Ryan Bater and Donna Challis made a special presentation on the state of tourism in the Battlefords at a town council meeting June 4, showing that interest in the Battlefords has remained steady for the last few years.
The report detailed the information on tourist interest compiled by the Battleford Tourism and Convention Association going back to 2003.
The total number of yearly information requests received by the organization are generally up, though not quite to their 2007 high of 628. Total information requests for the 2009 to 2011 are 564, 483 and 560.
The report further broke down information requests by their source. An information request can come from the organization's toll-free number, the Woodall's Campground Directory, by email, by mail, referral or walk in or online. Based on these numbers, 2011 is a low year for information requests, with a total of 375. But the huge number of information requests from shows in 2011, 185, made 2011 a slightly above-average year. The community's ad in the Woodall's Campground Directory also showed a strange trend, with information requests going from three in 2005 to 136 and 126 in 2006-o7. After 2007, they went down to around 40 where they have remained ever since.
The report noted almost 60 per cent of information requests came from Saskatchewan. Alberta and the United States provided 16 and 14 per cent respectively, and six per cent of requests came from British Columbia.
One great statistic noted by the report was the vast increase in unique website visits recorded by the organization. Since Battlefords Tourism redesigned their website in 2011, visits have more than doubled.
The document presented to council concluded with a summary of Battlefords tourism. According to Tourism Saskatchewan, the Battlefords have a total of 79 tourism businesses and 18 events, employing 812 people in 2011 and generating a total of $21.4 million in travel receipts.
