Connecting the Spots | How Savour Alberta Unlocked their Development Potential

Vast, beautiful, and diverse, the Southern Alberta region easily fits the bill of “future international tourist destination.” 

But flight-worthy destinations don’t happen overnight. Travel Alberta (along with the key communities across the region including Tourism Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Taber, and Pincher Creek) knew that individual points across Southern Alberta were increasingly bustling with visitors — but those spend-ready tourists weren’t given the opportunity to dig deeper into what the region truly had on offer. 

Communities across the region knew full-well that Southern Alberta had the potential to become Canada’s next great destination. But getting to that destination posed some daunting logistical challenges...

The Problem | Assembling the South AB Squad 

• Despite growing high-season traffic, Southern Alberta communities were seeing close to zero shoulder season traffic

• Visitors were spending in select communities, but not exploring the wider region

• The region lacked a coordinated campaign and narrative to elevate individual destinations into guided experiences worth visiting year-round

From Lethbridge to Medicine Hat, points on the Southern Alberta map were experiencing a significant spike in tourism traffic. Yet despite the diverse range of experiences and tastes on offer, audiences weren’t sticking around.

The desire for a clear region destination brand was there. But with destinations disconnected from one another and consumers given no guide or itinerary of where to go or what to do, Southern Alberta’s development opportunity wasn't being fulfilled.

Bridging the Gap | The Savour Alberta South Campaign

To elevate Southern Alberta to a regional destination, a cohesive marketing campaign was needed to create connections, raise awareness, and drive new levels of traffic. 

In case you’ve never been, Southern Alberta is a culinary cornucopia. From complex locally brewed craft beers to the single best cob of corn you’re likely to taste, the breadth of available flavours and experiences is mind-expanding. To top it off, Southern Alberta's big-sky river valleys and jagged alpine peaks provide the perfect set and setting to pair with the hundreds of farm operators, restaurants, and breweries nestled throughout the region.

From DMO's to developers, everyone was in agreement — elevating Southern Alberta into an agri-tourism destination was a no-brainer.

Working with Tourismo, Tourism Medicine Hat (working on behalf of DMOs across the region) crafted the Savour Alberta experience in just a few meetings. Region-encapsulating and ready for development, the campaign experience would guide tourists from well-established culinary hotspots to off-the-beaten-track hidden gems — point-to-point adventures ready to captivate audiences for days, even weeks. 
Buy-in from key constituents and communities was immediate. The concept was sound and enthusiastically welcomed. Now, the tricky logistical work was about to begin… 

Tying the Region Together | Listings & Region Building 

• Tourismo's collaborative platform gave Tourism Medicine Hat a single place to organize listings and plan the Savour Alberta campaign

• Savour Alberta used Tourismo's AI-assisted listing tool to instantly add 150+ listings that collaborators could claim and edit

• With listings onboarded in just a few days, Savour Alberta planned and distributed campaign details directly from the platform

Everyone was keen on the Savour Alberta campaign, but Savour Alberta needed a single place to organize collaborators before building out the guided experiences required to make that campaign a reality. 

Tourismo’s collaborative platform gave Savour Alberta that one place. With listings, collaborators could quickly add their website and key details to the platform. From there, Savour Alberta could easily upload those listings in real-time to their website. Plus, profile “scores” instilled a healthy sense of competition among constituents to up their “listing game” — the more details and content, the higher the score. 

With their listing live, collaborators were then able to craft and publish content directly in Tourismo that would automatically be uploaded to the Savour Alberta website and platform when exploring itinerary options. 

Meanwhile, Tourism Medicine Hat could easily create “sub-regions” within Savour Alberta for tourists on tighter timelines in just a few clicks. 

Flexible and consolidated communication was suddenly a reality. The broader Southern Alberta region, almost overnight, was connected —  Savour Alberta could now easily plan, communicate and distribute campaign details and events through Tourismo’s integrated email builder to give constituents and the region the marketing coverage it always deserved. 

But the ground work wasn’t quite done…

Blazing the Trails | Guided Itineraries

• Savour Alberta kept visitors engaged and exploring with easy to build guided itineraries

• In just a few hours, Savour Alberta built multiple itineraries that nudged visitors towards "must-see" places to capture more revenue in the Southern Alberta region

With constituents on-board, it was time to build the corridor. 

The Savour Alberta project depended on guided itineraries to keep consumers engaged and in-region. That required building out multiple itineraries to appeal to a wide range of consumer tastes and interests from farm fresh plates to craft brews. 

Thing is, that’s never been a simple task. Rewind just a few years back, and building guided itineraries represented a massive investment. It wasn’t unusual for platforms to spend upwards of $50,000 just to develop a single guided itinerary. Yikes.

Savour Alberta knew they needed to offer a variety of trails and experiences that took consumers across the region in a way that was engaging and important to them. On top of that, unlocking the year-round potential of the region was huge — so itineraries needed to be season-specific to drive that demand and unlock full development potential. 

All that meant that those itineraries needed to get created in a matter of days, not months.
The good news? Working with Tourismo meant itineraries could move from idea to reality in just a few hours. 
Here’s how: 

1. Savour Alberta creates a new itinerary associated with a region

2. Savour Alberta creates one or multiple "Legs" to categorize stops along the way

3. Savour Alberta adds "stops" within each itinerary leg

4. Savour Alberta published five interactive and engaging itineraries to their website in just a few days

5. Once published, Savour Alberta, DMO's and collaborators can then track itinerary performance and make updates as needed.

From the eight stop Highway 3 Ale Trail to the mega sixty-two stop Farm to Fork guide, Savour Alberta now possessed a powerful web experience to drive traffic across the region and throughout the year. 

Bridging Gaps Between Development + Marketing 

Developers recognized the opportunity across Southern Alberta, but key pieces were missing. Solving the “shoulder season challenge” requires a lot of moving parts — buy-in, connectivity, a shared vision. And without the right tooling and platform, getting those pieces onto the board can be a lengthy if not impossible process. 

In a matter of weeks, Southern Alberta and Tourismo created a collaborative campaign and platform-empowered experience that connected an entire region for curious customers ready to explore and experience something new. Potential revenue is now staying (and growing) in the Southern Alberta region, unlocking those next, crucial stages of destination development. 

With revenue flowing and consumers flocking to a once previously overlooked gem of a region, Tourismo acted as the bridge between right now-realities and future potential. 

Savour Alberta is just getting started, and there’s a ton to come — one guided, seasonal, and delicious itinerary at a time.