St. Albert’s tourism services have been chosen to be among the best in the province.
The St. Albert’s Visitor Welcome Centre is a finalist in the Alberta government’s visitor centre Ammy awards. The winner will be announced at a gala on Sept. 29 in Lethbridge.
But employees at the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce, which manages the city’s tourism centre, are celebrating already.
“There are over 111 visitor information centres in the province … and we are up against two of the big boys,” said Jennifer McCurdy, vice president of operations. “We are really excited.”
The Ammy awards, named in honour of Alberta’s official gemstone, ammolite, recognize achievements of Alberta visitor information centres in the categories of operational, visitor servicing and individual excellence.
St. Albert’s centre was announced a finalist for a visitor service excellence award against Tourism Calgary and the CrossIron Mills visitor centre, also near Calgary.
McCurdy said tourism services have only operated out of the chamber building at 71 St. Albert Trail since last June. But they started off with some fresh ideas, which may have helped with the nomination, she said.
One of those was creating a mobile information kiosk, which sets up at different events and festivals held throughout the city in the summer.
“So we got to go where visitors are rather than waiting for them to come to us, which is quite unique in this industry,” McCurdy said.
The chamber also hired two university students as full-time staff for the summer. McCurdy said they extended the city’s reach online by setting up a website and keeping Twitter and Facebook updated.
The city also organized a bus tour for tourism staff in St. Albert early in the summer to teach them about important sights.
At the centre, visitors get to enjoy free water, Wi-Fi, a set of picnic tables and a treasure chest to entertain the children. It also partnered with a geocaching service and gives tourists a prize if they stop by on their trip.
“The students in particular are really looking for different ways to reach out to people,” said McCurdy. “We even find there are a lot of new residents that don’t know all that St. Albert has to offer.”
The visitor welcome centre has operated out of the chamber building since last year, after the chamber struck a deal to provide the service while the city helps out with promotional material and some $30,000 per year. The contract gets renewed annually.
At the awards gala, the centre will now also become accredited with Alberta Tourism.
McCurdy said there are about 50 visitor information centres in the province that have that designation, which requires improved services, such as electric doors, handicap bathrooms and a well-versed staff.
“We’ve just recognized that visitors are a huge component for economic growth in our city and if we can get the visitors to not just drive through but spend some dollars here, that can be a huge impact on the city,” she said.
