A strategy for increasing tourist spending in Sylvan Lake has been accepted by town councillors and will form the basis for budget discussions following this month’s election.
Consultant Kent Stewart reviewed the corporate tourism strategy prepared through a series of meetings since the spring.
The vision statement developed was “Sylvan Lake is the premier year round, lakeside community in Alberta, where proud residents welcome guests with great hospitality”.
He noted the first steps in realizing Sylvan’s tourism potential have been started, including work on the waterfront area and in creating a walkable downtown retail cluster.
“The vision for tourism in Sylvan Lake is not one of simply a beach attraction. Rather it is a themed ‘downtown district’ within the broader, prosperous and growing community of Sylvan Lake,” states the strategy.
Four strategic priorities were developed — organization and communications; tourism product and experience development, tourism marketing and accessibility and circulation.
Under those strategies a number of key results have been identified with timelines.
Within the first strategy the first thing to do is an economic impact assessment to determine the value of tourism in Sylvan Lake. Second on the list is creating a dedicated tourism organization that leads tourism development and marketing. Establishing this organization is an important first step in moving forward, Stewart said.
In tourism product and experience development, results include three new, unique niche businesses are attracted to the downtown district by 2016; overnight accommodation supply is increased by 20 per cent by 2015 and a further 20 per cent by 2018; one new major tourist attractor is developed and three new major events are attracted.
Reviewing investments required by the municipality, Stewart said the town’s contribution to the start-up and operation of a Destination Management Organization has been estimated at $125,000 annually for the five year period of the strategy. This may support staffing, core office costs, marketing and leveraging. Human resources requirements equal one full time person which could be either a contracted resource internally or externally. In his presentation, Stewart said after the first year’s $125,000, the investment in year two and following was estimated at $238,000. Some of the money is anticipated to come from government grants and businesses which directly benefit from tourism.
The cost of various strategic priorities and key results are provided in chart form within the document.
Vicki Kurz, the town’s economic development officer, wrote in her report to council that she’ll be seeking feedback after the election “to ensure adequate preparation and funding is in place to execute the final plan”.
Councillor Sean McIntyre said communications is going to be vital if the town proceeds with this significant investment over the next three years. “All in all I think it’s a sound strategy. What remains to be seen is if the new group after the election is going to be convinced to invest.”
“As council, we should be proud of the work done on Lakeshore Drive,” said Mayor Susan Samson. “We’ve set the ball in motion. $60,000 was spent on this strategy. I think it goes so far down the road there’s not stopping now. This community’s backbone is tourism, we just keep riding that ship.”