Tourism Red Deer has once again joined forces with local hotels to promote the region and in this year’s tourism guide, debuts a section celebrating Indigenous culture.
The partnership with Hotels Red Deer, a collaboration of 10 local hotels focused on showcasing the area and its attractions, allows both groups to pool their resources, said Tourism Red Deer CEO Jesse Smith.
“Tourism Red Deer has an ambitious goal of Red Deer becoming a top event destination for mid-sized cities in Canada. I think this new partnership enables us to really put the pedal to the metal on how we’re going to go about doing that,” Smith says.
“We’re going to do it collectively with our hotel partners, but also other community partners. I think this puts us on a new playing field where we’ve made an intentional effort to pool our resources so that we can really go big on what we’re trying to do as a region.”
The hotel partnership is not new. The two groups have worked together in the past, but joint initiatives were paused during the pandemic, which hit the tourism and hospitality industry hard.
Now that the industry is bouncing back, it’s time to revive the partnership.
“It’s just makes sense for both our organizations and both will benefit from this partnership,” Smith says.
Adding an Indigenous Red Deer section to the tourism guide is an important initiative.
“One of the things we’ve really focused on is our relationship with our Indigenous community partners within the city of Red Deer and the region,” he says.
The new section highlights local Indigenous contributions and how First Nations shaped the region.
Red Deer Elder Lyle Keewatin Richards volunteered to help develop that part of the visitor guide.
At a ceremony unveiling the hotel partnership and guide at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, Keewatin Richards offered a blessing and oversaw a traditional smudging ceremony.
“It’s an important part of our region,” Smith says. “We’re built along the river and the river has significant historical and cultural importance for the Indigenous communities that were here way before we were. We want to make sure we honoured that.”
Find the 2024 Red Deer tourism guide here to start planning your adventure. Printed guides are also available.
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