Lacombe Regional Tourism continues to welcome guests into Lacombe — highlighting some of the most scenic aspects of the community.
This year, Lacombe Regional Tourism has been nominated for Non-profit of the Year at this year’s Lacombe and District Chamber of Commerce Business and Community Awards Gala.
“It is a huge compliment. Sometimes people know you are there, but don’t know what you do or even that we are a non-profit,” Angelique Hand, executive director, said. “People sometimes think we are part of the City or the County, but we are regional tourism. We cover the whole city and county with our tourism efforts.”
Lacombe Tourism markets the many tourist hot spots in Lacombe, and also coordinates the Culture and Harvest Festival, Canada Day celebrations and puts together their annual Visitors Guide
“We have a lot of fun here because we get to meet everyone that is visiting,” Hand said. “They love Lacombe, so it is very rewarding to be able to share all of the neat events and attractions including our historic downtown.
“We have a lot to offer for a community our size and it makes our job easy, because there is always something to promote. We are a city of festivals and special events and it makes our job pleasurable to meet people from all over the world.”
Hand said people come to Lacombe for many reasons — including Kraay Family Farms — with the latest Lacombe tourism craze being culinary.
“We are really well known for our culinary tourism,” Hand said. “That has become really popular and we are also the mural capital of Alberta: People come and enjoy going through town and seeing our art installations and murals.
“When you look at the diversity of things you do when you are here, it is pretty amazing.”
Lacombe Regional Tourism has a permanent staff of two, along with a summer student each year. Hand said they are supported by many different organizations within the community.
“We get a lot of really good support from all of the different organizations like the Chamber, the City and business owners. We are really fortunate to have a group of people in the community invested in working together, which makes things much easier to get done,” she said.
The support from different organizations allows tourism events to go on with a solid volunteer workforce.
“There are a lot of groups who will step up and be a part of things,” she said.
With the Culture and Harvest Festival wrapped up, Hand said the work keeps on going.
“We start getting stuff together for Light up the Night and when that is done, we take the time to build our Visitor Guide, which we do the bulk of in house. Once that is done, we are back into festival season,” she said.
She added, “We are impressed with the other nominees. It is really nice to be recognized and to be nominated is great because the community gets to know a little bit more about what you do.”
todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com
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