Banff Lake Louise Tourism, Parks Canada and the Town of Banff are joining forces to come up with ways to lure more visitors to the park in the face of increasing competition globally.
Banff National Park, like most tourism destinations around the world, is trying to pull itself from the depths of a long and painful recession and is now focusing on trying to gain a competitive edge.
The Destination Competitiveness Initiative will feature a panel of industry leaders chaired by Julie Canning, president and CEO of Banff Lake Louise Tourism and co-chaired by the Town of Banff and Parks Canada.
The panel will meet regularly over the next three months to deliver a final report and a summary of recommendations during the summer.
Tourism officials say they will focus on what tourism trends are defining competitiveness in the tourism industry and what this region needs to do to win over current and future travellers.
As well, they say, they need to determine exactly what they have to do to ensure the destination remains competitive and sustainable given the demographics of travellers and that what they are looking for is changing.
They say there are no predetermined ideas on the table.
“It’s a very positive first step to hopefully identifying some big ideas that we can collectively agree on that benefit our competitiveness,” said Canning.
“It’s the tourism industry coming together in a united way, saying ‘we can compete’.”
Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen is a member of the panel.
“As the mayor, I will have to play pretty close attention to what we need to do in order to be more competitive,” she said. “I have to look at what the Town’s role is, for example, whether it’s money or infrastructure, for example.”
