Canmore tourism group folds due to funding crunch

Canmore Business and Tourism, a destination marketing organization for the Canmore and Kananaskis area, is in the process of shutting down due to a lack of funding, the president and CEO tells CBC News.

"It is the lack of a sustainable funding model for the organization," Andrew Nickerson said.

He said although the area is seeing some great tourism numbers recently, attracting steady funding has been a challenge.

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A handful of hotels, however, have seen the value, Nickerson said.

"They started eight years ago and over the course of the last eight years, they have put $7.1 million into destination marketing. They have done it knowing they were a minority of hotels within the community. They are doing it because they believe very much that the town needed destination marking. They knew everyone would benefit."

Nickerson says the agency needs about $1.5 million to continue operating.

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"Those are the funds that we need to be effective and successful and we are not getting anywhere close to that, in seeing the revenues coming in right now."

He says the process of closing the organization is underway, with some services ending immediately.

"The board is going to be making sure that all of the different functions of the organization are addressed in the best possible way as part of the wind up."

'Can't simply rely on the mountains'

Nickerson's hope is, from a conversation involving businesses and the municipality, something will replace their work.

"You can't simply rely on the mountains," he said.

"It is really not a sustainable strategy to do that. The mountains themselves don't tell the story of what we have inCanmoreand what we haveKananaskis. It is far, far more than just a town in the mountains. We have a very vibrant culinary scene, we have a great arts scene, we have a phenomenal wellness community. Our main street is not full of name-brand shops, it is unique, individually owned boutiques.

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"It is this real authentic mountain lifestyle experience surrounding by phenomenal mountain sports," Nickerson said."It is that message that needs to be told."

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