In a competitive tourism landscape, we are responding to the rise of the values-motivated consumer. The decisions of both individual leisure travellers and organizations are increasingly guided by their core beliefs, leading them to seek out destinations which reflect their values.

Authentic, focused, shared values are good for our community, environment - and good for business. They differentiate us from the competition, leading to better customer engagement, loyalty, and even advocacy.

In 2023, we built on the work of Lead Tourism for Good to define the following Destination Values for Banff and Lake Louise: Nature, Hospitality and Curiosity; we then identified our Priority Audience – the people with whom our values will most resonate.

To provide structure, continuity, and direction that will keep sight of our long-range mission and the ambitions of the 10-Year Vision for Tourism (10-Year Vision), we have developed our future plans within a Three-Year Framework. Guided by our Board, members, and partners, the framework puts the visitor at the heart of this Business Plan, and focuses our actions through the following four Objectives:

We will Protect Summer Revenue. This is not about increasing the volume of visitors but improving value for our members. To attract guests for longer stays, we will shift focus away from regional Canada to place greater emphasis on our US campaigns, working with partners to strengthen international reach. We will encourage visitors to experience more while they are here, leveraging multiple channels including our outstanding Visitor Services team and award-winning Ambassador Program. In line with the 10-Year Vision, we will evolve our work with Parks Canada, Town of Banff, and others, to encourage responsible visitor behaviour, transit ridership, and respect for our community, wildlife, and environment.

We will Generate Demand for Overnight Stays in Winter. This is our need period, and a real opportunity to strengthen both our economy and Community Wellbeing by creating more consistent demand and employment opportunities throughout the year. As the Destination Marketing Organization for Banff and Lake Louise, we will help drive visitation by strengthening our destination’s collective marketing impact. We will lead the winter marketing campaign, appealing to values-aligned guests to stay mid-week or extend the weekend and we will continue to support and implement a range of events to give our regional audience more reasons to visit, stay and return. Our library of winter content assets will grow to better support members. To draw high-value business visitors and events, we are working to position ourselves as Canada’s leading incentive travel destination.

We will Champion the Visitor Experience. As the quotation above suggests, providing world-class visitor experiences is fundamental to the 10-Year Vision, and to our viability as a destination. With a record of providing outstanding visitor services, we will ensure our team is where the visitor needs us. Whether in-person or online, we will help connect visitors with members while they are planning, before they arrive, and while they are in-destination. Our new Member Portal will provide insights and data to help businesses elevate the experiences they provide. We will conduct an analysis of gaps and opportunities to further inform this work. Importantly, we will continue to reflect the voice of the visitor, and support partners as they advocate for the interests of our members and the wider tourism economy.

We will Shepherd the 10-Year Vision for Tourism. Realizing the 10-Year Vision will “take a village” – or more accurately, the communities of Banff and Lake Louise, and many others. For our part, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism will promote and celebrate members’ and partners’ efforts to advance the five Trails to Tomorrow. Adhering to one of the 10-Year Vision’s guiding principles, Lead By Example, we will ensure that our own organization continues to adopt best practices in support of the 10-Year Vision.

We are taking a relationship-building approach to Indigenous Connections, promoting, and sponsoring Indigenous businesses, and authentic cultural tourism experiences, as well as developing members’ cultural awareness. Addressing Nature Positive and Climate Action, we will review our organization’s greenhouse gas emissions. For Community Wellbeing, we will advance a thoughtful new diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy for our team. For the destination, we will adopt the Global Destination Sustainability Index and establish best practices for environmentally and socially sustainable events - increasingly a deciding factor for businesses and individuals as they choose where to meet and recreate. In the realm of Smart Tourism, we will build on our strong digital foundation as a basis to create a culture of open data.

All of this – progress towards the 10-Year Vision, definition of the Destination Values, creation of this three-year framework and plan – would not have been possible without the input and insights of our members, partners, and community. The time you have given to our committees, advisory groups, taskforces and member surveys, your contributions to the Tourism Together process and to developing the Values, have all been invaluable. Thank you for your commitment. On behalf of our Board of Directors and the team at Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, we are proud to present our three-year framework and 2024 Business Plan.

In a competitive tourism landscape, we are responding to the rise of the values-motivated consumer. The decisions of both individual leisure travellers and organizations are increasingly guided by their core beliefs, leading them to seek out destinations which reflect their values.

Authentic, focused, shared values are good for our community, environment - and good for business. They differentiate us from the competition, leading to better customer engagement, loyalty, and even advocacy. In 2023, we built on the work of Lead Tourism for Good to define the following Destination Values for Banff and Lake Louise: Nature, Hospitality and Curiosity; we then identified our Priority Audience – the people with whom our values will most resonate.

To provide structure, continuity, and direction that will keep sight of our long-range mission and the ambitions of the 10-Year Vision for Tourism (10-Year Vision), we have developed our future plans within a Three-Year Framework. Guided by our Board, members, and partners, the framework puts the visitor at the heart of this Business Plan, and focuses our actions through the following four Objectives:

We will Protect Summer Revenue. This is not about increasing the volume of visitors but improving value for our members while also protecting the destination’s reputation. To attract guests for longer stays, we will shift focus away from regional Canada to place greater emphasis on our US campaigns, working with partners to strengthen international reach. We will encourage visitors to experience more while they are here, leveraging multiple channels including our outstanding Visitor Services team and award-winning Ambassador Program. In line with the 10-Year Vision, we will evolve our work with Parks Canada, Town of Banff, and others, to encourage responsible visitor behaviour, transit ridership, and respect for our community, wildlife, and environment.

We will Generate Demand for Overnight Stays in Winter. This is our need period, and a real opportunity to strengthen both our economy and Community Wellbeing by creating more consistent demand and employment opportunities throughout the year. As the Destination Marketing Organization for Banff and Lake Louise, we will help drive visitation by strengthening our destination’s collective marketing impact. We will lead the winter marketing campaign, appealing to values-aligned guests to stay mid-week or extend the weekend and we will continue to support and implement a range of events to give our regional audience more reasons to visit, stay and return. Our library of winter content assets will grow to better support members. To draw high-value business visitors and events, we are working to position ourselves as Canada’s leading incentive travel destination.

We will Champion the Visitor Experience. As the quotation above suggests, providing world-class visitor experiences is fundamental to the 10-Year Vision, and to our viability as a destination. With a record of providing outstanding visitor services, we will ensure our team is where the visitor needs us. Whether in-person or online, we will help connect visitors with our member businesses while they are planning, before they arrive, and while they are in-destination. We will provide insights and data through our new Member Portal, to help businesses identify opportunities and elevate the experiences they provide to visitors. Importantly, we will continue to reflect the voice of the visitor, and support partners as they advocate for the interests of our members and the wider tourism economy.

We will Shepherd the 10-Year Vision for Tourism. Realizing the 10-Year Vision will “take a village” – or more accurately, the communities of Banff and Lake Louise, and many others. For our part, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism will promote and celebrate members’ and partners’ efforts to advance the five Trails to Tomorrow. Adhering to one of the 10-Year Vision’s guiding principles, Lead By Example, we will ensure that our own organization continues to adopt best practices in support of the 10-Year Vision.

We are taking a relationship-building approach to Indigenous Connections, promoting Indigenous businesses, sponsoring authentic cultural tourism experiences, as well as providing workshops and resources to support cultural awareness amongst our membership. Addressing Nature Positive and Climate Action, we will seek ways to improve our organization’s environmental footprint. For Community Wellbeing, we will advance a thoughtful new diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy for our team. For the destination, we will adopt the Global Destination Sustainability Index and establish best practices for environmentally and socially sustainable events - increasingly a deciding factor for businesses and individuals as they choose where to meet and recreate. In the realm of Smart Tourism, we will build on our strong digital foundation as a basis to create a culture of open data.

All of this – progress towards the 10-Year Vision, definition of the Destination Values, creation of this three-year framework and plan – would not have been possible without the input and insights of our members, partners, and community. The time you have given to our committees, advisory groups, taskforces and member surveys, your contributions to the Tourism Together process and to developing the Values, have all been invaluable. Thank you for your commitment. On behalf of our Board of Directors and the team at Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, we are proud to present our Three-Year Framework and 2024 Business Plan.

Our business planning is geared to help our members succeed and is guided by your perspectives.

To ensure your voices are heard, we consult members throughout the year. We’re grateful to those whose input helped develop this plan: our 14 Board members; the 94 members who participated in our Advisory Groups on Marketing, Travel Trade, Business Events, Events, and our Brand Taskforce; the 78 members who responded to our Member Survey; those who shared their thoughts and ideas to shape the destination’s 10-Year Vision for Tourism; and who contributed to the development of our Destination Values.

These discussions and the work that followed were informed by our own team of tourism experts, including marketing specialists, our Business Intelligence Analyst, and other professionals. We worked from a fact base of our own campaign data, business outcomes, Visitor Experience Survey, and third-party data from national, provincial, and local partners.

Our planning process was overseen by our Board of Directors, 12 of whom are elected from our membership, representing the Lodging; Restaurant; Retail; Transportation, Attractions, Entertainment; Service; and Ski sectors; as well as Lake Louise and Improvement District 9, alongside appointed Directors from the Town of Banff, and Parks Canada. Our Leadership Team worked with the Board to establish a Three-Year Framework with four Objectives, before developing this 2024 Business Plan, and a set of strategies to achieve each objective.

We share this plan with our members in-person, virtually, and on our website. We share it with the community through a presentation to Banff Town Council. Our business planning process is a two-way conversation that allows us to get valuable input and feedback from our membership. In turn, it helps members understand how they can best leverage our work to benefit your businesses, our community and environment.

Our business planning is geared to help our members succeed and is guided by your perspectives.

To ensure your voices are heard, we consult throughout the year. We’re grateful to those whose input helped develop this plan: our 14 Board members; the 94 members who participated in our Advisory Groups on Marketing, Travel Trade, Business Events, Events, and our Brand Taskforce; the 78 members who responded to our Member Survey; those who shared their thoughts and ideas to shape the destination’s 10-Year Vision for Tourism; and who contributed to the development of our Destination Values.

These discussions and the work that followed were informed by our own team of tourism experts, including marketing specialists, our Business Intelligence Analyst, and other professionals. We worked from a fact base of our own campaign data, business outcomes, Visitor Experience Survey, and third-party data from national, provincial, and local partners.

Our planning process was overseen by our Board of Directors, 12 of whom are elected from our membership, representing the Lodging; Restaurant; Retail; Transportation, Attractions, Entertainment; Service; and Ski sectors; as well as Lake Louise and Improvement District 9, alongside appointed Directors from the Town of Banff, and Parks Canada. Our Leadership Team worked with the Board to establish a Three-Year Framework with four Objectives, before developing this 2024 Business Plan, and a set of strategies to achieve each objective.

We share this plan with our members in-person, virtually, and on our website. We share it with the community through a presentation to Banff Town Council. Our business planning process is a two-way conversation that allows us to get valuable input and feedback from our membership. Our aim is to help you understand how you can best leverage our work to benefit your businesses, our community, and the environment.

Because values-motivated travellers care about their impact on community and environment and act accordingly. Because, as consumers, they are likely to have a higher income, spend more, and have a greater appetite to experience new things.

A values-led approach is key to pursuing the sustainable tourism aims set out in the 10-Year Vision, and to the resilience and future success of our tourism economy. In 2024, we will work closely with members and partners to help you understand how you can support this shift to benefit your businesses, organizations, and the destination as a whole.

Our marketing will attract values-aligned guests to choose Banff and Lake Louise as their next vacation destination. Having determined our Destination Values, we are clear about what we have to offer them. In turn, we used those values to identify our Priority Audience. These foundational elements, our Destination Values and Priority Audience, were essential to our thinking as we developed the Objectives and Strategies set out in this plan.

Building on the extensive consultation we undertook to develop the 10-Year Vision, a dedicated taskforce worked with our members, community, and partners to define these three Destination Values. We believe these speak to what is fundamentally important to us as a destination:

To support our members and realize our destination’s ambition to Lead Tourism for Good, we re-examined the audience we want to prioritize and attract to Banff and Lake Louise.

The process involved understanding the needs, preferences, and characteristics of people considering us as their next destination. We used Travel Alberta’s values-based segmentation and targeting tool as a starting point, customizing it for our specific needs.

Through our analysis, we identified our Priority Audience – a type of traveller who is motivated by what Banff and Lake Louise has to offer and shares our values. We call them Perspective Seekers. They are focused on iconic experiences, maximizing their vacation, and connecting with nature. They are highly likely to care about the social and ecological wellbeing of the places they visit.

Secondary markets are determined by appetite to travel during quieter periods, average spend, and longer trip duration.

This prioritization helps to determine our level of spend in each market. To deliver the best possible return on investment for our members, we work closely with our national and provincial destination marketing organization partners, Destination Canada, and Travel Alberta. By leveraging their international marketing strategies, we can maximize the impact of our own efforts.

Our priority markets for 2024 include the United States, the UK, and Australia. Our secondary markets are long-haul Canada and Germany. We understand the importance of in-market representation, and have reps promoting Business Events in the US, and Travel Trade in the UK, Australia, and Germany. The map below illustrates our priority markets across direct-to-consumer marketing, earned media, travel trade, and business events activities.

While developing the 10-Year Vision, it became clear that encouraging responsible visitor behaviour was essential to community well-being and ensuring a sustainable future of tourism in Banff National Park.

We will continue to influence and work with our partners and stakeholders to champion opportunities that enhance the visitor experience and provide for a more sustainable future, such as increasing transit capacity and encouraging improved infrastructure for cycling and walking.

Summer visitation is expected to grow. Analysts predict the US dollar will remain strong throughout 2024, making Canada an attractive destination for US visitors. With travel a high priority for people globally, we anticipate a significant increase in overseas travellers returning to visit Canada as well.

Our Visitor Services team will help visitors make the most of their time, supporting them live and in-person at our visitor centres and mobile locations, and virtually across multiple channels including live chat, SMS, and telephone.

They will support the visitor experience both in pre-planning, and while visitors are in destination. They will assist visitors as they navigate the destination and encourage them to experience everything our member businesses have to offer.

Guests who do more have higher satisfaction ratings, contribute more to the local economy, and become advocates for the destination with similar, values-aligned friends and family.

We will train up to 5,000 frontline member staff through our award-winning Ambassador Program.

Participants in the program are provided with in-person training and opportunities to experience a wide variety of member offerings across Banff and Lake Louise, enabling them to become strong ambassadors and advocates for the destination and all it has to offer. Valuable year-round, this is vitally important in the summer months, helping to enhance visitor experience.

In 2024, we will develop refreshed materials for the program that integrate elements of the 10-Year Vision and share insights related to the wants and needs of Perspective Seekers so that frontline staff better understand our priority audience. We will also highlight opportunities for staff across the destination to support our goal of encouraging responsible visitor behaviour.

We will work closely with members and partners to offer true-to-place cultural experiences that encourage visitors to do more and make the most of their stay. Initiatives like the Art in Nature Trail, as well as Indigenous programming and learning opportunities, will be a focus. Our support of the events and experiences below will help to meet visitor desire for meaningful connection and support the advancement of our 10-Year Vision.

Summer

Events and experiences

Our biggest opportunity to grow demand is in winter.

We will do this by reaching and attracting the leisure traveller through our owned marketing channels, and through extensive work in our Travel Trade and Business Events markets.

We will provide members with audience insights and updated winter content to support their own marketing efforts, and leveragepartnerships such as our SkiBig3 joint venture, showcasing winter activities to attract values-aligned travellers to the destination.

During the previous winter, nearly half of visitors were not here to ski or snowboard. Rather than hitting the slopes, they are looking to participate in unique winter experiences, indoors and out.

We see a great opportunity to increase visitation and visitor satisfaction through the development of new winter activities.

To capitalize on this opportunity, we are refining and optimizing our events portfolio to give our regional guests more reason to visit and return and we are collaborating with members to develop a ticketing strategy that directly links event ticket sales to overnight stays.

We are also expanding our marketing efforts to our Business Events audience and will work with members to support the development of new group experiences to help attract more business events mid-week.

New in 2024, we will introduce a Lodging Sector Marketing Program which will augment our work and strengthen the destination’s collective marketing impact to generate demand for overnight stays. The new program will help fund eligible marketing spend for the lodging sector across all seasons.

Where's the shoulder season?

Data makes it clear that demand for the destination has grown steadily over the years.

Many members now see demand stretch beyond August and September and well into the fall months.

In response, we have refined our planning schedule into two seasons:

• Summer is May through October.
• Winter is November through April.

Winter

Events and experiences

Delivering world-class visitor experiences that connect guests to people and the park also remains key to the 10-Year Vision.

In 2024, an important part of our work will be a comprehensive gap analysis that will examine the wants and needs of Perspective Seekers-and help us identify opportunities to grow experiences that will motivate and inspire this audience to visit.

Once the gap analysis is complete, we will work with partners and members to prioritize opportunities and catalyze the development of new experiences to create greater demand during our slower periods of the year.

Our work in this area, will help members enhance and create new ways for guests to connect with destination, ones that will help ensure the destination remains economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable for generations.

Championing the visitor experience is key to protecting the destination’s reputation.

Our primary measure of success is Net Promoter Score, an international standard which provides a rating based on how likely survey respondents are to recommend a product, service, or destination. For the past few years, Banff and Lake Louise’s score has been trending down throughout the summer months, with the lowest monthly score recorded in July 2023.

These lower scores were driven, amongst other things, by availability of parking and transportation options. To ensure the voice of the visitor is a primary consideration, we will continue to provide data and insights to partners, stakeholders, and members. This will help inform our collective work to solve some of the bigger challenges we face, and to champion opportunities to enhance the visitor experience.

Working in partnership with Parks Canada and the Town of Banff, developing the 10-Year Vision was an unprecedented community-wide engagement process.

Informed by more than a year of research and analysis, it identified a set of guiding principles and Trails to Tomorrow, which we will follow together to achieve a sustainable future for tourism in Banff and Lake Louise.

Through the strategies and projects outlined here, we are excited to move with our members, partners, and community toward realizing the 10-Year Vision.

We know that this work needs to be done collectively as a community and a destination. While our organization can’t do it all, we can Lead By Example.

Our goal is to inspire members, partners, and stakeholders to adopt aspects of the 10-Year Vision into your own plans and actions.

We will celebrate examples of the great work that many members and partners are doing, and have already done, to make tourism in Banff and Lake Louise more sustainable and regenerative. These examples will feed into our overall sustainability story, helping members and visitors to articulate and understand what we have achieved and where we are going.

Feedback during the 10-Year Vision consultation process identified the importance of supporting and expanding true-to-place and Indigenous experiences for both visitors and residents.

In 2024, we will focus on completing an Indigenous Tourism Strategy that will support our desire to grow meaningful relations with Indigenous communities and Peoples while we work towards the goal of enabling the development of meaningful Indigenous-led experiences in our destination. Included in this work will be additional Indigenous Cultural training for members, helping to lay the foundation to grow your own Indigenous offerings, experiences, and learning opportunities.

Our work will include progress towards data-driven Smart Tourism. Internally, we will continue to build and develop digital technologies, utilize business intelligence, and further promote a culture of data-informed decision making. We will provide our members with data, tools, and content to support their own marketing and development efforts through a new Member Portal. And we will migrate our legacy on-premises financial system to a modern cloud-based system to streamline processes, improve flexibility, and mitigate risk.

Banff & Lake Louise Tourism - January 18, 2024.

Photos: Robert Massey; Craig Douce / Town of Banff; Karen Thomson; Forest Fix; The Dorothy Motel; Chris Amat; roth&ramberg; Jesse Tamayo; Bikescape; ROAM Creative; Banff & Lake Louise Tourism / Katie Goldie; Will Lambert; Meatball - Banff Lodging Co; Juniper Bistro; Kelly MacDonald; Noel Hendrickson; Nick Fitzhardinge; Victor Aerden; Paul Zizka