Travel Habits of Albertans

from: •Alberta Leisure Travel Intentions Study - Top-Line Report, Spring 2005 - May 2005 (12 pages)



- 1,405 respondents completed an 8-minute survey from March 11 to March 27, 2005


-More than forty percent of Albertan Travellers are planning at least one trip to the Canadian Rockies (43%) while slightly less than one-third are planning to visit Edmonton and Area (32%), Calgary and Area (30%), or Alberta Central (29%) during the next six months. Twenty-two percent are planning a trip to Alberta South, while 11% are planning a trip to Alberta North.


-Over half (57%) of all trips that Albertan Travellers expect to make in the next 6 months will be a weekend in duration, while more respondents are planning to take trips 3 to 7 nights in length (18%) compared to 2004 (11%). Consequently, the average length of trips planned by Albertan Travellers has increased compared to 2004.


-The top information resources used to plan leisure trips include: the Internet in general (40%), word-of-mouth (21%), the Alberta Motor Association (AMA) (21%), and previous experience (15%).





Those are some interesting stats. Although from a 2005 report, the person I spoke with at Travel Alberta said that they haven't change significantly. From this we can deduce: 1. Our websites and search rankings are oh so important. 2. The Crowsnest Pass could either be classified as Alberta South or Canadian Rockies either way we are not getting our share of those travellers.

So the real question that arises in my mind; what can we as operators do to bring more visitors to their own backyard? To my way of thinking we have a good start. We all have websites, most of which are linked together. We have our holiday home group site. Our community has several sites. We have some community brag books. We reefer, we network, etc. etc. etc. Now is when the questions start: are our sites optimized to get the best search results? Is it easy for the client to find what they are looking for? Are we taking advantage of all the free advertising we can? Are we members of associations that produce results? Do we have marketing plans for our businesses or perhaps for the group?

On that note, a few years ago I attended a marketing workshop conducted by Travel Alberta. At this meeting we were introduced to a software package that was developed for hospitality businesses to produce a marketing plan easily. It was a great little piece of work which I have used and come back to again and again. Marketing plans like business plans help to solidify your thoughts and give you direction when you find yourself floundering or even just slightly lost. And while we are on the topic check out the Travel Alberta industry site they have all kinds of stuff to help us out. I have contacted Travel Alberta to see if we can get more copies and will keep you posted when I have more info.