The municipality’s place in the visitor experience

Someone asked me today:  What is the role of the Town of Banff municipal government in enhancing and maintaining a positive visitor experience? 

As I say on my website, and as we said long ago in the town’s mission statement, I believe that the primary focus of the municipal government of Banff should be service to residents.  That doesn’t mean that we should ignore the visitors’ needs – we are in existence because we are a visitor service centre for the Park.  It just means that there are so many agencies and businesses out there whose focus is serving the visitors, while the Town is the only agency which has, as its primary focus, the needs of the residents, and we need to remember that. 

To enhance and maintain a positive visitor experience, we should first provide the safe, clean, and convenient physical environment that is so basic to happy residents and happy tourists.  Plentiful and clean public washrooms, litter and dust-free streets, plentiful benches and green spaces, a town that is low in crime and has good emergency services, well-built and attractive buildings, clear view-lines to the surrounding mountains, good trail connections, safe and convenient transportation routes and public transit – these are very basic ingredients to a positive visitor experience.   

Visitors need and want to experience a beautiful natural environment.  By preserving our environment, replanting trees, managing our wastewater, recycling, respecting wildlife corridors and so on, we are enhancing and maintaining what the visitors are looking for. 

Visitors also need good information.  I helped to make the Tourism Bureau a reality, and I still think that it is a good thing to have a marketing and information body to help the visitors.  Therefore, I believe the Town should continue to support the Tourism Bureau, and should rely on the Tourism Bureau for direct services to visitors.   

What does the positive visitor experience look like?  

At its most basic level, it is safe, clean and convenient, as I mentioned above.  But to be really positive, to stand out from the crowd, I think you need two things:   

First, access to an environment and experiences that are special and different – we have that with our surrounding national park and the many experiences available in it, as well as with our cultural resources here in town.    Second, opportunities for positive contact with people – for example, knowledgeable and pleasant information staff, competent and courteous wait staff and retail staff, friendly and outgoing locals on the trails.  This is where providing excellent services to residents pays off, because it helps keep people in town long-term, so that they become knowledgeable, competent, experienced, and are ready to welcome the world. 

There are two things that happy tourists comment on over and over:  “the scenery and wildlife were so amazing” and “the people were so friendly”.  In my mind, these sum up the positive visitor experience.