The 20th anniversary season of the Canadian Badlands Passion Play came to a close last weekend.
    Ticket sales, though strong throughout the year, suffered following the Southern Alberta flooding crisis.
    “Ticket sales were well ahead of the previous five year’s average prior to the flooding but the rising waters brought a marked decline in bookings,” said Vance Neudorf, executive director of the Passion Play.
    In the end, roughly 12,500 were in attendance throughout the Passion Play. Though down from the previous two years, attendance for the 20th season was average. In 2011, which saw the 100th performance, attendance was 14,040.
    Critically, the show was well received by those in attendance.
    “Reviews on Trip Advisor revealed the 20th season exceeded all expectations. Changes to the staging and flow of the play greatly enhanced the experience and a common thread to the reviews was amazement that a Passion Play of this magnitude and professionalism has been in operation in Alberta for 20 years and they had just discovered it for themselves. 96% of those responding to our annual survey say they will recommend the Passion Play to their friends,” said Neudorf.
    Despite the flood, Mother Nature was largely kind to the Passion Play.
    The weather was stellar for the run of the show and the Passion Play’ record of having only cancelled two shows due to weather in the past twenty years remained intact. At one point storm clouds approached the 2600 seat amphitheatre but the rain veered to the south and left the audience enjoying the performance in pleasant temperatures along with a gentle breeze,” said Neudorf,
    Now that the show is over for the season, the Passion Play is looking forward to plans to enhance the site further, especially in the new Forum theatre space.
    The Passion Play will return on July 10 next year.

How things have changed. The site of the Passion Play has changed considerably since the opening season in 1994 (left). The 2013 Passion Play, the 20th season, saw a slight dip in attendance this year due to the flooding in Southern Alberta. Roughly 12,500 people attended the show this year.

    While it is expected that tourism will take a hit his year after the flooding in southern Alberta communities, it appears, visitation number in Drumheller are recovering.
    About a month ago, all eyes were on the Red Deer River in Drumheller as it peaked. While the valley escaped relatively unscathed, the same can’t be said for its neighbours, particularly in Calgary, one of the biggest areas that Drumheller tourism draws from. 
    Leanna Mohan head of marketing and communications for the Royal Tyrrell Museum, said year to date the Museum is down about eight per cent. By this time last year, there were about 147,000 visitors through the door. This year the have had about 135,000 visitations.
    She explains they were down about 5 per cent in June. This was mostly because they were closed for two days, when the flood water peaked.
    The Atlas Coal Mine also had its doors closed during high water, and it had its effects. However they have continued to see a rise in visitation.
    “June was up 17 per cent,” said Linda Digby, executive director of the Atlas Coal Mine. “We had one slump week toward the end of June, which we figured was post flood drop, and even accounting for that, we were up. Since the long weekend things have been hopping.”
    One interesting change Digby has seen an increase in youth groups visiting the museum.
    “It is challenging for us but it is the kind of challenge we want,” said Digby.
 Beyond the closure, Mohan said it has taken a little while for numbers to comeback.
    “In July with the impact of the flood we were down, because our main visitations are Calgarians, they are the ones not travelling,” said Mohan, adding that she is not concerned that the image of the flood has slowed all visitation.
    “I’m not too worried about international visitors or even from Edmonton, to us it was the visitors from Calgary,”’ said Mohan.

Many tourism operators felt a dip following the flooding events last month. Today it appears numbers are starting to rebound.

    Since then, numbers have begun to climb. In the first week of July they were down about 4,000 visitors, however in the second week they were down by about 1,000.
    “I am assuming by August we’ll be back on track for a good year,” she said.
    She adds they are planning a do a push come the later summer and fall to bring visitors back the valley.