Pictured above Colin Ferguson, President and CEO of Travel Manitoba
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ValleyBiz Story | Swan Valley RISE (RISE) and the Swan Valley Chamber of Commerce, along with Travel Manitoba hosted a Tourism Planning Session on October 4, 2017 during which Travel Manitoba and RISE presented their strategic tourism plans.
Travel Manitoba
Travel Manitoba is visiting communities across the province to better understand their tourism products. To attract international visitors, direct marketing efforts focus on experiences such as Arctic Safari Adventures, Canadian Museum of Human Rights and Winnipeg as a cultural oasis. Plans are underway to begin marketing Indigenous, Francophone and Metis culture to the world as well as marketing Winter-peg/The Forks as a winter destination for Manitoba travelers.
Last year RISE received a $17,250 grant toward the $26,000 cost of developing a tourism plan. “What did we do?” asked RISE’s Economic Development Officer, Heather Nielsen, “We hired Chris Fields.” In December of 2016 Fields, of 13 Ways Inc. out of Calgary, held an evening planning session in Swan River with 17 representatives from the tourism industry across the Valley.
The Valley’s tourism strengths were identified as Outdoor Active Adventure, Snowmobiling, and the Northwest Roundup. Transportation infrastructure and the lack of air and bus service were noted as weaknesses. Fields recommended expanding activities at Wellman Lake and the possibility of developing a resort at Thunder Hill.
Click here for a more detailed list from the presentation.
New Marketing Message – GET OUT
Fields also felt the Valley’s marketing needed to be more edgy and devised the catch phase “GET OUT!” to market our outdoor resources and lifestyle. Nielsen explained that the catch phrase could be used with various concepts such as GET OUT! … and let nature’s way in.
Tourism Next Steps
As a next step, RISE has decided to focus on trails and has applied for a grant, in partnership with Valley in the Mountains Tourism and Swan Valley Sport Fish (SVSP), to collect GPS data for the all of the trails in the Valley.
“Brock and Holly [of SVSP] are in the bush all the time. They are going to be providing us with maps, it is all going to be GPS’d out.” explained Nielsen. The maps will be provided in 2 formats – KMZ files, for downloading to smart phone or gps and pdf for printing.
Nielsen explained that quadding is one issue they are not sure how to deal with. “There is only one authorized trail right now and that is Mossberry Trail out of Blue Lakes.” she said, adding “There is nothing else that is authorized.”