With the last meeting of the Innisfail tourism group at the local library learning centre, the 2014 tourism season is officially off and running.
A small group of tourism operators and town officials met on June 9 to discuss summer tourism in Innisfail and future opportunities, in addition to soliciting input on the final brochure design.
“After our initial meetings in winter we changed the tourism brochure and switched the bear out for the beaver this year,” said Helen Dietz, chief administrative officer for the Town of Innisfail. “Historically, our brochure has always been in demand, attracting tourists from around Alberta.
“We want to work with the community and businesses to create tourism opportunities,” added Dietz. “Our brochure is only a tool, one that we have received good feedback on to date but as a community we have to work on connecting between ourselves to generate a buzz.”
She added the Town of Innisfail is working with the local chamber of commerce to bring the Roger Brooks branding webinars to town and is looking forward to seeing how it will change tourism in Innisfail.
Leona Staples, of the Jungle Farm, noted that one third of its traffic last weekend came from Calgary, which was echoed by the Danish Canadian National Museum & Gardens as well.
“We get a lot of traffic from north and south of Innisfail,” said Staples. “There is also more traffic from families who stay in a campground for a week, while one of the parents works. That is one area we can work on attracting more of.”
Dietz pointed out the Innisfail Golf Club is working with local hotels such as the Innisfail Best Western and the Super 8 Innisfail to provide a stay-and-play package.
Surina Carloni, the town's marketing and social media coordinator, added there is a process where tour operators can add events to the town's new and improved website.
“That should help us promote Innisfail tourism,” said Carloni. “The more operators take charge of putting their events on portals such as the town website, the more ownership they take.”
She added the town takes care of getting their brochures out and posting events on the websites of Tourism Red Deer and Alberta Tourism.
Other tourism suggestions, such as an attractions passport and a progressive supper, were put forth by attendees, which generated discussion and some buy-in.
“We will work on putting a tourism committee together closer to the fall of 2014,” said Dietz. “Once we are able to have the group generate tourism strategies and promotions, the town will kick in as necessary to make them a reality.”
Information on tourism activities in the Innisfail area can be found on the Town of Innisfail website or at the tourism booth, which now operates seven days a week.
