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Banff National Park is on track for record attendance this season as Canada’s oldest park adds new attractions such as heated ski chairlifts and ladders to assist climbers scale the peaks. Nearby, the story-book castle that’s the place to find the Banff Springs Hotel is packed with tourists from around the world. It’s an uncommon supply of positive news in a Canadian province whose economy is forecast to contract for a second year in 2016.
“The mountain parks are undoubtedly the busiest parks, with Banff undoubtedly getting the most critical tourist use,” said Daniel Watson, ceo of Parks Canada, the federal agency that oversees the world’s largest park system, by telephone from Ottawa. “Canada has truly probably the most remarkable places on earth.”
With Alberta’s oil-driven economy suffering from a large number of job losses, billions of dollars of foregone investment and little prospect of a go back to the boom days of the past decade, a 17 per cent slide in the Canadian dollar over the past 2 yrs is stoking tourism — and also the long-standing debate over development versus conservation in Banff, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Unlike Alberta’s main oil industry, which accounts for a quarter from the provincial economy and it has attracted a lot more than $100 billion in investment in the last decade, Banff continues to be careful to build up at a slower pace. Established in 1885, the park hosts about 80 grizzly bears, elk and alpine wildflowers.
It’s been slowly introducing new adventures for tourists. Attendance is anticipated to rise 7.4 per cent to 3.86 million tourists in the entire year ending March 31, 2016 following a 10 % rise in the previous year, according to Parks Canada projections. That’s probably the most since a minimum of 2000 when the federal agency changed the actual way it counted visitors.
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Alberta’s provincial government is looking to tourism to assist offset a devastating oil and gas slump, aiming to boost revenue from visitors to the province by about 25 per cent to more than $10 billion by 2020. Tourism accounts for about 4.3 percent of the provincial economy with much of the game happening in Banff.
Alberta’s tourism marketing agency is looking towards the U.S., Quebec and China to create more non-Albertan tourists towards the province, said Royce Chwin, ceo of Travel Alberta. The current recession is “certainly a risk, however it depends upon just how long it lasts,” he explained.
The recently installed via ferrata — a method of ladders on cliffs — on Mt. Norquay permits the ski hill to bring in summer guests along with winter skiers who take advantage of the region’s light, powdery snow because of the cold, dry climate.
Canada has truly some of the most remarkable places on the planet.
“It had been amazing,” said Michael White, a 52-year-old tech worker from nearby Calgary whose traveling bug has taken him to national parks in Asia and Africa. He tried the via ferrata soon after it opened in 2014. “Now I take my friends who arrived at visit.”
Brewster Inc., a tourist company started by two brothers in 1892 to steer visitors through the mountains and now owned by Phoenix-based Viad Corp., opened the Glacier Skywalk in Jasper National Park in 2014. The glass deck, stretches over a 280-metre cliff (918-foot) and gives views of the Rocky Mountains. About 288 kilometres from Banff, it’s become another hit among tourists.
Brewster, which has had “high-single digit” annual development in visitors since 2009, aims to improve repeat visits by constantly updating the interpretive experience much like museums while maintaining exactly the same development footprint, Skywalk Chief Executive Officer David McKenna said by phone. “Visitors can come back every 3 to 5 many find something new to re-engage them in the area,” he explained.
Global businesses are taking notice. Accor SA, the French hotel operator, agreed to take over the brand and management of the Banff Springs Hotel, one of Canada’s oldest and architecturally most beautiful resorts, this past year. Visits to your accommodation have remained steady and also the hotel is gearing up for the busy summer months, said Angela Moore, a spokeswoman.
Not everyone is pleased with the increasing number of people to the park. New construction like the via ferrata and the Skywalk has prompted opposition from environmentalists arguing for defense of grizzly bears.
Greater reliance upon tourism in Alberta means the federal government has to promote other parts from the province to make sure Banff’s environment doesn’t become compromised, said Peter Poole, a conservationist who has worked with indigenous groups to safeguard land and runs Arctos & Bird, a Banff-based project management software firm.
“A core element has to be conservation,” he said in an interview within the town. “As selling visitors a false hope and they come to the park and it’s all being turned upside down from development pressures, the visitors are likely to leave dismayed and won’t come back.”
In addition, the town of Banff continues to be plagued by lack of housing as growth comes up against limits imposed by Parks Canada, which sets the rules for growth in nature. That’s been partially alleviated by the discharge of lands by the park for new housing, said Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen.
For now, clients are booming. And in contrast to the gas and oil industry, that is struggling in foreign markets because of a insufficient pipelines or liquefied gas facilities, Banff has already been winning Asian and European customers.
Bloomberg News
