“Banff National Park is one of the world’s most visited national parks – and it’s only getting more popular. The challenge isn’t the number of people, it’s the number of cars.” — Christie Pashby

Banff National Park is an iconic part of Canadian identity and its popularity continues to rise. As Canada’s oldest and most-visited national park welcomes more people each year, the challenge becomes clearer: how to preserve the landscape, maintain access, and ensure positive visitor experiences. One of the biggest hurdles? Traffic.

In this episode of Travel Beyond, Christie Pashby, Communications Director at Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, joins host David Archer to explore how the region is responding with innovation, collaboration, and a firm belief that visitors can be part of the solution.

“For the last decade, we’ve been increasing mass transit options,” says Pashby. “And every year, it gets a little easier for visitors to leave their cars at home.” While long-haul international travellers tend to plan ahead and often discover they don’t need a rental car, encouraging the same shift among day-trippers from Calgary and surrounding areas presents a unique challenge. Many of these visitors are longtime fans of the park who are used to spontaneous getaways, not structured travel planning.

To shift this behaviour, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, Parks Canada, and the Town of Banff have teamed up to launch Transportation Shift, a campaign aimed at encouraging transit use and reducing congestion. A standout initiative within that campaign is “Shift Into Park Mode”. This clever call to action encourages visitors to not only park their vehicles but to shift their mindset.

“Park mode is different from mall mode,” says Pashby. “It’s about making a conscious decision to plan ahead so you can have a better experience. We want people to focus on why they’re coming here: To feel better, connect with nature, and take that feeling home with them.”

From free local bus service to guided shuttle experiences and expanded infrastructure, the collaborative effort is making an impact. In fact, the Banff townsite saw a 17% reduction in vehicles, and public transit use is up more than 11% year over year.

The campaign’s vision, says Pashby, goes beyond transportation. It’s about helping visitors feel connected to the place and recognize their role as stewards of it. “This place is worth planning for. And worth protecting.”

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why Banff National Park’s transportation strategy focuses on changing behaviour, not reducing visitation.
  
• How the “Shift into Park Mode” initiative reframes planning ahead as part of the park experience.
  
• Why international visitors are adapting faster than regional ones.
  
• How local partnerships are building a sustainable transit ecosystem.
  
• About Banff’s approach to tourism leadership and collaboration.
  

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Show notes:

How to “Shift into Park Mode”: Banff is asking visitors to rethink road trips and park their cars before entering the park. How to get to Banff from Calgary →

Leading Tourism for good:  BLLT CEO Leslie Bruce shares the 10-year vision behind Banff’s sustainable tourism evolution. Read the interview →

Behaviour Change in Action: How Destination Think helped shape a 2017 communications plan to encourage more visitors to use mass transit to explore Banff National Park: Explore the case study →

Episode transcript

This transcript was generated using AI and has been lightly reviewed for accuracy.

Christie Pashby: [00:00:00] The biggest lever that the town of Banff can pull in terms of reducing its carbon emissions is by influencing the visitors and reducing the number of vehicles that people bring into the park. It’s better for our community. There’s less congestion for the locals. It’s easier for people to move around, and generally we see everybody’s in a better mood.

The ripple effect of that is that they’re able to be more focused on what they’re here to do and hopefully take home with them that this place exists and that it’s worth fighting for and stewarding.

David Archer: Welcome to Travel Beyond. I’m David Archer from Destination Think recording from Haida Gwaii, the territory of the Haida Nation off the north coast of British Columbia in Canada. On this show, we look at travel’s role in making a better world, [00:01:00] and we highlight leading destinations and change makers. Our guests are taking local action that the world can learn from.

They’re helping to regenerate ecosystems, communities, and economies, and they’re often making positive change happen from the bottom up. Many of the voices we’ve highlighted are part of the destination Think collective, which is a peer group of more than 20 ambitious forward thinking destinations, working toward a better future for travel and the planet.

Today’s episode is all about the positive changes happening around transportation in Banff National Park. The park is part of Canada’s psyche, says today’s guest. And as someone who grew up nearby, I’d say that’s accurate. It’s the country’s oldest national park and its most visited, located in the Rocky Mountains.

And as you might expect, that popularity comes with some particular kinds of trade-offs for a place devoted to both protecting nature and enabling access to it all year round. Traffic congestion is one issue the park is working through and building some solutions for, and there’s been a steady effort over the last decade to encourage people to leave their vehicles at [00:02:00] home and enjoy the trip without sitting in traffic.

Solutions include shuttle services and buses within the park and access by bus from the city of Calgary to the park as well. And this has led to some big changes in how people are traveling. Our guest is Christie Pashby, the Director of Communications at Banff and Lake Louise Tourism. Christie mentioned that a coordinated effort between her organization, Parks Canada and the town of Banff has reduced the number of vehicles entering the town site by 17% in 2024.

Ridership on Parks Canada shuttles, and the town of Banffs local transit network is up year over year as well by quite a lot. So if you’re visiting Banff, taking the bus might be one of the best things you can do for both the environment and for your own enjoyment of the Rocky Mountains. It just might mean breaking some old habits.

And to that end, Banff and Lake Louise Tourism is asking people to plan ahead and shift into park mode when they visit. So what does that mean and what’s next for Banff National Park? To tell us all about park mode and about how the commitment to providing [00:03:00] sustainable access is being received on the roads.

Here’s my conversation with Kristy ppe.

Christie Pashby: Uh, my name’s Christie Pashby. I am, I’ve been living here on Treaty seven Territory, uh, for 25 years. And I’ve worked in and around the tourism industry my whole career. Currently I’m the communications director at Banff Fund, Lake Louise Tourism. I oversee the team that works on engagement, strategy, communications, and community sustainability.

So it’s my job to really think about how the tourism industry engages with this place and how visitors can connect with it in a meaningful way. Uh, I have colleagues that work on the marketing of the destination, and I don’t do that. Gotcha. Directly. 

David Archer: Okay. So you’re thinking about sustainability a lot and how, how people interact with the park when they arrive.

Mm-hmm. That sort of thing. 

Christie Pashby: Mm-hmm. And how to get the most out of their time here. 

David Archer: Yeah. Perfect. Uh, I also noticed that you are an author and you’ve written a little bit about [00:04:00] travel as well. Can you tell me about that and a little bit about your background? 

Christie Pashby: Yeah. My background is in journalism, I have a journalism degree.

My first job was working as a fixer and a reporter in Central America where I was working on the early days of ecotourism back then, late 1990s. Um, and then I started working for Frommer’s Travel Guide books, and I wrote guidebooks for them for like, I guess 20. 25 years now. Um, my first one was the Banff and Jasper National Parks Guidebook.

Um, and so I’ve written a bunch that’s in Western Canada and South America, um, for them. And yeah, it’s still happening. They’re still publishing those books. Um, I’m happy to hear that people are still buying them. 

David Archer: Amazing. Yeah. So you’re quite embedded in the travel world. 

Christie Pashby: Yes. As I ran a guiding business, uh, in Patagonia for a couple decades.

Lived down in Patagonia for a while. Um, and then I came back and worked in the marketing department for one of the biggest tourism operators here. Um, and did some consulting work before coming over to Math Lake police tourism. So [00:05:00] it feels in many ways, like I’ve come home, uh mm-hmm. To where I am at right now.

Yeah. It’s a challenging time for everybody. Um. In every industry, I think in the world. But it’s definitely not boring. This work. 

David Archer: Certainly not, no. Uh, what, thinking about the park a little bit, what, what is one thing you always take friends to do when they visit you? 

Christie Pashby: Yeah. Well, the best days for me are Sundays skiing everybody, and.

Span from Lake Louise has to choose where they wanna ski. We’ve got three of the world’s greatest ski resorts here. I’m a Lake Louise person, so I spend basically every Sunday afternoon ripping it up there with my daughter and our friends. Uh, and uh, it’s the best. Place, there’s, you look all around, all around, there’s no development.

It’s incredibly pristine. And yet we have outstanding ski resorts with endless terrain. Uh, it’s just so good to be outside. I just had some friends visit from Toronto and they’ve skied all over the place and they just couldn’t believe the scenery here. [00:06:00] It really is unique. So, yeah, I, another thing I love about ski season is you just know what you’re gonna do every weekend.

You don’t have to be like, what should we do this weekend? Yes, that’s, the bag’s already packed. You just go skiing and then, and yeah, it’s great, it’s a great place for that. It’s a great place to raise kids too. Mm-hmm. 

David Archer: That’s great. And we know all about skiing in the wintertime. Can you describe the park, um, to someone who’s never been there?

Like I. What are the other seasons like? 

Christie Pashby: Well, spring is kind of a non-existent thing here. It happens, uh, usually in early June. We switch from winter to summer in a day, but spring skiing, um, happens. We ski right until the May long weekend. Summer is very popular. And we’ll talk about that a little bit more, a little bit later, I’m sure.

Um, but you know, the best things to do in the summer are endless, uh, hiking, climbing, paddling. Um, my favorite thing is mountain biking and. Everybody, um, every day there’s a choose your own [00:07:00] adventure kind of attitude about life here. Uh, it’s thriving in the summer, but it’s also busy, busy, busy in the summer.

Yeah. So we all really look forward to the fall when things quiet down and the trails are in great conditions, um, and, uh, falls well, September shh. It’s my favorite month here. Shh. Don’t. Okay. But it’s the best. Sure. I’ll scrub this part out. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. September’s beau. Almost always beautiful weather here, and the Ls are turning gold and the aspens are yellow.

And yeah, the trails are quiet in great conditions, so, yeah. Yeah. Everybody can take a bit of a breath in September and early October, and then the snow comes around and off we go again with the ski season. 

David Archer: Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. You’re describing some of my Thanksgiving family road trips. Yeah.

Right now, I think. Yeah. Um, cool. You also mentioned something. What was special about the destination is that it’s a good place to raise kids. Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about that and why that is? 

Christie Pashby: Yeah. I grew up in Toronto, um, uh, right in the heart of the city and [00:08:00] uh, I actually just got, was there this weekend for a long weekend and I took my daughter and, you know, as much fun as it is to ride the subway and, and see the realities of urban living, it’s just incredible to.

Be able to raise a kid in a town like this where there’s so much freedom and they can just be on their own unsupervised, exploring the wilderness. They learn from an early age about human wildlife coexistence, um, and about bear safety and, um, you know, safety that has to do with just kind of the conditions of living in the mountains.

And they, I think they take it for granted, but you, there’s so much to do with your kids outside, uh, in your spare time. So. I find that parents and kids have really strong bonds here. And they really developed time together, uh, in the mountains. And that’s what brought so many of us to live here and, and keeps us here.

There are other challenges about raising a family here, um, affordability, housing, et cetera. But, uh, the kids are extremely privileged. 

David Archer: Definitely. Yeah. It’s such a, [00:09:00] a gorgeous location. Mm-hmm. Uh, with opportunity for outdoors. Mm-hmm. Um, and when you’re, so, are you located in the park itself?

Christie Pashby: I live in Canmore. I’ve lived in Canmore, uh, since 2000 and no, 2000, 25 years since we moved to Canmore. Okay. Yeah, so just outside the park. 

David Archer: And so, you know, you’re kind of at the doorstep of this. Uh, as you were describing before, sort of like the endless terrain mm-hmm. Environment, uh, with no development.

Mm-hmm. Let’s talk a little bit about what the National Park is. Mm-hmm. Like why do we have national parks and how would you describe its mission? 

Christie Pashby: Oh, well, parks Canada has a mission to protect the ecological integrity of. Lands and then promote the cultural understanding of them. Um, and in terms of Banff, it was the first national park in Canada, um, 1883.

It was founded. Um, and it’s interesting to sort of analyze how the journey of Parks Canada has evolved over the years. They started, [00:10:00] the first thing was to bring in tourists, um, to help cover the costs of the railway. Uh, and it was a bit of a money making endeavor way back at the beginning, uh, in the 1880s.

And then their mandate has evolved over time. Um, so yeah, there’s a lot of national parks in Canada. I don’t have the stats for how many, it’s growing quickly, the number of parks. But Banff is, um. I don’t wanna say the most important ’cause they’re all important, but Banff is a bit of a juggernaut in the National Park system by far the most visited, um, by far the most income generating of the parks.

Um, and yeah, the one that you know, is the, in everybody’s psyche, I think it’s part of the Canadian identity. A vision of Lake Louise is something we all grow up with, um, and feel connected to whether we’ve been here or not. Just knowing that a place like this exists, uh, is a nation building exercise. That we all kind of have in common, and maybe that’s why it’s so popular.

David Archer: Yeah. Can you tell me about who tends to visit Banff? [00:11:00] What are the visitors like across different seasons? Where are they coming 

Christie Pashby: from? Yeah, so the summers are by far our most popular season. Um, I, I think there’s a lot of people that come once in a lifetime as a bucket list trip. Um, and they come from all over the world.

We have a lot of visitors from Germany, Australia. Uh, the uk, France, and Asia are all target audiences. Americans come, a lot of them come once in a lifetime. Also, some of them will come regularly. Uh, long haul. Canadians. Again, every mom and dad across Canada wants to bring their kids to Banff on a summer holiday.

I think it’s a rite of passage. Um. So it’s a pretty diverse situation in the summertime. Um, and then in the winter, um, we’re trying really to grow that long haul visitation in the winter, um, and to change people’s mindset about Banff being only a summer place. We have a lot of room to grow in, in winter in terms of availability and things that we can offer for [00:12:00] visitors.

Um, and then, you know, there’s a whole nother bucket of visitors who are regional day trippers that are coming from Calgary and the Calgary area. Who come over and over and over again. 

David Archer: Right. And Calgary is about what? A 90 minute drive?

Christie Pashby:  90 drive. Minute drive away. Yeah. And it’s the fastest growing city in Canada.

Um, so Really? Yeah. That’s, there’s a lot of pressure on Banff from that. 

David Archer: Yeah. People who suddenly have new access to parks. 

Christie Pashby: Yeah. People, you, you grew up in Calgary. 

David Archer: I grew up in Red Deer so not that far. 

Christie Pashby: Red Deer, I think they, they’ve surveyed well, I know I worked on this project, we surveyed people in Calgary about what do they love most about living in Calgary?

And they all say the mountains, even though they’re 90 minutes away. Um, yeah. So they love it. They think it’s their backyard, which, you know, sort of is. Um, and, and so lots of people come every single weekend. To come out and go skiing or whatever it is. They have a place in Canmore, they come to the mountains very regularly, and then there’s all the new people, new Canadians or new Albertans that are just, you know, exploring [00:13:00] for the first time as well.

David Archer: Let’s talk about transportation a little bit and, um, maybe, I don’t know, maybe, uh, the Calgary trip into Banff is a good place to start. Mm-hmm. But I wanted to talk about some, you know, of some of the responsible ways of travel that are starting to be. Uh, more used and promoted in the park, and I know that’s been a long running area of collaboration within Banff National Park.

Can you tell me about some of the goals that exist around transportation in the park? I. What, what’s happening these days? Yeah. 

Christie Pashby: So, um, as the mayor of Banff says, we have a car problem, not a people problem. Okay. And, uh, so the challenge is there’s just not enough room for more cars in Banff National Park.

So, Banff, the town of Banff, you know, is legislated to serve visitors and it exists. It exists within a national park. So everything that happens within the town of Vamp and the hamlet of Lake Louise is essentially governed by Parks Canada. Uh, and we have already reached the commercial cap, [00:14:00] um, for these places.

So you can’t just build a parking lot wherever you want ’cause there’s more cars coming. Uh, and so the parking is. Is in high demand, shall we say. Yeah, especially in summer. So we have solutions with, with some transit offerings and lots of transit offerings actually, to get people to not bring their cars.

And you know, what we’re trying to do is build awareness of what those options are. Part of that is about setting expectations about what it’s gonna be like when they come. So continuing to be inviting people to come, but to, you know, the reality is that it could be very frustrating driving around and around looking for a parking spot.

That’s not what we want anybody to do, 

David Archer: right? Nobody 

Christie Pashby: wants to come to BI and drive around looking for a parking spot. Why, you know, and so the decision has to start early on about how I can avoid that? And then how can we as a destination, get in front of those folks with the information they need and make it easy for them to make a better choice.

Um, and so for Calgarians, it really starts with, um, you [00:15:00] know, leaving their front door and hopping in a car. Um, ideally. Not hopping in a car and taking, um, taking a bus from the city of Calgary. And, and there’s a lot of operators now offering those shuttles. And then if you, if that’s asking too much, can you carpool?

Can you come in off peak hours? Um, and then if you have to drive, you know, as soon as you get here, park your car and leave the car behind and move around the destination on shuttles by bus, um, by foot, by bike. Any other way besides driving around? 

David Archer: Yeah. And you mentioned shuttles. Are those tied to various operators around the park or are businesses getting involved?

Christie Pashby: Yeah, there’s, there’s, um, three different. There’s three different opportunities for shuttles. It’s part of the transit ecosystem we have. Um, there’s the public transit offering the Rome shuttles, uh, which is a public transportation agency co um, managed by town of Banff, town of, [00:16:00] uh, town of Canmore together.

And they offer shuttles to most of the important and popular places like Lake Louise, lake Minow, Wonka, Johnston Canyon, up the Sulfur Mountain gondola. And then there’s commuters within Banff. So you could stay hypothetically, or ideally you could park your RV at a campground and take a bus right from that campground.

Anywhere you need to go in the park, um, through the Rome transit. And then there are Parks Canada operates the shuttles, um, to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Again, you, they’re all staged out of a giant parking lot at the ski resort. They need to be booked in ahead of time and they’re, um, really popular.

Very popular. They sell out really quickly. And then there’s a third category, which is kind of the private commercial vehicle operators. And there’s more and more of those coming, uh, coming online. Every, every week with new tour operators offering new tours for, to help, first of all, to help people get where they wanna go, and then ideally to help deepen and improve experience as they get there as [00:17:00] well.

And then, you know, there’s good biking infrastructure, so we’re always encouraging biking first. Uh, it’s definitely the greenest alternative. 

David Archer: Yeah. Do you think there was a turning point or like how long have these improvements been happening? Uh, is it in terms of shuttles and additional buses and that sort of thing?

Christie Pashby: Yeah, so it’s been, ha the shuttles have been around, um, 10 years or so, the Rome shuttles, but they’ve been expanding year over year. The Parks Canada shuttles are relatively new, only a few years that they’ve closed. For example, Marine Lake and m it, um, only by shuttle. That you can access Marine Lake. Um, and, you know, similar things are gonna be coming in the future for other popular areas of the park.

Um, and the, the, so the commercial ones are picking up the slack ’cause those other two are generally full. And so we’re at, kind of reached a limit in terms of the transit, um, the public transit. So private options are, are. Are growing. Um, and they’re frankly really good. You get a guided experience. Um, you can [00:18:00] go at the time you wanna go, you learn a lot more about the place.

So I highly recommend those. 

David Archer: So. Positive experiences for travelers mm-hmm. Is one of the big benefits of this. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Are there other benefits to, you know, increasing the availability of mass transit? 

Christie Pashby: Yeah, well obviously there’s the GHG goals, um, right. That the town of Banff knows that its GHG goals are heavy.

O outweighed by visitor vehicles. Um, and so the, you know, the biggest lever that the town of Banff, um, can pull in terms of reducing its carbon emissions is by influencing the visitors, um, and reducing the number of vehicles that people bring into the park. And, you know, those vehicles, you know, they have a burden on our community in other ways too.

So, um. It’s better for our community. There’s less congestion for the locals, it’s easier for people to move around. And generally we see everybody’s in a better mood. Um, and that helps with our, you know, our overall, that goes a long way. Experience. People aren’t cranky if they’ve planned ahead [00:19:00] and booked the shuttle that they want and are having the days flowing smoothly for them.

Uh, so yeah. And then that. The ripple effect of that is that they’re able to be more focused on what they’re here to do, which is, you know, experience the spectacular place and feel how it can transform their lives and hopefully take them home, take home with them that this place exists and that it’s worth fighting for and stewarding.

David Archer: Yeah. And, speaking of stewarding, I mean, would you say that the transportation options growing are reflecting local values as well in some ways? 

Christie Pashby: Definitely, uh, definitely. I mean, our locality, to live here, you have to choose this lifestyle. It’s not always the easiest place to live. Um, and you have to really wanna be here and.

You wanna be here because of the way you feel living in this spectacular landscape. Uh, and so we’re really working to help visitors connect with that too, because it feels good. You feel better. Yeah. Right. And so the locals feel better when the visitors feel better and the visitors feel better when they know the locals are feeling better.

[00:20:00] And, and transportation’s, you know, one element of that, but it’s critical. Um, in terms of the quality of life for people living in Nanton, Lake Louise, um, you know, right now we have the Rome transit is, is free for locals, um, as well as serving visitors. And so sometimes the buses are really crowded, but they’re with commuters going to work every day.

Um, and so that’s a real benefit that visitors are getting, uh, to kind of piggyback on what works for locals and vice versa. Locals are getting free, uh, transit because the visitors are helping to support that. 

David Archer: Absolutely. It’s a good, uh, a good synergy or a way to way to help everyone at the same time, 

Christie Pashby: But things are getting full, so, yeah.

Okay. It’s getting So the need is 

David Archer: only increasing. 

Christie Pashby: It’s only increasing. Yeah. And it’s, it really feels like it’s coming in, um, getting bigger and bigger, and so it’s hard to imagine the future. I know you asked me in the preparation to kind of imagine what the future of this would look like. Yeah. So, yeah.[00:21:00] 

Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, to jump to that question, um, you know, what do we want it to look like? Well, we want our visitors in the future to be part of the solution. So they’re planning ahead, they’re finding it convenient and easy for them to plan ahead. There’s some kind of digital network that allows them to find what they want and book it and confirm it, um, without too much, um, confusion and frustration.

And then they’re leaving their vehicles at home, so. They see that coming to Banff is easy and it’s convenient to take these transit options. Um, and then, you know, there’s just fewer cars around, 

David Archer: right? Yeah. 

Christie Pashby: So basically we really recommend you make these choices now so that you have a better experience.

And we’re using a creative feature that’s called shift into park mode, which is a bit of a play on parking, literally parking your car, and then shifting into the park mode on your vehicle, and also the state of mind. When you’re starting to think about, um, coming to Banff National [00:22:00] Market, Banff National Park, you need to sort of shift your channel and your frequency in your brain and go into park mode, which is different from home mode.

You know, it’s different than going to mall mode. It’s park mode, right? You can, you 

David Archer: can spontaneously go to the mall anytime you Yeah. But. Yeah. Park mode means 

Christie Pashby: You gotta plan ahead, right? And so what does, so we’re playing with that right now. What does park mode mean? And, and I think it helps us talk not just about transit or that in isolation.

Yeah. That the transit decision is part of a bigger decision about why you’re coming here, you know, what you’re looking for when you come here, and how your planning can help ensure that you get the most outta your time here and leave happy, which is what we ultimately want. 

David Archer: What else can visitors do aside from, you know, leaving their car at home, perhaps, uh, to help you out with this, these visions?

Christie Pashby: Yeah. Well, well standby. We’re working on some new campaigns about, um, what that means, how to make, you know, sort of good choices to help have them connect more [00:23:00] meaningfully with the place. But, you know, there’s certain things that we have, for example. You know, the waste issue. Um, we, there’s an incredible number of coffee cups generated every day on Banff Avenue.

Like, it’s insane how many people come to Banff and buy a coffee and throw it in the coffee cup. And, um, you know, without thinking that, that then becomes a burden, a burden on the local municipality to deal with that coffee cup. So we do have a cool program called Banff Burrows, where you can get a reusable mug for free and you just have to scan it.

And then return it when you’re done. Um, and the long-term impacts of that, uh, can make a real change in how our town manages the landfill dilemma that we have. 

David Archer: Yeah. Is there any other topic that you wanted to talk about that I’ve missed so far? 

Christie Pashby: Maybe we could just take a couple minutes to talk about Marine Lake.

David Archer: Sure. Tell me about Marine Lake. 

Christie Pashby: So, Marine Lake is, um, it’s a good example of, of all of this [00:24:00] transportation stuff we’re talking about. Marine Lake, if you don’t know, is a lake that’s just south of Lake Louise. Uh, it was famous for being on the Canadian $10 bill. For a long time, and it, you know, it’s that iconic image of the valley of the 10 peaks, um, that you see on a subway station in Montreal or something that represents Canada.

If you’re in Germany, there’s a picture of Canada. There’s a good chance it’s a picture of Marine Lake. Um, and so a couple years ago, Parks Canada closed the road to Marine Lake to personal vehicle traffic, and implemented a new bookable shuttle. And it’s been very, very popular, uh, and very successful. Um, their shuttles are basically full all summer.

They release 40%, um, coming up in a couple weeks in April, and then the rest are available 48 hours ahead of time for booking, and they’re running at full capacity pretty much all summer long. Uh, and then if you can’t get on those, or if you would prefer, you could book a private tour, um. A variety of different options.

There’s a hop [00:25:00] on, hop off, double Decker bus that goes up in there, down there every day. There’s, you know, deluxe motor coaches and smaller vans, um, for different hiking groups, um, and sightseeing tours that go up there. But this has changed quickly. How to get to Mora Lake, uh, in the last three years. So, you know, in terms of the guidebook, authoring, going back to what I was saying about my background, like that’s, it’s a whole new chapter.

Yeah. Uh, and it’s a lot for people to understand. How to book it, where to book it, how far in advance to do it. And, and lots of people still ha aren’t getting that message and they’re still showing up and being surprised that their car’s being turned away at the door or at the drive there. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so we still have a lot of work to do there, but if, if we could, you know, there would be room for everybody, but at the same time, we just need to limit the number of people going to that place.

David Archer: Right. Yeah. It’s just a physical space issue. Yeah. And then the, 

Christie Pashby: the popularity issue. 

David Archer: Yeah. Yeah. Would [00:26:00] you consider that program a success so far? 

Christie Pashby: Yeah. I think that giving everything that they have in terms of resourcing and expertise, I. Parks, Canada’s done a really good job, um, at making the most out of a very challenging situation, and they know that the, the solution that’s in, and we all know that the solution that’s in place today for 2025 is likely gonna change again for 2026.

And that’s just part of the ride that we all need to go in. To be committed to planning ahead and not expecting the unexpected year to year and the way that it was last year is maybe not the way it’s gonna be next year. It’s gonna take a while before anything’s fixed there and they’re kind of coming up with the best solution that they possibly can.

Um, and making sure that people that really wanna go to Marine Lake can still go to Marine Lake. They just need to plan ahead. 

David Archer: I think those are good words to end on. Thanks so much for being my guest today. Appreciate 

Christie Pashby: this. Yeah, my pleasure.

David Archer: This has been Travel Beyond Presented by Destination [00:27:00] Think. And that was Kristy Ashby from Mfin Lake Louise Tourism. For more resources and show notes, visit our website@destinationthink.com. This episode was hosted, produced, and has theme music composed by David Archer. Sarah Raymond Dubois is my co-producer, Lindsey Payne and Cory Price provided production support. If you like what you hear, please give us a five star rating on whichever app you are using right now. It helps more people find us. Thank you for listening, and we’ll be back with more next week.