Despite another challenging year for our industry, significant progress was made in the first year of the Bootstrap plan. While our full 2021-22 annual report won’t be published until July, we thought Tourism Week was an opportune time to share a few key successes realized this year.
The Team Alberta approach was key to realizing these successes and the work we achieved together helped to retrench the industry and position us well for the coming year.
MARKETING
Aligning with key partners from across the province, we encouraged Albertans to explore their own backyard over the summer and led an interprovincial search engine marketing program, paid social media campaign and direct-to-partner campaign. These efforts helped to soften the economic blow felt by the absence of international visitors.
| Largest-ever domestic summer marketing campaign resulted in 290,000 leads to Alberta tourism businesses. |
As border restrictions eased, Travel Alberta re-entered the U.S. market in partnership with Destination Canada, strategically targeting Texas, California and New York. In parallel with marketing efforts, we worked closely with airline partners to re-establish key routes from these cities and with DMO partners to restart major meetings and events.
| Over 1.5 million clicks to the Travel Alberta website and another 402,000 to partner websites. |
ACCESS
As a fly-to destination, air access is essential to the rebound and growth of Alberta’s visitor economy. That’s why we work closely with airlines and airports to determine priority routes.
| Re-established over 46,000 incremental seats across seven routes and 24 weekly flights between Calgary (YYC) and Edmonton (YEG) international airports and key U.S. destinations. |
PLACE
We took a proactive approach to financially assist tourism businesses, municipalities, not-for-profits and destination organizations through our capital and cooperative investment programs.
| CAPITAL | COOPERATIVE | PROJECTS SUPPORTED |
| $6M | $6.1M | 249 (including 20 Indigenous) |
Alberta is poised to be the top global destination for Indigenous tourism. Beyond economics, providing Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs and Indigenous communities with a platform to be the leading voice in reclaiming their space is key to reconciliation efforts.
| Signed a three-year, $3.75 million partnership agreement with Indigenous Tourism Alberta (ITA) to support reconciliation efforts and foster positive economic and social outcomes for Indigenous communities by highlighting visitor experiences unique to Alberta. |
We provided coaching and development support to small and medium-sized enterprises to create new experiences. Additionally, support was provided to help navigate ongoing closures and health-related restrictions.
| Alberta has 47 new tourism experiences, including four Indigenous experiences. |
This is just a small snapshot of what you can expect to see in our 2021-22 annual report coming out in July. While in many ways the last year has at times felt like a game of snakes and ladders, we did make progress. And as we move into 2022-23, there is optimism.
Our industry is on the path to recovery and the future is bright.
