LAKELAND - As cancellation of summer events ranging from Edmonton’s K-Days and the Calgary Stampede to St. Paul’s own Centerfield Music Festival were being announced last Thursday, Alberta’s Lakeland Destination Marketing Organization was meeting online for the first time ever to explore what tourism possibilities remain for the region in 2020 during the COViD-19 health crisis.
Alberta’s Lakeland general manager Marianne Janke said tourism partners had already tightened their purse strings prior to the major onset of the virus, with so little advertising received for the annual print tourist guide by the end of January that she “pulled the plug” on the publication and the marketing agreements with radio stations that were also part of the original plans.
Updates to the organization’s website will also be done differently this year, the previous contract too costly after the suspension of co-op marketing funding from the provincial government earlier this year.
Will there be tourism? Penny Fox, general manager of Community Futures St. Paul-Smoky Lake thinks so, after meeting with municipal leaders earlier in the week. “We talked about the desire of people to get out of their houses and recreate, and northeast Alberta is well positioned, Travel Alberta likes the northeast.”
While no one knows when campgrounds will open, Fox says, “Once they are able to open up, people will staycation in their own area.” Private campgrounds that offer long-term accommodation for the users are able to open, under strict guidelines from Alberta Health Services, it was noted.
Jaclyn Denman of Alberta Parks told the group that while provincial campgrounds are currently closed until after the May long weekend, municipalities may be able to open their campgrounds for self-contained units, and “crown land is also open, you can still ATV.” This season’s concerts in the provincial parks have been cancelled.
A Lac La Biche resident, Denman said that parking areas for Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park are also closed and while she could walk or bike into to the site, she is hesitant to do so because “bears are waking up and nature will take its course.”
Lakeland board chairman and County of St. Paul Coun. Laurent Amyotte said the county’s parks are closed until June 1, including the boat launches within those parks, with only the launch at Westcove open.
Town of St. Paul parks are also closed, Coun. Ron Boisvert said, and “we’re waiting to hear about golfing. We’re not sure about the rodeo.”
After announcing the cancellation of the Centerfield concert, St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller said, “It will be tough without our events. It’s devastating to the community.”
All events in Elk Point are also cancelled, Deputy Mayor Terri Hampson reported, and the spray park is closed along with local playgrounds.
“We may look at virtual tourism, we need to think of things differently.”
