Longtime Canmore resident and hotelier Jim Muir has been chosen as Travel Alberta’s tourism ambassador of the year.
The 2016 Alto Ambassador was named earlier this month by the provincial destination marketing organization and the award honours an exceptional Albertan who has made an outstanding contribution to the province’s tourism industry.
Muir has spent the last 25 years in the hotel industry and been at the helm of a dozen – and counting – hotel properties that have opened in the province.
“We have constantly been raising the bar,” Muir said. “We opened some new hotels around 20 years ago in Canmore and subsequently have opened newer and better properties.”
He said he is focused on “raising the bar” with each new hotel he is involved in opening. That includes the Malcolm Hotel under construction in Spring Creek Mountain Village, a project Muir’s company, Clique Hotels, is partnered in with developer Frank Kernick.
“I am very excited to be opening a hotel in Canmore that is not a condo hotel that will have a full service restaurant and conference facilities,” Muir said.
Muir’s path into the hotel industry started when he was 16 years old and living in Kitchener, Ont. Having taken a part-time job at a Holiday Inn, he later recalls picking up a brochure for the hotel management program at Fanshaw College in London, Ont.
“I picked it up and knew right away that was what I wanted,” he said. “I never dreamed that I would operate multiple hotels or get the opportunities that I’ve had here in Alberta.”
After graduating from the program, he spent over a decade with Commonwealth Holiday Inns, working across the country and gaining experience in the hotel industry,before moving to the Bow Valley.
“Other than marrying my wife, moving to Alberta is the best decision I ever made,” he said. “The work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit are unlike any other province in Canada.”
In 1996, he founded Summit Resort Management, which became Clique Hotels and Resorts, and has since opened and operated facilities throughout Alberta, including Advantage West Inns & Suites in Fort McMurray, the Acclaim Hotel, Applause Hotel and Hotel Clique in Calgary, and Falcon Crest Lodge, Copperstone Resort, Stoneridge Mountain Resort and Blackstone Mountain Lodge in Canmore.
The award will be presented to Muir at the Travel Alberta industry conference at the end of October.
