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Survey to shed light on Black Diamond tourism

The Town of Black Diamond will receive some information this fall that could change the way it’s marketing itself. The community is one of six in southern Alberta that partnered with the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) to conduct tourism surveys.

The Town of Black Diamond will receive some information this fall that could change the way it’s marketing itself.

The community is one of six in southern Alberta that partnered with the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) to conduct tourism surveys.

The surveys will gather important information from tourists from what attracted them to the community to how much money they spent during a series of visits throughout the summer. Also participating is Chestermere, Cochrane, Irricana, Nanton and Strathmore.

The survey will take place in Black Diamond July 17 and 26 and Aug. 8 and 12.

David Petrovich, Black Diamond’s economic development and events coordinator, said this is the first time the Town will have accurate information on its tourists.

“Right now, based on our web statistics, the majority of our audience is from Calgary,” Petrovich said, adding that’s the market he’s been targeting by placing brochures in various venues in the city. “We’re guessing based on website traffic. I have no clue how valid it is. It’s my only source of information.”

Statistics from the Town’s new website, established in April 2014, show 36 per cent of its 3,546 website visitors last year were from Calgary, 26 from the Diamond Valley and Okotoks areas and the remainder represent small percentages from communities across Alberta, Canada and the world – including three per cent from Russia on Canada Day, he said.

What Petrovich would like to see is if this summer’s survey results reflect those numbers.

“If it does, I’m target marketing the right area, which is Calgary, Okotoks and our local region right now,” he said.

The CRP approached the Town in the spring inquiring if it would be interested in participating in the survey, Petrovich said.

“It’s well recognized that we’re desperate for more information to understand who our market is and where people are coming from,” he said. “We just don’t know and we don’t have the resources.”

Bob Miller, the CRP coordinator for economic prosperity, said the regional partnership identified a need to help smaller towns with tourism while participating in strategic priority setting around economic development in the region two years ago.

After connecting with various small communities in the Calgary area, the CRP learned many didn’t have the financial capacity to market themselves or even have an accurate picture of who their tourists are, he said.

Project coordinator Bibiana Cala, a consultant with the CRP, said there is a need to help Calgary’s bedroom communities with their tourism strategies.

“Basically two years ago when I started working with CRP I found we don’t have information for small towns in the region,” she said. “We realized it would be good if we do a pilot in different towns in the region to gather information from visitors to get a better picture of people who visit small towns in the region.”

Cala said the survey asks where the visitors live, the length of their stay, how many times they visited the community, the number of people in their party, their age groups, what attracted them to the community, what attractions they visited, how much they spent, what they enjoyed most and what could be changed to make the experience more enjoyable.

“We will compare the information in each town so we have a better picture for the whole region,” she said. “Next year hopefully we can do something bigger in more towns.”

Petrovich said the Town is grateful for the tourism pilot project as it couldn’t afford to hire someone to do this type of work.

“The CRP has been amazing to do this,” he said. “This is something we’ve been desperate for. Once I get this information it’s going to really help us. We’re trying to attract businesses and residents. That’s what the goal is with this whole thing.”

Once the information is compiled, Petrovich will distribute it to businesses and the Town will use it as a baseline to target markets.

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