Stage presence EDMONTON
Edmonton is developing an unrivalled line-up of attractions to make it a ‘must visit’ stop on any Canadian itinerary, says Steve Hartridge
F
or many UK visitors Edmonton serves mostly as a one- or two- night staging post before they
move on to Banff and Jasper in the Rockies, but tourism officials in Alberta’s capital hope the city’s time in the spotlight as host of Rendez-vous 12 will help to change that. The trade show was held in the city
last month for the first time since the late 1990s and presented a timely opportunity to put Edmonton on the global stage, said Natacha Fudem, International Director of Leisure Travel for Edmonton Tourism. “Our international guests have told
me they have been inspired by Edmonton’s landscapes, its beauty, culinary scene and its affiliation with the arts and culture,” she said. The 20-plus UK tour operators and other delegates in Edmonton would have discovered a city that has plenty to entice their clients to stop and explore longer.
An impressive line-up of attractions
includes excellent shopping, cultural and arts centres that are the envy of most other cities, top-notch restaurants, North America’s largest urban park and a year- round calendar of festivals and events. Edmonton is perhaps best known in
the UK for its mega-shopping centre, West Edmonton Mall, which spans a mind-boggling 48 city blocks. Located about 20 minutes from the
city centre the mall has taken retail therapy into the realm of fantasy and theme-park adventure: aside from 800 stores and over100 places to eat there’s also an indoor amusement park, a hotel, a casino and even a National Hockey League-sized skating rink. Back downtown, Edmonton City
Centre is a premier shopping centre, with over 250 stores. The centre is connected to the popular Sutton Hotel – featured by many UK operators – by ‘pedways’, a series of walkways above and below the street. Adjacent are Commerce Place and Manulife Place, both featuring high-end retailers. While the shopping in Edmonton is
superb, more aesthetic draw cards are found elsewhere – like its sprawling green lung, the River Valley, which cuts the city in half and incorporates several city parks. At 22 times the size of New York’s Central Park, it is one of the
largest urban parks on the planet. Visitors can cycle, roller-blade, hike, ride a Segway and, in winter, ski on 122 miles of trails. The River Valley is also home to several golf courses, including the Royal Mayfair, which will host a women’s professional tournament in 2013. “Edmonton is a city where the people
embrace the great outdoors,” says Natacha. “Our parks are also where we set up our stalls, our stages and our tents for many of our fabulous festivals." These include the Labatt Blues
Festival (August 24-26), the Freewill Shakespeare Players Festival (June 26-July 22) and the three-day Edmonton Heritage Festival (August 4-6) – which each summer showcases the food, arts, cultural traditions and music of 60 different ethnic groups and nationalities that have chosen to call Edmonton home – and the Edmonton Folk Music Festival (August 9-12). Edmonton’s moniker, 'Canada’s
Festival City', is certainly apt: the city stages a line-up of over 30 major events that provide a hook to recommend the city to clients whatever the time of year. The intensive festival calendar works because Edmontonians recognise such events are unique to the city and embrace them through a collective spirit of volunteerism, says Shelley Switzer,
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