Drumheller is on top of the Alberta tourism world after the annual Alto Awards on Monday night in Banff.
Drumheller was nominated for the Tourism Community of the Year Award alongside the Red Deer Centennial.
Drumheller was the recipient of two Alto Awards on Monday. Drumheller won the Tourism Community of the Year Award and the Canadian Badlands Passion Play won the Alberta Pride Award. Accepting the awards were Shelley Rymal, Leanna Mohan (left), Chris Curtis, Linda Digby, Vance Neudorf, LaVerne Erickson, Mike Dooley, Marty Eberth, and Bob Cromwell.
The Canadian Badlands Passion Play, who has been nominated numerous times over the years, was running against the Calgary Stampede and the Sinister 7 Ultra of Blairmore for the Alberta Pride Award.
Both Drumheller and the Passion Play won their respective categories.
“The Passion Play won the Alberta Pride Award and we (Drumheller as a whole) won what is basically the academy award for best picture. It’s great,” said Chris Curtis, executive director of Travel Drumheller. “It was a real uplifting thing last night. Everyone was really stoked.”
The Tourism Community of the Year Award is designed to acknowledge a collective and successful effort on the part of a community to work together to promote tourism.
The Alberta Pride is meant to recognize a business or organization that captures the essence of the Alberta experience.
Tourism in Drumheller, despite the flooding in late June was strong this year, especially in late July and through August. Several tourism operators even saw record numbers during the long weekends.
The Passion Play was hit hard initially by the flood. Their first weekend, which started soon after the flood, saw some of their lowest attendance in a decade. Ticket sales went cold during the Passion Play’s prime selling time.
Attendance bounced back the second weekend of the play to on par with, if not slightly higher than, previous years.
Curtis credits teammwork between operators.
“It’s really the hard work of all the operators. It was a really exhilarating experience felt by a whole team. We were so pumped last (Monday) night,” said Curtis.
