By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

New Destination Lethbridge Tourism and Information Centre slated to open in May

Apr 24, 2018 | 1:12 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Over the next month, the face of tourism in Lethbridge will be drastically changing, with new strategies to attract, host, educate and recruit visitors to the city.

During the Community Issues Committee (CIC) meeting Monday, April 24, Lethbridge Destination Management Organization’s (LDMO) Executive Director William Slenders updated committee members with a presentation that included a multi- pronged approach.

Slenders described partnering with multiple community organizations, new marketing and advertising plans, presenting a new budget and plan to City Council, opening a new tourism centre in the city’s downtown, adding interactive kiosks at strategic locations across the city, creating new apps and better websites, and potentially even creating new e-sports events like drone racing.

According to Slenders, who was hired in early January, about 1.5 year’s worth of work has been completed in just three months, and much more needs to be done in the next several weeks, as tourist season kicks into high gear.

“We’re going to focus on three primary explorer quotients: The “no hassle travelers,” the “authentic experiencers,” and the “cultural explorers.” These three psychographic profiles all have very similar like-minded characteristics. For us, we have a much more efficient way to access these markets.

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“What’s unique about the research we’ve done is that for the first time now too, we also have a very pin-point accuracy of the communities that have the highest populations of these explorer types. So instead of putting our money into… widespread publications and hoping for the best, now with the information we have, we can be almost surgical…about the communities we want to be in to help attract potential consumers.”

Those communities, he says, include Red Deer, Regina, Medicine Hat, Swift Current, Calgary, and Cranbrook.

Part of the extensive plans include attracting those travellers to a Destination Showcase and Information Centre on 5 St. S.

“The current location is 327 5 St. It’s right next to where 10,000 Villages used to be…the location of that was to try and inspire more downtown traffic and walk through.”

A soft launch of the centre will occur in the second week of May, with the grand opening just before the May long weekend.

As for the current Chinook Country Visitor Information Centre located at the intersection of Scenic Drive and Mayor Magrath/Hwy 5, Slenders said Chinook Country Tourism is still trying to figure out what to do with it. The location and information contained there generally is more regionally-focused, whereas the Destination Information Centre downtown will be much more city-focused. 

“We’ve been working…to try and determine what to do with that location. Chinook Country Tourism Association will be operating that VIC for the summer as a VIC. They’re going to attempt to keep that open…we’re still in development to determine what will happen with that location.”

Slenders explained that LDMO is also working on three new websites, potentially creating new mobile-friendly apps and even new digital access information displays that will be installed or created sometime after the new downtown centre opens. 

“It’s a touch-screen digital kiosk that we’re looking to implement around the community,” said Slenders.”Each of these kiosks will be pre-programmed for each of the three different websites, and then as well, through a new piece of technology, be able to give us trackable metrics for how many people are using them at each location.”

The plan is to install five units at various attractions throughout the city, and then to potentially expand into other areas, including local restaurants.

Slenders said they don’t have a dollar figure for the cost of all the changes but emphasized they’re trying to utilize “micro-low cost technologies” where everything can be built cost effectively.

He also mentioned potential partners absorbing some of the costs and tracking data. Still, the organization will be approaching council for funding in the future.

“We will be asking for the fee for service agreement. That will be continually and yearly done. Same to what has been done in the previous extent with Chinook Country Tourism Association or EDL (Economic Development Lethbridge). In the meantime, we’re really looking at every means possible to create new opportunities for the organization to collect revenue.”

In the meantime, Slenders says the LDMO will work with the current tourism organizations in the community and will continue to evaluate their policies. Their four-year budget and business plan should be available in the next month.