The number of people who dropped by Estevan’s Visitor Information centre or participated in an energy tour increased significantly this year.
Rebecca Westling, the destination, marketing and communications consultant for the City of Estevan, said they had 2,202 visitors at the centre from when it opened on May 15 until Aug. 27. It’s a 49.8 per cent increase from last year, when they had 1,469 visitors.
“We’re really pleased with the numbers this year,” Westling told the Mercury. “We really had a busy season. The summer students were fantastic this year. One was a new summer student, and another staff member would be in her second year working at the visitor booth.”
Fifty-six visitors came from North Dakota, which was up 300 per cent from 14 people a year ago; and 378 more were from other U.S. states or Mexico, which marked a 315 per cent increase from 91 a year earlier.
Westling believes the lower Canadian dollar has played a role in the growing number of visitors from other countries.
“Another reason is that Tourism Saskatchewan has closed their visitor centre at the North Portal border crossing,” said Westling.
The energy tours have also experienced a big increase. A total of 646 people from outside the Estevan area took an energy tour to the local coal mines and power stations, which was up 78.4 per cent from 362 a year ago. There were 366 local residents who went on an energy tour this year, which was up 136 per cent from 155 last year; and they led 14 school tours, which was a 100 per cent increase from last year’s seven.
“Our energy tours really got used well this year,” said Westling. “One of the things that we focused on … for a strategy for the 2015 season was those energy tours, so we really focused on school tours and out-of-town people to go on these tours.”
Westling said they have been working hard to promote Estevan as a destination that people can enjoy.
The tourism information centre was scheduled to shut down for the year on Aug. 28, but the closing date has now been extended to the end of September. Westling will be operating the booth on her own for the next few weeks, since the summer students have gone back to school.
“We’re going to track some statistics to see how much usage the visitor centre would get in the month of September, to see if it’s feasible to keep it open longer,” said Westling.
The decision to remain open will be contingent on the weather. They need to have the building closed at the end of the month to complete the winterization process. But if they have below-average temperatures in September, then they will have to close the booth earlier.
Westling will be working out of City Hall during the winter months.
