See the valley again during Be a Tourist in Your Own Town
Spring is a great time for residents to reacquaint themselves with all the valley has to offer.
This is the fourth year for Be a Tourist in Your Own Town Week. The promotion, an initiative of The Town of Drumheller is slated for May 17 to 23. The promotion is aimed at creating local awareness for the products, services and attractions that Drumheller has to offer.
“Drumheller is the heart of the Canadian Badlands and we realize the importance of our location,” said Mayor Bryce Nimmo. “Our local residents are wonderful ambassadors for the valley and they do a great job hosting over 400,000 visitors every year. We look forward to being tourists in our own Town.”
The promotion comes at the cusp of the tourism season in Drumheller. Organizers encourage residents to see and experience what the valley has to offer. It is a great time to take a look at some of the sites, museums and businesses that many have become accustomed to passing by.
Economic Development officer Ray Telford says they have moved back the week to a later date this year, with designs on creating more awareness.
“Each year it gets a little bit bigger and a little better,” said Telford. Usually it was the first week of May. We decided to hold it over the long weekend. The reason we did this was for the summer worker season. At the beginning of May often a lot of companies didn’t have their employees hired, so at least now they will be prepared for the May Long Weekend.”
Along with the promotion, the town also runs a familiarization tour that businesses can sign their employees up to take. This way those in the service industry can serve their customers in a more efficient manner. Rather than just directing visitors to a point on a map, workers can provide first hand accounts of the sites to help those with questions.
“It’s to get people more aware that we live in a wonderful place for tourism, and a lot of us don’t get to see what is in our own backyards,” said Telford.