Jasper Adjusts Marketing Ahead of Mountain Town Alberta’s Tourism Spike | The Canadian News

On a cold Monday in early December, Jasper’s main streets are almost deserted.

The restaurants and gift shops, which are often crowded, are empty, as are blocks and blocks of hotel parking lots in the mountain city of western Alberta.

At Marmot Basin Ski Resort, the only delay to get on the chairlift is to lift the required mask.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down travel in March 2020, it didn’t take long for the tourism-dependent city to feel the effect.

Typically packed with tens of thousands of visitors, the mountain escape was narrowed down to just its 5,000 residents.

Eventually, albeit slowly, the Albertans began to return. Some chose the destination after having to cancel international travel.

After being open for more than a decade, CoCo’s Café saw its customer base shift from primarily tourists to all locals.

“I had a lot of support and it was not enough without tourism, Jasper would not survive. Like there’s no way, ”said owner Lynn Wannop.

The city knows that tourism will be crucial in its economic recovery, but attracting visitors and serving a different way of life will require creativity.

In the past, marketing has focused on the obvious assets the city offers. Tourism Jasper President and CEO James Jackson calls it the “mountains, moose and mounts” approach.

But Jackson is moving away from that. Instead, focusing on city safety. That includes the ability to reserve a fully self-catering cabin where visitors can avoid potential exposure to the virus from other tourists.

Another selling feature: the safety offered by the city with its inclusion.

Jasper’s pride

On their website, Tourism Jasper has a full page dedicated to LGBTQ travelers.

Blogs, videos, and photos introduce the LGBTQ community and provide recommendations on where to eat, sleep, and tour.

“There was no sophisticated marketing strategy developed to specifically target that market,” explained Jackson.

“We just looked at our community, the values ​​it has, and we realized that, you know, this place is incredibly open and safe, welcoming and inclusive.”

Locals believe those values ​​come from the large numbers of international workers flooding the ski hills and campgrounds.

“We spend six months a year with people from all over the world. So as a small place, we have so many different perspectives just injected, ”Jasper Pride Co-President Maggie Sammon told Global News.

To capitalize on that, Jasper pride is expanding its famous festival from four days to ten in 2022. It is the only gay ski week in a Canadian national park.

The festival was mostly virtual this year due to health restrictions, so organizers hope that a larger and longer event will attract visitors from around the world.

“If we bring 100,000 people who will book their hotel rooms and they all come, for example, to Coco’s Cafe to buy their coffee and come to the local restaurants, that is also an economic boost,” explained the co-president of the festival. Joost Tijssen.

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“I’m not going to lie, after COVID, I think every community could need a boost like that.”

Locals say they have heard from tourists how much the inclusive nature of the city means to them.

Same-sex couples will come from countries where they could be jailed, or worse, for walking down the street holding hands.

Tijssen hopes that people will recognize that and use that knowledge when planning their next vacation.

“Not being able to go to a country where you can’t be yourself, please don’t go. Spend your money elsewhere because they don’t deserve it. “

Wannop first put a pride decal on the CoCo’s window more than a decade ago and hopes tourists know that Jasper will continue to be a safe place in the future.

“We, as young entrepreneurs, when I have several friends like us, we are the ones who are going to run this city for years to come. So we need to make sure it is a place we are proud to call home, ”said Wannop.

Promotion of indigenous stories

Indigenous tourism is the fastest growing part of the tourism industry and Jasper has several offerings.

Matricia Bauer’s company, Warrior Women, offers corporate training, fireside talks and plant walks to share indigenous knowledge in and around Jasper.

Plant walks give visitors a hand in learning about the things that can be found in the park and that the indigenous people use in cooking or traditional medicine.

After 215 children’s graves were discovered in a former residential school in Kamloops, Bauer says interest increased.

“People are looking for their own personal reconciliation and how are they personally responsible for that?”

That includes Canadians adding an educational experience to their skiing or hiking weekend.

But international tourists have also come to learn about the past, present and future of Canada’s indigenous peoples.

Joe Urie tours with his Jasper Tour Company.

Like most groups in the city, it will bring tourists closer to wildlife, but caters for groups looking for more than a photo.

“If you’re that person, there’s someone else you want to go with, not me,” Urie admitted.

“I certainly want to get you closer to the bear where it is safe to do so. But that’s not the goal. “

Instead, he relies on his Metis culture to share words, stories, and jokes about the Jasper area.

Urie says he is white by the way, leading him into a difficult relationship with his Metis background while growing up.

“It was people like me in the past who had the ability to hide in plain sight,” Urie explained.

“That meant that his family could be alienated from the kind of persecution that was occurring due to colonialism against many other indigenous peoples.”

Bauer had the opposite experience. As part of Scoop of the 60s, she was adopted by a white family and went through what she calls an “identity crisis.”

Now, sharing her knowledge with others has helped her heal.

“As an indigenous person, we have always used that heavy cloak of knowledge. We have always been aware of the racism that has existed and we have told that story alone, ”Bauer said.

“The fact that there is more general awareness in Canadian society means that we bear the burden collectively, which means that it lightens the burden for Indigenous peoples.”

Urie has also found the same. That was especially true after a recent tour with a group from Edmonton looking to learn how they can participate in reconciliation.

“We left feeling so renewed together, right? I can feel this and I can feel that it is going in the right direction, ”he said. “I was so grateful to those people, as much as they were grateful for the journey they had with me.”

Both Urie and Bauer say that making people pay for their indigenous teachings is an important part of reconciliation.

“This is called economic reconciliation, and that means elevating indigenous peoples to the point where they are basically even, if not above what happens naturally,” Bauer explained.

“I hope that people never fear that indigenous tourism is trying to occupy all the space. Is not. It’s just trying to get a space that deserves all the time, ”Urie agreed.

It is an honored space in Jasper more than ever as the city works to prove that it is more than mountains for tourists to enjoy.