Town of Banff

Visitor Initiatives

 

Our Strategic Objectives - Increase visitation & spending metrics - Raise satisfaction levels of visitors

When it comes to visitors, we we want to be able to continue to create an environment capable of marrying village charm with economic growth, family ambience, environmental sustainability and modern luxuries. While the existing Bylaw has served us extremely well, we want to build upon past successes and align planning policies with the new Banff Community Plan.   

It is also critical that we remain competitive with other destinations and resorts, by ensuring that the visitor experience is paramount in any new commercial development. This can be achieved by building on our core of small, local businesses and the diversity they offer our guests. Another approach is to show our visitors how we are fulfilling our role as a model environmental community.

The approach of the review team has been to layer multiple levels of strategic thinking from the perspective of the visitor, resident, and business community in an effort to continue to create an environment that is attractive, profitable, and sustainable.

Preserving and Enhancing our Downtown

One area the Review Team is looking to address is the look and feel of our downtown core: the heart of any visitor's trip to Banff. Building on the succesful facelift from Banff Refreshing, the review team is proposing steps to mantain our commercial downtown character by:

• Encouraging unique dining experiences in our downtown core;
• Enhancing our succesful signage and architectural regulations;
• Mantaining the physical character of our downtown; and,
• Eliminating obtrusive facade retailling.

 

Visitor Expectations in a National Park

A second area the Review Team is examining is regarding visitor expectations to Canada's first and foremost National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Community Plan, visitor feedback, and the Commercial Build Out Study guide us to address these expectations through:

• Increasing retail diversity and repositioning our offering to create a more unique and dynamic consumer climate. This is being proposed through increased oversight of new Souvenir and Gift Shops. Click here for more information...

Visitor Satisfaction

Finally, the Review Team is examining areas where we can respond to our visitor feedback about their experience in Banff. Some of the areas we are looking to address are:

• Creating a more visually appealing pedestrian environment through waste screening and signage enforcement;
• Encouraging provision of public washrooms during CDA allotments and associated capital reinvestment; and,
• Improving our aesthetics and distinctive ambience.