If website statistics are any indication – and they are – then it’s looking like tourism in the Cochrane area has started to strongly recover from any ill-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the last couple of years.
Cochrane Tourism’s web campaign to promote what the area has to offer boasted 11 million impressions in 2022 – a 300 per cent increase from the year before. An impression means a user has seen (or potentially seen) a link to your site in Search, Discover or News.
Cochrane Tourism exec Jo-Anne Oucharek said promotions like the Girls’ Getaway campaign have helped put Cochrane on the tourism map. (The Girls’ Getaway weekend promotes local amenities like restaurants, spas, art galleries, pottery-making, and other venues).
She said visitors are coming for a taste of what Cochrane has to offer from all over Alberta.
“We’re attracting people from Medicine Hat, Calgary, and Edmonton, mostly for day trips,” she said.
All of those visits mean economic benefits accrue to the whole town, not just those businesses directly involved in tourism.
“Say somebody buys an ice cream cone at MacKay’s,” Oucharek said. “We know the $5 goes to the store owners to replenish supplies, they hire students, they also need services.
“And we’re the fastest growing town, so the real estate agents benefit, too – when people visit, they want to move here,” Oucharek said.
Every dollar that’s spent in Cochrane changes hands about 10 times on average, so a $5 ice cream cone translates into a $50 dollar impact.
Provincial statistics indicate there are 21 million vehicles going through the Highway 1A/22 intersection annually. Cochrane Tourism’s goal isn’t to get 21 million cars to stop in town, but some more would be good.
Oucharek said the new tourism zones recently developed by the provincial government will help the Cochrane area expand into becoming an overnight destination.
“If a family of four stops for gas, they’re going to spend $72. If they get out of the car, they’re going to double that. If they stay overnight, they quadruple that,” she said.
In 2022, Travel Alberta identified 10 rural tourism development zones. Cochrane-Sundre/Rocky Mountain House was identified as one of those zones.
The good news for Cochrane Tourism coincided with National Tourism Week, which is recognized annually from April 24 to 30.
Now in its 13th year, National Tourism Week is a week-long campaign presented by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC). The week seeks to highlight and celebrate the importance of the tourism sector in Canada.
A TIAC news release stated, “As we are poised on the brink of the first peak travel season without pandemic-related border restrictions; the sector is focused on powering through the global challenges of economic uncertainty, the labour shortage, supply chain issues, and other obstacles, to spotlight Canada as the welcoming and vibrant travel destination that it is.”
According to the association, tourism generates one in 10 jobs in the country and was contributing $105 billion to the economy pre-pandemic.
