By Charles Lefebvre

Number of visitors to Medicine Hat up from 2017

Mar 6, 2019 | 4:25 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Destination Marketing Organization released its tourism numbers for 2018 Wednesday afternoon.

The organization presented its 2018 annual report to members of the Development and Infrastructure Committee at City Hall.

According to the report, 21,986 visitors checked in to the Medicine Hat Visitors Centre, up 2.5 per cent from 2017, where 21,376 visitors checked in.

The Destination Marketing Organization also operates the Visitors Centre in Walsh during the summer and reported 22,852 visitors at the centre in 2018.

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Jace Anderson, executive director of the organization, says he’s impressed with the numbers, considering other places in Alberta saw declines.

“The 2017 year was Canada’s 150th, and part of that celebration was free parks access,” he said on Wednesday. “A lot of our stakeholders, and a lot of our counterparts elsewhere in the province saw a marked increase in 2017, and then they weren’t all able to hold the line in 2018. Without it being Canada’s 150th with free park access, some of the drive traffic in the province decreased.”

Anderson credits local stakeholders, ranging from the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, to cultural organizations such as Medalta and local restaurants and breweries, for helping convince people to stay in Medicine Hat.

“The more that our stakeholders marketing and those messages get out to the consideration of the traveller, and we have a compelling reason to get them to stay in market, the more likely they are to spend time with us,” he said. “That’s where we start to see modest increases, even at a time when elsewhere in the province, some of the numbers might not be growing.”

Anderson says one of the focuses of the coming year is to not only convince people to visit Medicine Hat, but potentially relocate. The organization put a relocation guide for Medicine Hat online, and saw the number of people accessing it double in 2018, according to the report.

“I think it speaks a lot to the number of people who are contemplating relocating here, and taking a look at the different job and career opportunities, and the culture and community opportunities from a beautiful place to live,” he said.