Tourism continues to thrive despite economic uncertainty
Posted Mar 5, 2015 5:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There’s at least one industry that continues to stay strong despite the economic uncertainty plaguing Calgary and all of Alberta.
Tourism is thriving and stakeholders are looking forward to another banner year full of events.
According to the recent Hotel Price Index released by Hotels.com, room rates in the province have gone up by three per cent when you look at year-over-year figures.
Calgary remained the same but Edmonton and Canmore saw increases.
These are equivalent to some of the national and international numbers they’ve released, which saw the figures increase by five per cent.
Jeff Hessel is the vice-president of marketing with Tourism Calgary and doesn’t appear to be surprised by some of the figures.
“Everything that we look at for tourism, all the experiences, they’re all continuing into 2015, so we have lots of great things for people to come into the city for, none of that is changing,” he said.
Hessel admits the low price of oil has been a concern and adds it’s something they’re watching closely.
“We’re watching a lot of the indicators, we don’t have any conclusive information and as we monitor that, really what we’re looking for is seeing what’s taking place in the city and what are people coming to city for,” he said “We’re seeing a wonderful year of sport, we’re hosting 12 national championship, three world championships, five international competitions and with the Brier happening in our town this week, it’s a great opportunity for people to come and enjoy the year of sport.”
“We’re focusing on all the great events and things to do, with the economy the way that it is, we keep moving forward in selling Calgary as a destination.”
They’re currently using a three-pronged approach in trying to achieve that goal and keep the momentum going by targeting regional tourists, eastern Canadians travelers and those outside of the country.
