“We have to change the way people arrive here. We have to change the way people move about and the way they consume, the way they live. We have to change almost everything in the supply chain in order to protect this place and stay the same.” — Leslie Bruce

Imagine your job is to invite the world to experience one of Canada’s most iconic destinations while working closely with partners and the community to protect its incredible environment. How would you tackle that challenge? Rallying people around a shared vision might be a good start.

Banff National Park attracts over 4.5 million visitors every year, but its success depends on keeping the other half of its mandate: to preserve nature within its borders for future generations. Maintaining this balance is at the core of the unique pressures faced by the Park’s residents and tourism industry. In response, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism (BLLT), under the leadership of President and CEO Leslie Bruce, developed a 10-year vision called “Lead Tourism for Good.” The vision takes a holistic approach to tourism, addressing topics such as environmental stewardship, community and park wellbeing, Indigenous tourism, and traffic management.

In collaboration with the Town of Banff, Parks Canada, and over 2,000 local residents, BLLT found alignment within the community to shape the vision in a way that cares for both community and environmental needs. As Leslie notes, “One of our big ‘aha’ moments as a group of partners was that in order for us to stay the same, we absolutely have to change.” 

In fact, this shift has already been underway for some time under Leslie’s leadership, and Destination Think has seen it first-hand. In 2017, our team worked with BLLT, the Town of Banff, and Parks Canada to develop a communications rollout for new mass transit options for visitors—showing that meaningful change is possible when partners come together around a common goal.

On today’s episode of Travel Beyond, you’ll hear from Leslie about the vision and more, including:

• How Banff National Park’s regulatory constraints sometimes spark creative solutions.
• About Banff & Lake Louise Tourism’s 10-year vision for tourism and the five main goals that follow.
• How those goals are already supported by organizations and community members that are showing leadership.
• How Banff National Park is working to improve improved traffic flow and reduced congestion.
• Why today’s destinations must work together to solve common challenges.

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Show notes

Banff — A resort municipality located in Banff National Park, Alberta.

Banff & Lake Louise Tourism — The destination marketing organization for the communities of Banff and Lake Louise.

Banff National Park — Canada’s first national park located in Alberta, known for Rocky Mountain peaks, turquoise glacial lakes, wildlife and a picture-perfect mountain town. 

Parks Canada — The federal agency that protects as well as fosters public understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage. 

Episode Transcript

Leslie Bruce: To help us get to the bottom of this. It was almost 99 percent of people in this community say they come to live here or work here because they love nature and feel responsible for protecting nature. That, I’ve got goosebumps just talking about this, that was the single biggest thing that gave us the courage and the license to keep going on this.

It became very clear that industry, that the tourism industry, feels that responsibility as well as people that live here. And, and I think that that, I could almost feel this collective sigh of relief when we all realize, okay, we’re all working towards the same thing. 

David Archer: Hello and welcome to Travel Beyond, where we partner with leading destinations to explore the greatest challenges facing communities and the planet, surfacing their most inspiring solutions. I’m David Archer from Destination Think, and I’m recording from Haida Gwaii, which is the territory of the Haida Nation off the north coast of British Columbia in Canada.

Regular listeners will know that on this show we look at the role of travel and choose to highlight destinations that are global leaders. We talk to the changemakers who are addressing regenerative travel through action in their communities, often from the bottom up. And today’s changemaker comes from the town of Banff in Alberta, Canada.

Leslie Bruce is the president and CEO of Banff and Lake Louise Tourism, which is the destination organization representing one of Canada’s most sought after and well known tourism destinations, Banff National Park. If you’ve never been to or heard of Banff National Park yet, I’ll wait a minute while you google it, or here’s how Leslie describes it.

Leslie Bruce: It’s one of the hardest things we do is to explain this place to people who haven’t been here. You can go straight to the physical beauty, you know, our mountains are pointier, um, it’s vast, it’s really an iconic picture of Canada. When people close their eyes and dream of Canada, this is where they picture it.

So there’s, there’s that, but there’s this, you know, There’s a spiritual connection to this place that is very difficult to describe. People have told us, anecdotally and through our visitor research, that when they’re here, they feel like a better version of themselves. They feel more connected to their family, to their friends, or the people they’re traveling with.

And there is something so incredibly transformational about that. And that’s hard to describe because it’s absolutely different for every single person. It is the thing though, that we hear time and again, people feel that sense of awe, they feel humbled. And it just is such a privilege to be able to invite the world to experience that and offer that.

David Archer: Our team recently traveled to Banff alongside the creative production studio Arcade Motion to record several interviews. These are the people behind the visuals you’ve seen in several of the trailers for our podcast seasons. Huge shout out to you guys at Arcade Motion. And as we get started today, we would like to thank the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

That’s the renowned arts and culture institution located in Banff for their pro bono support of this project, including access to various beautiful spaces to film and record in. We greatly appreciate that. Banff and Lake Louise Tourism has developed and released a 10 year vision called Lead Tourism for Good.

The vision takes a holistic approach to address topics like environmental stewardship, the well being of the community and the national park, Indigenous tourism, Traffic and transportation and more. More than 2,000 residents of Banff National Park contributed to the project, which is an impressive amount considering that there are about 10,000 people living in the town of Banff, which is the largest population center in the park.

In today’s interview, Leslie Bruce is going to tell us about the kind of collaboration it took to create that vision alongside the community and in partnership with the town of Banff and Parks Canada, and to find the alignment that’s needed to move into action. Banff and Lake Louise are small communities within a national park that receives more than 4.5 million visitors per year. The boundaries around tourism and what it can and cannot do are much more clearly drawn here than in most other places, and that’s by necessity. I think it takes a special skill to navigate municipal and federal jurisdictions alongside the needs of the tourism industry and community the way Leslie and her team have done.

Our team at Destination Think has worked with Banff and Lake Louise Tourism before, and I had the chance to participate too, back in 2017, when our team developed the communication rollout surrounding new mass transit options that became available to visitors. And that was during a year when the Canadian government waived park entry fees for all visitors, which, as you can imagine, really kicked visitation up a notch.

You can read about that story on our blog at DestinationThink.com. But one of the primary goals of this National Park and many others is to preserve the environment. But Leslie says, “one of our big aha moments as a group of partners was that in order for us to stay the same, we absolutely have to change.”

How will Banff Lake Louise and the National Park change in order to preserve the incredible environment and visitor experiences? Let’s find out. Visit BanffLakeLouise.org to learn more. Here is Rodney Payne, the CEO at Destination Think, speaking with Leslie Bruce, President and CEO at Banff and Lake Louise Tourism.

Rodney Payne: Could you please tell me your name, your role, and what you do? 

Leslie Bruce: I’m Leslie, Leslie Bruce, and I’m the President and CEO at Banff and Lake Louise Tourism. And what I do is herd cats and, uh, and try to make the world a little better here in Banff. 

Rodney Payne: Why do you feel at home here? 

Leslie Bruce: I’ve always loved being outside. I think nature is such a prominent part. The place here, the landscape here is so massive in terms of your experience, so that’s a big part of it. And truthfully, I really love being around people on vacation. My happy place is on vacation. And I know sometimes that can be challenging, but I love it. So, yeah, it makes me feel at home.

Rodney Payne: How do you even begin to explain what’s so special about this place to someone who hasn’t been here? 

Leslie Bruce: It’s one of the hardest things we do, is to explain this place to people who haven’t been here. You can go straight to the physical beauty, you know, our mountains are pointier, um, it’s vast, it’s really an iconic picture of Canada, when people close their eyes and dream of Canada, this is where they picture, so there’s, there’s that, but there’s a spiritual connection to this place that is very difficult to describe.

People have told us, anecdotally and through our, our visitor research, that when they’re here, they feel like a better version of themselves. They feel more connected to their family, to their friends, or the people they’re traveling with. And there is something so incredibly transformational about that.

And that’s hard to describe because it’s absolutely different for every single person. It is the thing, though, that we hear time and again. People feel that sense of awe. They feel humbled. And it just is such a privilege to be able to invite the world to experience that and offer that to people. 

Rodney Payne: Being an Australian and having the chance to have driven through the park a ton, I can relate to that sense of awe and it’s hard to, it’s hard to properly explain how dramatic it is.

But I remember one analogy that I used was when I was hiking in the Himalayas and that’s sort of the experience up in the pinnacle. And I remember thinking to myself a number of times, I don’t know if this is quite as good as Banff National Park. And I was walking through the Himalayas. Right. 

Leslie Bruce: Yeah. No, it’s, it’s incredible. Yeah. Hard to describe. 

Rodney Payne: How did you end up in the travel industry? 

Leslie Bruce: Again, I love being around tourists. I love being around travelers, but most of all, I love to travel. And when I was 18, 17, 18 years old, I did an exchange and lived with a family on a dairy farm in Switzerland. And the experience I had there changed my life.

I’d grown up in, uh, you know, a smaller urban setting, very privileged background, and, and to, to be in an environment where I learned how to milk cows and help do that and, and had to hitchhike to get back from school because it was so far from school. Really? I think it was really empowering, like eye opening and empowering to realize there is a huge world out there.

And I think, I think that for me was my first real taste of travel. And, and certainly then became a happy place for me, a place where I felt really alive. And so I took every advantage I could when I was younger, traveling, uh, working as a cycling guide in Europe and, um, and eventually thought, I could make a career of this.

Why wouldn’t I? Why not? Like, make people feel great. Yeah, I’m in. 

Rodney Payne: Are you worried about the trajectory we’re on as an industry or a society? 

Leslie Bruce: Yeah, I am 100 percent I think about it a lot. I think about it because I have two children that are reaching adulthood and and trying to figure themselves out and their their path forward.

And I think about it because I’m I’m responsible for the development of tourism in a town. That’s entire. Its sole industry is tourism. And so I feel I feel immense responsibility and concern over the changes that are happening with climate and the challenges that’s posing for the sustainability of businesses, communities, communities.

I think I’m most worried that we’re not moving fast enough, that the sense of urgency isn’t there, and we’re not experimenting and innovating at a pace that other industries would if they were faced with such a, with such a huge challenge. I think we’re dabbling, honestly, as an industry, and, and it’s why I’m so passionate about connecting with other leaders and sharing our story.

DMOs, I’m responsible for the DMO in Banff and Lake Louise, and destination organizations, historically, we’re set up to be more competitive as a destination, but at the heart of this big problem is a need for us to solve this together. This isn’t Banff’s problem or a problem down the road. This is a global challenge and, and we have to sort of step outside that former competitive mindset and move to a place where we’re working on this together.

Rodney Payne: Do you see a lot of your counterparts? 

Leslie Bruce: I don’t think that we are spending enough time as peers and colleagues, uh, working on this piece together. And I think that that results in people actually not even, not even talking about it. It’s not on the top three to five of many destination organizations, uh, mandates or even, uh, Uh, contemplation or, or research for their, for the next business plan.

It’s squarely in ours as a result of our, uh, destination plan where we work together to build that vision. It’s also squarely in ours because we’re situated in a national park and I think it becomes even more pressing. We’re very alert to the challenges with biodiversity and nature. However, I don’t think we’re talking about it enough.

I don’t think we’re thinking about it enough. 

Rodney Payne: There’s the analogy of sort of a good leader has one eye on the future and one eye sort of right in front. And that there’s probably a lot of sort of zooming in, especially having just experienced the pandemic, that there’s a lot of short term focus. What do you think the risk is if we’re not thinking ahead?

Leslie Bruce: We will become extinct if we’re not thinking ahead. I am, yeah, I’m convinced of that. We will become irrelevant. For us to manage relevance and for us, and sorry, when I say us, I think us as tourism destinations, as well as us as tourism organizations, I think the risk is extinction. I think we’ll lose social license to operate in communities that are, are greatly impacted by the way people choose to travel.

I think we could potentially, um, lose social license globally to get on airplanes and to move from place to place. I see that and there’s an immense opportunity. I, I, I think, you know, that I, I’m very focused on what can be, and I have a lot of faith in our ability to, to make change, but that, that really is around that future resilience and that focus on.

I’m being here some generations from now or however you want to perceive that. 

Rodney Payne: I’m going to zoom in for a little bit and then we’ll zoom out again. Can you describe some of the unique pressures you’re experiencing in your destination? 

Leslie Bruce: Absolutely. So for context, we are one of few communities in a national park.

Uh, the town here in Banff has 9, 000 or 9,500 inhabitants. We have 800 people living in the hamlet of Lake Louise. We see over 4.5 million visitors a year. And so you can imagine that comes with immense pressure. Um, I think some of the other things that are unique here is the This is a federally a federally operated jurisdiction, and within that there’s a municipally governed jurisdiction, and so the complexity of operating it between and with those strong restrictions and strong, uh, I guess, strong guidelines, uh, presents a challenge.

That’s real challenge. And then there’s always the tension between economic prosperity and, um, and then really preserving and protecting the, the, the biggest asset. And so that’s one thing that our community has agreed on, which is I’m so grateful for is that our biggest asset is mother nature, it’s nature, it’s, it’s the national park itself.

And so there’s a tremendous amount of pressure, but also buy in to make sure that we’re, we’re We’re protecting that, but the tension is growth, like growth, the economic growth, I think, is It’s something that our destination is actually quite good at. We’ve really come to resolve that this is not about more people or growing the size and scale of operations.

This is really about extracting as much value as we can from the finite footprint that is here in Banff. And I think that that’s something really unique here and something that we can offer the world as an example of a place where we have restricted the boundary. We’re at full development cap. We have very, very concrete land use, um, regulations and laws and policies, and we’re still demonstrating that there’s a viable tourism economy here in Banff.

Rodney Payne: In what ways do you think some of the challenges that you have in your operating context are actually Constraint that creates opportunity. 

Leslie Bruce: I love that. I love the idea that constraints create creativity or constraints lead to creativity. So certainly, uh, the restrictions around, um, seasonality as well as land use have been a challenge for us.

So we’ve had to get really focused on, um, What a great experience looks like without leaving a footprint. So that comes down to incredible storytelling or really connecting with locals or, or other ways of experiencing the place. I sometimes say we’re the canary in the mine shaft. Um, because of the constraints we have and because we’re at build out, we have to move into territories and spaces that are, my colleagues across the country certainly don’t have to.

So the, the first place that we’ve really experienced that shift is with transportation. How do people move throughout this park? It’s no longer acceptable for us to have a lineup of cars from the Trans Canada Highway all the way up to Lake Louise. That was never acceptable, to be, to be honest. Um, but that’s actually, you know, we were forced to get there faster than others will.

We can’t hide that. There’s no way for hiding that. We also, the only economy in our community is tourism. So we go the way tourism goes, and so we are incredibly compelled to make it work. And so, things like everything from, uh, yield management, Um, and I think it’s really important that we get all the way through to recognizing that water management and wastewater are things that we’re all concerned about.

This isn’t just something that our municipality thinks about. This is something we all think about because without tourism in this place, we don’t have a community. And I think it’s a real gift to us in many ways because we’re compelled to think about this as a holistic system. I like to liken it to an ecosystem.

It’s kind of apt given that we’re in a in a national park and we recognize that we all fit together in a way that creates harmony and allows us to flourish. But if something’s out of whack, the whole system is out of whack and it’s really obvious really quickly. I think the most obvious places with respect to transportation.

I also think affordability and cost of living will now be another thing that we will have to solve more creatively and more quickly than perhaps other communities. There’s less of a pressure valve or a release valve for us to turn. 

Rodney Payne: Let’s talk about values. You’ve spent a lot of time uncovering values in the last little while.

Do you want to talk a little bit about that process and tell me what are the core values of Banff and Lake Louise? 

Leslie Bruce: I find determining my own values difficult, so imagine trying to do that as a community. So to lay the groundwork, we engaged over 2, 000 members of our 9, 000 person community in a In a process to really build a vision for the future of place.

And one of the first things, um, one of our working groups said is we really need to understand what are our shared values. And I was so excited to hear people. Looking for that place of agreement before we started getting into some of those heavy and challenging conversations. And so, um, it was a very long and comprehensive process, uh, to discern these values.

And it really came from feedback from employees, from, from colleagues, from owners, from, uh, retirees. And one of the coolest things was, uh, in one of the surveys to help us get to the bottom of this, it was almost 99%. in this community, say they come to live here or work here because they love nature and feel responsible.

For protecting nature that I’ve got goosebumps just talking about this. That was the single biggest thing that gave us the courage and the license to keep going on this because it became very clear that industry that the tourism industry feels that responsibility as well as people that live here and I think that that is I could almost feel this collective sigh of relief when we all realize, okay, we’re all working towards the same thing.

And I have a friend and colleague here in destination who, when she welcomed me to town, said, you’re going to find out that we all love this place, we just don’t agree on how to love it. And so my job for the last 10 years, I think, has been to figure out how can we all figure out how to love this place together, you know, and so all of that to say, we under three core values in the destination, and they’ve now formed the form of the core of our brand.

Uh, they inform how we work together and how we partner with. Um, we’ve had a town and the feds. And so nature is the number one value. No big surprise. And that’s not only that value of nature, but also that sense of responsibility for protecting it hospitality, which I don’t think is a surprise, but it was cool to see that come forward.

We we as a town in Banff, it’s in our incorporation act that we’re a welcoming center for visitors. So compared to other mountain towns or other communities across Canada and North America were different because we were purposely it’s a community that’s built to welcome guests, and so then baked in our DNA as a community is that desire to welcome people.

However, the part that really was an earth is not only are we, um, gracious hosts, but we are grateful guests and we’re seeking grateful guests, and that’s really important, really cultivating that that warmth and that sense of responsibility within the guests as well as as the way we welcome people and finally, curiosity.

There’s something hardwired into people that come here, whether it’s to live or to, to vacation. Most people are here to learn something, whether that’s about themselves or about the place. As Canada’s first national park, it’s in our, again, in our DNA. It’s in the way we were formed to be a place for people to come and learn about this incredible place.

And you see that really come through. Uh, people that are here on a working visa come to learn to ski for the first time. People that are, uh, have been here and are, are, um, making this their, their place of retirement because they’ve worked and lived here their whole lives are still here. I’m still curious about how the future of Banff will be more sustainable and, and, uh, so those three things are really at the core of now, how we work together as well as some of the big programs that we’ve prioritized out of our, out of our 10 year vision.

Rodney Payne: Having spent time to define those values and now looking back in the rear view, you know, in the last decade, can you see when you look around the community and tourism industry, those values actually bubbling up already organically? 

Leslie Bruce: Yep. For sure. 

Rodney Payne: And what do you see? 

Leslie Bruce: I see things like our ambassador program, uh, where we as an organization at Banff and Lake Louise Tourism train over four, 4,000 people, 4,500 people a year when they’re new to the destination to help them learn more and be as passionate about this place as those of us that have been here for almost 10 years.

And, and that allows us to welcome guests. And allows us to help them understand how to behave in a responsible way, how to take wildlife pictures without interfering with calving season. These are things you have to think about when you’re working in a national park. I most certainly see it in the nature side, where, you know, in many communities, if a policy was laid down to remove single use items from all restaurants, the pushback or the discussion would be around why they have to do that.

But it for our community. It wasn’t. Why do we have to do that? The community was how do we do this most effectively? And how do we work together to figure out how to do it better? You know, and so stuff like that, where you can see it coming to place. You can see the places people get really passionate about, whether that’s with respect to how we restrict cars in the downtown core, how we scale up our transportation system right out of the gate.

I remember when we first launched our first a set of buses here in the community, getting an electric bus into town to test and to pilot. And it was one of the coldest days in January and the bus itself didn’t work because it was so cold. But being, thinking about that over, you know, 10 years ago shows, I think that it’s, we’re already wired to go there.

It’s, it’s just figuring out how to do it now, frankly, more quickly and more systematically. 

Rodney Payne: How do you see the values influencing decision making in your organization and sort of some of your key counterparts? 

Leslie Bruce: So in our organization, most certainly on the nature, I’d lean into the nature piece and, and it ties back, uh, it ties back to our 10 year vision and our commitment to climate action and nature positive decision making.

And so, for us, everything from, um, looking at, um, who we’re marketing to, uh, and creating that, you know, target customer that shares our values. And then how do we manage and communicate with them while they’re in destination? You know, they’re much easier to influence actually, because we’ve attracted people.

We’ve started attracting people that care about similar things to us, but it also affects our, you know, who we go after. Um, trying to get people to stay longer, really looking at a yield as a destination. And I know that’s not a new concept, um, certainly obviously embedded in the commercial side of our industry.

But as a destination organization, we’re trying to make decisions that will result in, in those kinds of better outcomes from an economic perspective, while we then don’t have to find as many people and have that turnover throughout the year. 

Rodney Payne: There’s obviously some formal organizations that are leaders in the community.

Where else do you see leadership coming from? 

Leslie Bruce: Leadership is coming from everywhere in the community. The process that we went through as a community was a very, very much an all in process with our community around who do we want to be and how do we want to be in 10 years. And we heard from students and we heard from people who had just moved here, just moved to Canada for the first time.

People have lived here their whole lives. We’re seeing, you know, the idea for the reusable cup actually came from a group of university students that had seen this on a university campus. Um, that’s leadership. You know, they’re, they’re looking for ideas and looking for ways to continue to make this a better place to live and work.

I see leadership coming from different parts of our municipality, uh, offering, uh, rebates for e bikes and looking at ways, uh, to, to remove, um, lawns from the, uh, from the community so that we’re not using as much water. Like, it’s, it’s, it’s truly coming from, uh, We have a not just in people’s jobs, but in people’s day to day.

We have a very vocal and passionate group of residents, and they’re not afraid to speak up. So, uh, our council meetings are very action packed and, uh, definitely see a lot of stuff going on there. Even, yeah, even our schools, like the outdoor education programs. Some of our not for profits, um, we have a not for profit locally that has, um, It’s made it a commitment to provide every student in our elementary school with, um, ski passes.

And that belief that it’s an important part of mountain culture and we want everyone to have access to that. I mean, these are things that I think make for a more resilient community and make for greater opportunity. I think they inspire people to think a little bit differently. You’ve got tour operators that have taken it upon themselves to, um, get to net zero already.

Um, you’ve got elementary school students that have been working on, um, art and, um, and showcasing their art in an art and nature trail to help people understand why it’s so important to look after nature and how, why they love living here. And I do think, I think all of these things are leadership because I think as a leader, And in my role and others, a big part of it is inspiring.

A big part of it is helping people see a way forward or see the way forward. And I think what these leaders are doing is, in some cases, forcing us all to take a second look and ask some harder questions. And in other cases, inspiring us to, to try, to try and do things more innovatively or more creatively.

I think I think the way we’ve been managing people in terms of how they move through the destination. I am incredibly proud of the destination for this. It has not come without some bruises and some frustration for sure, but the fact that we now move over 2,000,000 people on mass transit in a in a small community like this, really looking at how we take that congestion out of the community and try to get people to leave their cars behind.

I think that’s It was, I think, a big step for us to recognize that we don’t have a people problem, we have a car problem about ten years ago, and sort of building, building on that has been key, again, a key sort of theme or, or, or driving force, and you can be on opposite sides of the table, but fundamentally agree that that’s our problem.

You know, when we talk about caring capacity or visitor management, we’re doing it in the context of Parks Canada has a formal management plan and a responsibility to Canadians now and forevermore to protect this place. And so that’s a high bar, and I think it’s something that, again, I think the world can learn from us, having, having to operate with this high bar.

That, to me, has stimulated so much creativity around this issue. What’s enough? And, and how are we going to manage this? And so, the Lake Louise example, and the Moraine Lake example, where you, up until two years ago, you could go in a private vehicle whenever you want. And, now you can’t. That’s a good thing.

You can still get there. We will make sure you can still get there. It is an important place to visit. Spiritually, and, and, just, it’s, it’s beautiful. It’s one of those places that people aspire to see in their lives. But it doesn’t mean you go there in a car. You’re just going to have to go there a little differently.

Rodney Payne: It’s such a small change, but such a big change at the same time. Yeah. 

Leslie Bruce: Yeah, it’s massive. It’s massive. 

Rodney Payne: If you had to describe, in plain English, why you needed to build a destination management plan, what is it seeking to do? 

Leslie Bruce: Very, very much need to create shared responsibility for the future of this place.

And within that, a clear and I think thorough understanding of how important it is that we do this together. This is not the destination organization doing it to or for the community. This is not, you know, industry doing it to or for the community. I think this, this destination plan and the vision for tourism that we created to lead tourism for good, means that we want it to serve the community.

It’s good. We want it to be here for good, and you can’t do that as one entity imposing that on others. Like, fundamental to that is finding the points of alignment. I was relieved to find that we had more than one point of alignment. The nature piece was huge. But finding those points of alignment allows us to share the load.

It allows us to be very, very clear who within the destination is responsible for what, who leads it. Maybe who follows, who enables, we had to go through that together. I, I believe the journey of building that vision was as important as the work we’re doing now. Because I no longer as the leader of the destination organization have to set out the roadmap for what we do next.

We’ve got people coming to us telling us what they’ve done. People coming to us asking for advice on how to get it done. And we’ve maintained a core steering committee that brings Parks Canada and the Town of Banff and Banff and Lake Louise Tourism together, um, really to govern this, to make sure that there’s accountability.

This is not a plan that sits on the shelf. This was a process that got started by collaborating with over 2, 000 people. by getting buy in and commitment from a group of people that care deeply about this place. And really it’s, it’s, it’s that idea of we, we use that to overcome inertia and now the momentum is rolling.

And yeah, I’m, I’m really excited to see maybe how this conversation again in another year. 

Rodney Payne: What are the primary goals of your direction? 

Leslie Bruce: So there are five big goals, and I would say three that are in the, in the uber big goal seat. One is to protect the visitor experience. And we can’t do that without partners at Parks Canada and the Town of Banff.

You know, it’s, it’s definitely, yes, the product that gets created, um, by members. However, it’s also very much making sure that we have roadways and signage and, and toilets and all of the fun things that you need in order to thrive. So visitor experience is huge. And being able to do that in a way that Cultivate stewardship with the visitor and comes at it from a true to place experience.

And that’s been one of the single biggest challenges is, is truly defining that true to place. And I think that the values have really helped us get there. Uh, climate action and nature positive is the other really big bucket where we have a set of goals. And this one’s been really hard to land in our, our set of KPIs.

This is challenging in the world. To find the place because we don’t want to spend all of our time working on KPIs and then not doing the work, but but we certainly have found ways where we can collaborate on things like water usage, things that just need to get done supporting our members in getting to net zero and creating an environment where actually we talk about this now.

It’s not a taboo topic anymore. It was a hard topic at the beginning. People were threatened, especially industry and businesses were threatened by the idea that saying the word environmental sustainability or climate action might take away from their business. But the reframe two years later is, this work will allow us to protect your business and future businesses because we will adapt and we will do our best to help mitigate.

Um, the other one is community well being. And we wouldn’t have a place to visit if our community wasn’t as open and receptive to tourism. And so for us, that means not only creating programs that contribute back to community, but it is things like attracting educational opportunities within the destination, making it easy as a place to visit.

and settle and making it open and welcoming and, uh, creating opportunities for sense of belonging, whether that’s with the town of vamp, who has a vamp life program that welcomes newcomers to the town or, uh, the work that we’re doing in the ambassador program to help educate people or even the work that our business events attraction is doing to donate to specific causes in destination.

So, uh, Those are the three biggest pieces and, and, and goals associated to that. And then we really are committed to fostering better indigenous connections. And that ones are really challenging and, and long term engagement and working in a national, in a federal, pardon me, in a national park. There are so many layers working on this.

However, It was important to us to call it out because we cannot lose sight of the need for truth and reconciliation. And we believe that, that tourism and industry can be a big part of that. And finally, we aspire to be better at sharing data. So we’ve made an open data commitment amongst the major parties in Destination.

And as we all become more adept at collecting data, analyzing data. We are sharing the data. And so we have a direct, um, conduit between Parks Canada as well as the town of Banff. And we share back and forth because we are collecting different information and we think, we think we need to round it all out in order to make better decisions as a destination.

So those are the five big, five big areas. 

Rodney Payne: Thinking about the process of planning. Was there anything that surprised you, or any really key learnings? 

Leslie Bruce: Anything that surprised me? I was surprised by how into the process our entire community was. I knew it was a passionate, I know it’s a passionate group of people.

I was surprised to see so many people truly show up. Because it wasn’t just showing up to like a town hall one hour meeting. It was, uh, For working sessions, one, one big presentation, half day, another evening session where we presented and three surveys, like people really got into it. So I was, I was surprised by this, the level of engagement and that kind of opened my eyes.

I think what was fun was to watch how pleasantly surprised other people were that it was actually the, the tourism entity that was driving this. It was not the town of Banff or Parks Canada. It was us as an industry that were saying, Hey, we really need to have this conversation with all of you. We really need to understand where everybody stands here because we’re not trying to To do this to you.

We’re trying to shape the future with you. And so to that end, I wouldn’t call it a surprise, but I was, I was really glad and relieved when, um, we were able to convince Parks Canada and the Town of Banff, like my colleagues there to, to come with us and to co create this with us. And that was, that was so important to me.

I, I didn’t want to do this project. I was, I’m no interest in having the destination organization create a plan that’s going to sit on a shelf, or we’re going to try and then force people to buy into it. At the end of the day, like this has to be, we have to work together to figure this out. And it was an easier way to understand where everybody agreed and also where we were absolutely diametrically opposed and would never get to that place, um, so that we can find the path through.

I’m sure there’s more. I think I’m just remembering the good and the bad. 

Rodney Payne: Do you, do you have any advice for your counterparts around the world who might be thinking about needing to build a plan? 

Leslie Bruce: A hundred percent. Yeah. Get curious. Ask questions. Don’t be afraid. Like if it makes you uncomfortable, that’s the thing you have to ask.

For me, I, uh, I think too often people are looking for the easy way, the way to skate through and just get it done. And I get it, but. That’s not where the meat is. That’s not where the juicy stuff is. And I think, uh, I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to leave my organization and this destination better than where I found it when I started.

And I think that bringing sort of your human, your human empathy and kindness and love to the whole conversation is essential because we’re talking about people’s lives. We’re talking about the future of the world. And so I don’t know how you can approach one of these things without trying to aspire to do things that you’ve never thought of before.

So yeah, get curious. 

Rodney Payne: How does Banff, unlike Loewe’s, need to change? 

Leslie Bruce: It’s really funny. One of the things that came out of our conversations We’re in a national park. I know I’ve, I’ve, I’ve made that clear, but the mandate of a national park is to protect and conserve, which lends to this notion that things shouldn’t change, that they have to stay the same.

And one of our big aha moments as a group of, um, partners was that in order for us to stay the same, We absolutely have to change. We have to change the way people arrive here. We have to change the way people move about. The way they consume. The way they live. Um, we have to change almost everything in the supply chain.

Uh, in order to protect this place and stay the same. And so I, I think it’s an, it’s an interesting change. You know, we, we, uh, we have to change a lot. We have to, we have to change policy. We have to change our appetite for the kinds of experiences we’re looking for and our expectations. But I think that’s what it’s going to take to stay the same.

Rodney Payne: What happens if we don’t? 

Leslie Bruce: I kind of go down two paths with that. I worry that if we don’t, in some ways in the short term, people won’t see. But that’s going to exacerbate what’s happening globally in climate and it will make the challenge bigger. But I do, I really worry about that. I worry that because people don’t see it or don’t see it today or yesterday was better and tomorrow’s forecast or what have you looks better that they just won’t see that need.

I have some confidence that if we don’t change dramatically, in Banff in terms of the tourism industry that, that we will manage year to year, but I think we would miss the opportunity to ensure that this place remains a beacon of, I suppose, hope and opportunity, uh, for what the world and, and Mother Nature has to offer.

Now there’s a, I think there’s a lot at stake and, and there’s a lot at stake economically as well as, I guess a climate and and human race perspective. It’s heavy and I and I have to say Um, sometimes it can weigh on me, but what I What I would also just like to add is that, um, I also have an immense amount of hope.

I mean, we’ve got so many creative, smart people that care passionately. And, and I think the big thing is just helping give some space for those that do have that passion and creativity. And I wouldn’t still be doing this job if I didn’t believe we can make a huge difference. 

Rodney Payne: Why is collaboration so critical in any destination organization, but in particular yours?

Leslie Bruce: So in our destination, collaboration is the only way forward. There, there is no real, I guess with the exception of Parks Canada, not one entity can actually do it all. There’s no way. Um, so in, in some ways, it’s, it’s made us master collaborators. And I, and I think, um, also the scale, we’re a small town. And so to get big things done, you’ve got to pull together resources, which we do all the time.

You know, we really support with our communication strength and, and all the time we’ll support with all their infrastructure strength, etc. Yeah. I think globally, and especially in the tourism industry, we’ve got a massive opportunity to collaborate. Um, although we compete with other mountain towns or other Canadian destinations, at the end of the day, we’re all in to figure out the resilience of this industry.

Without it, none of us would be able to, uh, to come to the table, so to speak. So, yeah, I think, I think there are a ton of solutions out there. I think, in fact, probably every problem’s been solved, but none of us knows all of it, and none of us has made all the mistakes. And I just think that’s one of the greatest gifts of collaborating is being able to share.

And, uh, yeah, I know group projects in school. We’re not my favorite thing. I’m really surprised by how much I love the collaboration aspect of this. But for me, it’s less my brain on fire to talk to people and meet with other people that look at it differently. And I just think we’ve got to get moving faster and to be able to scale this at a, at a level that I don’t think.

Most of us can handle on our own, for sure. 

Rodney Payne: Well, thank you very, very much for having us here and spending time to tell us about where you’re going. 

Leslie Bruce: Yeah, thanks for coming. 

David Archer: This has been Travel Beyond, presented by Destination Think. And you just heard from Rodney Payne, speaking with Leslie Bruce, President and CEO at Banff & Lake Louise Tourism.

We’ll include links to more resources on the blog for this episode at DestinationThink.com. My co producer is Sara Raymond de Booy. This episode has been created and has theme music composed by me, David Archer, Lindsay Payne, Cory Price, and Jamie Sterling provided production support. We would like to thank Banff and Lake Louise Tourism for sponsoring this episode, as well as Leslie Bruce for her leadership.

And we also appreciate the support of the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity. You can help more people find this show by subscribing to future episodes and by leaving a rating and review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. And we’ll talk to you next time.