Golf courses are one of the assets of the region that Destination Battlefords is hoping to leverage in "Battlefords Nice" —the marketing campaign designed to help the struggling tourism sector. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Josh Ryan

Battlefords Nice

Destination Battlefords launching tourism campaign this week

Aug 25, 2020 | 5:33 PM

Destination Battlefords is set to officially launch its marketing campaign, in conjunction with tourism partners across the country.

“Battlefords Nice” is the push to increase tourism in the region amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which has devastated the sector. The campaign has three goals, the first as a focus on building confidence in tourism, for both travelers and residents.

“We need travelers to be confident and our community to be confident in receiving visitors,” Executive Director Ryan Bater said.

The second goal is educating residents on experiences available in the Battlefords that are safe and how to act and behave safely.

“Because we are living in an environment where people are still reluctant to travel, because of fears for their safety and exposure to the COVID-19 virus,” Bater said.

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Thirdly, Bater said they are focused on supporting the local economy. To do that, business owners will need the benefits of the first two goals in orderly to safely service customers.

“We want local businesses supported and we want to ensure that businesses are focusing on social responsibility and making visitors feel safe,” he said.

To maximize the campaign, Destination Battlefords is working closely with multiple partners, including Tourism Saskatchewan, Destination Canada and businesses across the Battlefords. Bater said being a part of the overall scope of “Canada Nice” is of huge benefit.

“We are not working in isolation and we have a lot of support coming from them through our organizations in the industry,” he said.

There’s significant challenges with tourism, due to events with large gatherings being banned, which bring in thousands of people to the region every year. Bater said they will need to find ways to encourage travel that doesn’t involve large events, instead focusing on individuals and families traveling.

“There’s a lot of work to do and we better get at it,” he said.

While they are waiting for the imaging materials for the campaign, Bater said they are already working with local partners, especially golf courses and hotels. This is one of the few ways where larger numbers of people participating in an activity can still happen in a socially distanced way, one which Bater said fits the region’s assets.

“We want to leverage our golf courses to have people come here, stay overnight and eat in our restaurants,” he said.

Dana Johnson, Golf Director at the North Battleford Golf and Country Club, said this sort of marketing is huge for the industry. While the volume of people visiting from other provinces has essentially disappeared, there’s a contingent of Saskatchewan residents still looking to hit the links.

“Instead of going out of the province to go on holiday this year, they’re just traveling to other golf courses in the province and we’re hoping to get some promotion for that heading into the fall,” Johnson said.

Golf courses are seeing less revenue because of a slightly late start and the cancelation of bigger tournaments, but getting to open up in May has helped save the summer, Johnson said.

“We’ve had our challenges, but despite that, we’re coming together and it’s been a pretty good year, in spite of COVID-19,” he said.

With golf courses set to close by early to mid-October, Johnson hopes “Battlefords Nice” could help spark some increased numbers in golfers during the fall.

“Your days are numbered, shortened,” he said. “But still, it’s great to have some people come through at that time of the year.”

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca