:: Banff Heritage Tourism Corporation ::

Heritage Tourism Award Winner Profiles

2005 honorable mention for Most Innovative Commitment to National Park and World Heritage Site Awareness

2001 award for Best Environmental Practice

Creativity is Key to Keeping Visitor Experience Enriching at Banff Gondola

Built by John Jaeggi and some very influential Swiss businessmen in 1959, the Banff Gondola is Banff’s longest-running attraction an now carries a half-million people a year up Sulphur Mountain, where visitors can enjoy panoramic mountain views.

A strong believer in heritage tourism, the Banff Gondola won the 2001 award for Best Environmental Practice and an honourable mention in 2005 for its Giant Compass display, designed to help visitors relate Banff to where they come from and to other world heritage sites around the globe.

“We wanted to build a display about world heritage and relate it to Banff’s significance as a national park and UNESCO site. Entering the heritage tourism awards was an opportunity to get the word out about the compass display as the way we chose to enhance our guests’ experience while visiting the gondola,” said Miranda McKinley, sales and marketing manager.

“We are not just a sightseeing gondola, but a place of learning. The thing about heritage tourism is that it’s not necessarily about investing a lot of money in enhancing visitors’ experiences; it’s about being creative and working with what resources are available. When customer feedback tells us that people had an especially memorable time with us, then we know it was all worth the effort,” McKinley explained.

“We want to represent a strong sense of community and local culture to visitors, and that includes demonstrating that we care about the environment. Good stewardship practices are important to us, which is why we incorporate environmentally sound practices in our operations. We live in a wonderful area with an abundance of natural beauty and in order to share it with visitors, we need, first of all, to protect it. We are all responsible for the environment’s integrity because that’s what makes this place unique,” she said.

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