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Meet Alberta's Top Travellers

Alberta’s top travellers are based on Destination Canada’s (DC) Traveller Segmentation Program, which defines and targets the best guests from priority markets. This AI-powered program highlights unique traveller segments — called Highly Engaged Guests (HEG) — representing the diverse people who visit Canada and what drives them to travel. 

These guests travel often and spend more, and most importantly, are strongly aligned with our values and deeply connected to our brand. In Alberta, three segments emerge as our ideal visitors: Outdoor Explorers, Culture Seekers and Refined Globetrotters. In some instances, City Trippers should also be considered as an important segment, even though they are not regarded as Highly Engaged Guests overall.

A suite of tools, training programs, and quizzes can help you better reach and understand these audiences, determine when to launch campaigns, craft creative that inspires action, and refine your tourism experiences to drive measurable results.

Lake Minnewanka Tour Boat at sunrise, couple looking off back of boat.

Our Traveller Profiles

Two people cross-country ski across a wide snowy landscape with mountain peaks and bright sunlight in the background.

Outdoor Explorers

Outdoor Explorers pursue adrenaline-spiking adventures in nature, including hiking, skiing, and whitewater rafting. They are daring, always up to a challenge, thrive in unknown landscapes, and travel to discover new experiences and places. These travellers want to grow and learn new skills in unique and unexplored destinations.

Meet Outdoor Explorers
A small group of people gather in a forest as one person in a yellow fringed jacket points out plants along a wooded trail.

Culture Seekers

Culture Seekers thrive on connections with history, art, and new people. Their free-spirited nature draws them to a destination’s authentic side, whether cultural experiences or regional cuisine. They are known to seek out Indigenous medicine walks and interpretive tours, or to attend festivals and support local talent.

Meet Culture Seekers

Refined Globetrotters

Refined Globetrotters prioritize exclusive, high-value experiences and discovering new locations. You will likely find them exploring the Canadian Rockies via helicopter tour or unwinding in an award-winning spa. These travellers live to indulge in luxurious stays and gourmet cuisine in world-class destinations.

Meet Refined Globetrotters
Friends enjoying the Edmonton Folk Festival with downtown Edmonton in the background

City Trippers

City Trippers travel to let loose and break free from routine. They want to seize every moment in a dynamic destination, filling their days with a wide variety of activities. These sociable travellers don’t hesitate to indulge in concerts, local restaurants, and nights on the town.

Meet City Trippers

Explore Destination Canada's Traveller Segmentation Program

Visit the Canadian Tourism Data Collective

Program Resources & Tools

This 25-minute e-course highlights the Traveller Segmentation Program’s full capabilities. Explore key insights and benefits to best utilize the program for your research, marketing, and destination development needs.

Take the E-Course

One of the agents under Aurora AI, Traveller Twin allows you to chat with Highly Engaged Guests, revealing how each traveller segment thinks, plans, and makes decisions.

Learn about Aurora AI

The Destination Quiz identifies which traveller segments your destination or tourism offerings most appeal to. Use the results to plan your products and market to your top audiences or attract new segments.

Take the Destination Quiz

Travel Alberta’s destination and commercial development team works to help tourism operators thrive. Whether you require support with planning, investments, or networking, our qualified team is in your corner.

Meet the Destination and Commercial Development Team

Destination Canada’s Traveller Segmentation Program

Understanding Our Ideal Travellers

Travel Alberta has shifted our segmentation from Alberta-focused Ultimate Travellers to align with Destination Canada’s new national Traveller Segmentation Program. This move has already yielded more effective and efficient ad campaigns.

Designed for the entire Canadian tourism industry, the program features AI-supported tools and insights tailored to empower a broad range of stakeholders. It’s built for destination marketers and researchers, destination and product developers, tourism businesses, SMEs, and agency partners.

From Ultimate Travellers to Highly Engaged Guests

With the 2026 adjustment from Ultimate Travellers (Curious Adventurers & Hotspot Hunters) to Highly Engaged Guests (Outdoor Explorers, Culture Seekers & Refined Globetrotters), it’s important to note that the two groups still share many similarities, including values, trip drivers, and interests in Alberta activities.

Here are some high-level ways to think about the connection between the new segments:

Outdoor Explorers

are the closest match with Curious Adventurers as they both value a sense of discovery and exploring off-the-beaten-path places.

Culture Seekers

share Curious Adventurers’ desire to learn, but like Hotspot Hunters, are focused on maximizing time spent.

Refined Globetrotters

like Hotspot Hunters, are drawn to our iconic attractions.

All Highly Engaged Guests

segments are similar in preferring discovery to accomplishment and in terms of their planning habits, they start researching approximately three months in advance.

Alongside the improved tools and insights, the new segmentation allows us to expand our targeting, giving us more scale, spend, and value where it matters most. In paid media campaigns where both Ultimate Travellers and Highly Engaged Guest audience groups were targeted, HEGs demonstrated higher ad engagement and greater cost efficiencies.

By aligning with Destination Canada on segmentation, we can drive efficiencies and effectiveness across our marketing. This means we’re targeting the same travellers, realizing savings in media buying, and working collaboratively with industry partners across the country to maximize our combined impact in priority markets.

International Market Profiles

Understanding what motivates travellers from each international market is key to identifying which audiences are the best fit for your business. These profiles can help you assess alignment between traveller expectations and your offering, so you can focus your efforts where they will have the greatest impact. Use the insights below to shape experiences and marketing that resonate strongest with the travellers you want to attract.