskis does not exist any more and we will wholly be Canmore Business and Tourism.”
And by sticking to just one name to operate, Nickerson said it is a recognition of the fact that CBT is more than a destination marketing organization – it is an economic development organization.
CBT is contracted to perform economic development work by the municipality and Nickerson said work to promote the region as a tourism destination can be considered as economic development work.
“We have been saying for some time that destination marketing organizations as they existed are a thing of the past,” he said. “It is no longer a case of going out and promoting (the destination) – it is an integral part of economic development.
“We are seeing more and more organizations trying to align themselves the same way.”
He said work to market Canmore and Kananaskis as a destination is different than it was even several years ago – it is no longer about booking ads, it is about generating content and that means a lot of work is online.
“We really do punch above our weight in terms of other destination marketing organizations,” Nickerson said.
If visitor numbers are any sign that work has been successful with a 13 per cent growth in visitor numbers in 2014 compared to the year before. Hotel occupancy figures also the revenue generated per visitor is also up.
“That is significantly higher in terms of growth than anywhere else in the province and certainly when compared to other places in the Rockies,” Nickerson said, adding 2015 so far has also seen positive growth trends.
While in a province like Alberta there is a lot of doom and gloom around the price of oil and gas, he said, it is a situation that could benefit the valley. Nickerson said cheaper gas prices and a stronger American dollar would translate into more visitors here.
“At the beginning of the year we were cautiously optimistic, now we are optimistic,” he said.
Nickerson also celebrated a number of successes for the organization in 2014, including hosting the Canada’s West Marketplace in November. The trade show brought tourism industry delegates to Canmore for the first time and they got to experience what is offered here. Nickerson said the trade show will generate millions of dollars for the local economy in years to come.
“A big part of what we are doing is creating vibrancy so when people come there they experience is there,” he said.
The second year of Uncorked was also a big success for CBT, Nickerson said, with even more participation from businesses.
While there are successes to celebrate, he also spoke of the challenges CBT has encountered including how the organization is funded, changes to the temporary foreign worker program last year and a need for affordable housing in the community.
Although CBT is a membership based organization, that membership is not mandatory for businesses in Canmore. CBT does contract work for the municipality, but it is a voluntary group of hotels that place a surcharge on rooms and use that money generated to fund CBT. That group represents 70 per cent of the hotel rooms in Canmore and accounts for the majority of CBT’s revenues.
