Tourism agency ends paid memberships

Program focused on networking rather than attracting visitors

Edmonton Tourism is ending a fee-based membership program because it was more about internal networking than helping businesses attract visitors, said its vicepresident.

For more than a decade, the agency charged tourism industry businesses a fee of $195 per year in exchange for extra benefits such as monthly mixer events in its Industry Partnership program.

But Maggie Davison, vicepresident of tourism at Edmonton Economic Development Corp., (EEDC), is doing away with those paid memberships. The change is scheduled to take effect Dec. 31.

“In our world of destination marketing right now, that sort of tiered system as it relates to a membership tier … serves no purpose anymore,” said Davison,the former CEO of Tourism Jasper who joined EEDC in April.

“Usually those members are looking for networking opportunities among each other and we really aren’t a networking organization per se. We’re there to provide marketing expertise and support to whomever is in the tourism business.”

She said the membership program cost more to administer than it brought in from fees. “It wasn’t selfsustaining.”

Davison said paid memberships will be replaced with a model that offers support on an individual basis for tourism-related city attractions, restaurants, retailers and hotels. Edmonton Tourism has reorganized into a sales unit handling meetings and conventions, events and travel trade; a support unit including media relations, social media and consumer marketing; and in-destination visitor experience including information centres.

“Any business can pick on any one of those areas of expertise,” Davison said.