Some tourist attractions in Drumheller are reporting stronger numbers for visitation so far this summer.
Numbers for the World’s Largest Dinosaur were up 22 per cent in the month of June and Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce executive director Heather Bitz says they expect strong numbers to continue into August.
“I’m optimistic things will be positive throughout the rest of the summer,” she says, adding that the months previous to June numbers were down from typical averages.
The chamber is also expecting the 2,000,000th visitor to the WLD later this month, with the lucky visitor to be given a prize package of items. They’re currently at 1,957,393.
“It’s a milestone we’ve been tracking. We hit our first million back in September 2009 so we’re looking at about the same time frame this year,” says Bitz.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum had a record breaking year last year and say they might be just shy of topping it this season.
“We’ve had some amazing weather so attendance has been pretty solid. We haven’t had a chance to look through what the demographics are yet but it is about the same as last year in that we have a pretty strong Calgary population coming for a visit,” says exhibits and communications director Lisa Making.
While strong numbers are always good, she says Calgary and other nearby day-tripping tourists do not have as much economic impact as overnight guests. She says there is a lot to do in Drumheller and a guest may not be able to take it all in unless they stay overnight.
The Atlas Coal Mine executive director Jessica Jeninga says numbers seem to be on par or a bit higher than previous years but they also expect August long weekend to be a boom as it’s typically their busiest time of year.
“It’s the last long weekend of the summer. So we’re emotionally prepared for it,” she says. “I think that’s pretty true across other institutions in the valley.”