More family visits leading spike in local tourism
Red Deer was among many communities and regions across the province to see increased tourism in 2016.
This week, the province’s Culture and Tourism department released data from Statistics Canada showing tourism spending in Alberta totalled $8.5 billion in 2016, an increase of 4.7 per cent over 2015, with almost 35 million visits made to the province, an over two per cent increase from 2015.
Tourism Red Deer Executive Director Liz Taylor says that growth continued in 2017 as well, thanks in large part to great summer weather.
“I think all of the long weekends were in pretty good shape last year,” recalls Taylor. “The Canada 150 celebrations, there were a lot of activities. We’re starting to see a lot of the small meetings come back into Red Deer and of course with the news of the Canadian Finals Rodeo and the Canada Winter Games, things are really starting to become busier in Red Deer.”