(Originally published in TOURISM)
Randy Fernets is upbeat when he talks about the tourism industry in Saskatoon in the summer of 2007. Fernets, director of corporate development & visitor services at Tourism Saskatoon, told TOURISM there is a “buzz” about Saskatoon these days, and while his organization had not targeted Ontario and Quebec specifically for this year, “we saw a lot of people from those provinces this summer, and I think a lot of this is attributable to Saskatoon's strong growth.” On the downside, Fernets reports that visits to his city from the US market are off this season.
Fernets suspects many people coming through are looking for a place to live, and for work. “The same can be said for Alberta, which is always our number one market in any case, but it’s bigger this year because of the Saskatoon 'buzz',” he explains. “Visits from British Columbia were up as well.”
Saskatoon has been engaged in a Cultural Capitals project over the last year, and Fernets feels it is paying off when it comes to driving in-province residents to the city. “We sense the advertising campaign we had under the cultural capitals program did really well for us in terms of attracting people from within Saskatchewan to our events. Some of our events struggled because of bad weather, unfortunately, but many of them did very well.”
Saskatoon's position as the fastest-growing city in Canada (according to a recent release from the Conference Board of Canada) has almost certainly been the underlying reason for the 'buzz' Fernets talks about. “Most of the folks coming this summer were leisure travellers, but many of the Alberta visitors particularly were interested in real estate; we had many people – speculators, it appears – coming into our visitor reception centres and telephoning us looking for sub-division maps!”
Randy Fernets is upbeat when he talks about the tourism industry in Saskatoon in the summer of 2007. Fernets, director of corporate development & visitor services at Tourism Saskatoon, told TOURISM there is a “buzz” about Saskatoon these days, and while his organization had not targeted Ontario and Quebec specifically for this year, “we saw a lot of people from those provinces this summer, and I think a lot of this is attributable to Saskatoon's strong growth.” On the downside, Fernets reports that visits to his city from the US market are off this season.
Fernets suspects many people coming through are looking for a place to live, and for work. “The same can be said for Alberta, which is always our number one market in any case, but it’s bigger this year because of the Saskatoon 'buzz',” he explains. “Visits from British Columbia were up as well.”
Saskatoon has been engaged in a Cultural Capitals project over the last year, and Fernets feels it is paying off when it comes to driving in-province residents to the city. “We sense the advertising campaign we had under the cultural capitals program did really well for us in terms of attracting people from within Saskatchewan to our events. Some of our events struggled because of bad weather, unfortunately, but many of them did very well.”
Saskatoon's position as the fastest-growing city in Canada (according to a recent release from the Conference Board of Canada) has almost certainly been the underlying reason for the 'buzz' Fernets talks about. “Most of the folks coming this summer were leisure travellers, but many of the Alberta visitors particularly were interested in real estate; we had many people – speculators, it appears – coming into our visitor reception centres and telephoning us looking for sub-division maps!”
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