ATHABASCA, WESTLOCK — Do you offer baking lessons, or can teach others how to churn butter? Do you have a team of horses and offer sleigh or wagon rides? Maybe you have a bison herd you can give tours through?
These kind of cottage industries and potential businesses are widespread throughout the Athabasca and Westlock regions and the newly-formed Landing Valley Region wants to help these niche industries partner with other businesses to create unique destination packages. Nine months to the day after the inaugural meeting of the group which is made up of economic development officers from Athabasca and Westlock, municipal representatives, Travel Alberta, History Check/Rumble Alberta, the Athabasca Advocate and industry leaders, they will be holding an event to bring everyone together at Tawatinaw July 21.
“While this is sort of being marketed as a hospitality and tourism thing, really, we're looking for those service providers so, Airbnb people, those people that have something unique or unusual that add to experiences that are available in the region,” said Community Futures Tawatinaw manger Kelly Martin-Harris July 10.
The event is to network with people who have hotels, offer classes or workshops, tours, glamping (glamourous camping), fishing excursions, river boat rides or anything even remotely tourism-related.
“So, in effect, it could be something like someone that provides horseback riding that is matching up with somebody that provides accommodation that would then match up with one of the local food establishments who would maybe provide breakfast for the day of the ride as well as a packed lunch that they would take with them on the trail,” said Martin-Harris. “And maybe the day after we've got a massage therapist that's going to offer a post trail ride massage. So, we're looking for those kinds of out-of-the-box, a little bit more creative-type packages.”
She added the point is to bring providers together to build unique experiences which will be offered on the Landing Valley Region website, not necessarily to offer deep discounts.
“This isn't about ‘I'll give 10 per cent off if you give 10 per cent off,’” she said. “There's nothing wrong with doing that, but what we're really hoping to see is that unique factor, that really experiential factor that's going to set this region apart from others, not just that it's cheaper, but it's better because we have the best customer service, it's better because if you're going through this Landing Valley Region website, you're going to find things that are simply not available anywhere else.”
The goal is to have networking events four times a year to prepare for the next season.
“Even though it's July we're actually sort of already thinking about what the winter is going to look like,” said Harris-Martin.
The day runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free, but limited in numbers so you do have to pre-register by contacting Harris-Martin at [email protected] or on Eventbrite under Landing Valley Region.
