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The language is simple when talking tourism in Canmore.

“The industry as a whole is one of the keystones and economic drivers of the community,” says Tourism Canmore spokesman John Samms. “As such, a proactive approach in tourism marketing is generally going to result in positive room occupancies, positive numbers of people coming to town.”

And positive numbers of people doing business in Canmore.

Latest research identifies an average of close to 900,000 visitor days funneling more than $138 million in tourist spending through the town annually.

A tourism economic impact analysis, drafted in April 2001 by the Canmore Economic Development Authority and Alberta Economic Development, identifies Canmore’s tourism industry as the town’s primary employment and income source.

Tourism spending increased community income by $84.7 million in 1999 and provided for 2,400 full-time jobs within the community, 3,300 jobs Alberta-wide.

Samms says Tourism Canmore will initiate an aggressive marketing approach in 2005 to consolidate more business partners locally and market Canmore as a Canadian Rockies destination.

“As opposed to an accidental holiday location,” he says. “We have a goal of impacting overall occupancies within Canmore for this year. We’re hoping to realize something like a 10 per cent increase overall, which is really ambitious.”

In real numbers, 10 per cent constitutes an increase somewhere in the order of 60,000 to 100,000 heads, Samms says. “That would be a range I would suggest we’d be pretty happy with.”

So would the rest of Canmore’s business community, which relies heavily on the tourism sector. In recent years developers have adopted an ‘if you build it, they will come,’ policy increasing occupancy capacity at rates difficult to analyze.

In 1999, Canmore had 1,686 hotel and bed and breakfast rooms with a 53.3 per cent occupancy rate according to hospitality analysts HVS International.

In 2005, room capacity has grown well above the 2,000 mark with more large developments to come online.

It is an infrastructure most towns the size of Canmore can’t boast, Samms.

But then Canmore is not like most towns. The area is known for its vast recreational and cultural opportunities, attracting people who seek lifestyle changes and alternative travel experiences.

CEDA and the Town of Canmore have identified health & wellness, sports, culture and environmentally based holidays as niche tourism products the community is ideally situated to furnish.

Meanwhile, Samms says Canmore has a unique ability to effectively market itself. “Particularly to the primary shorthaul market, which is Canadians, Albertans in particular, travelling and coming to Canmore,” he says. “(The shorthaul market) has the potential to shore up that overall occupancy in the community in the hotels while the hotels are a big employment base.

“People that work there in the industry go out and in turn, filter their dollars through the community. It’s just one big web.”