Tourism Moose Jaw is excited for the year ahead and the new opportunities to showcase the community, especially after 2021 turned out to be “fairly decent” despite the continuing pandemic.
The start of 2022 is already building on last year’s successes, particularly with distributing tourism guides, which have been handed out in record numbers, said executive director Jacki L’Heureux-Mason. Furthermore, the organization’s website has seen a 20-per-cent increase year-over-year; the numbers have even exceeded the boom-time numbers of 2019.
“Between that and our new app, which has picked up really steadily, I think that we’re going to get the word out there,” she continued. “People are still going to be looking for a fairly ‘safe’ place to go. Our size, our ability to show exactly what we’re doing with COVID precautions, we’ll be poised for a really good year this year.”
More than 15,000 people visited Moose Jaw via the tourism office in 2021, data shows, which was more than double the number from 2020 after the tourism office re-opened on July 7.
In comparison, more than 32,000 people visited in 2019.
One area where Tourism Moose Jaw wants to focus this year is encouraging more Americans to visit, especially since the border is open to vaccinated people.
“That’s where we noticed a huge, huge dip (in people in 2021). Last year Saskatchewan, Manitoba (and) Alberta were our biggest numbers by far,” said L’Heureux-Mason. “We did have a fairly significant B.C. and Ontario representation, but what was missing — really the entire year — was our American visitors. That’s a critical market for us.”
However, a challenge to attract more Americans is ensuring Moose Jaw can offer the same opportunities that people can experience in their own states, she continued. For example, it will be harder to compete with places that have no mask mandates, so this city must ensure its activities are attractive and offer a good value.
One new feature that might attract American visitors — and others in general — is a new app-based community scavenger hunt. Tourism Moose Jaw bought Moose Jaw Mysteries within the past year and plans to repackage and re-price the hunts.
“We really, really want to focus on getting our walking tours a little (more) well-known. They’re amazing tours that are just not being utilized to the extent that they should be,” L’Heureux-Mason said. “So, that’s really our biggest challenge … is ensuring that Moose Jaw has enough stuff to draw people in.”
Tourism Moose Jaw does have the tools and resources to attract people from far and wide, she pointed out. It had two tourist-related videos commissioned last year, which later went viral on the internet.
The videos helped bump up visitor numbers, as the new trolley ghost tours became a big hit. Tourism Moose Jaw sketched out character development for some stories and re-worked other tales, which helped sell out every tour over four months.
“We were able to get as much out of the old trolley as we possibly could last year,” said L’Heureux-Mason. “If we wouldn’t have had to do a transmission change at the beginning of July, we probably would have broken every record we had.”
L’Heureux-Mason promised to provide news soon about the trolley’s fate and any replacement. Even if the machine is mothballed, it could still be used for special occasions such as weddings.
Other updates Tourism Moose Jaw plans to make this year include tweaking its True Crime Tour, overhauling its daily trolley tours, and potentially implementing a daytime tour for students.
