Reflecting on Another Successful Visitor Servicing Peak Season
Riverside Park
Mary Putnam
Another peak tourism season in Kamloops comes to a close, and this summer treated us well. From consistently nice weather to several popular events, the BOLD Street Team saw great successes. Tourism Kamloops is excited to reflect on the year and all the accomplishments, interactions, and learning opportunities that come with visitor servicing.
At Tourism Kamloops, our primary visitor servicing goal is to increase meaningful interactions with both visitors and locals in town. Between recommending local restaurants, answering questions about special events, or giving directions to the best hike in town, we are dedicated to driving local visitation and supporting tourism in the Kamloops community. The entire Tourism Kamloops team is committed to answering questions, understanding unique interests and opportunities in the community, and offering tailored suggestions for things to do in our beautiful city.
THE TEAM
Tourism Kamloops was lucky again in receiving funding from the Canada Summer Jobs grant. While the specifics of the grant were different than last summer, we were still able to welcome three students with the funding, and the team this season was incredible! We were lucky to have a returning BOLD member from 2023’s team and two active volunteers join the paid summer team. Our one BOLD member who was brand new was a quick learner and within two weeks, you couldn’t tell they were new! 50% of our team were tourism students, and another was born and raised in Kamloops, so it’s safe to say we were well-rounded. The entire team gained very useful skills and knowledge of the tourism industry and the city of Kamloops. Three local BOLD members have offered to rejoin the volunteer team and will continue to support Tourism Kamloops into the fall. Tourism Kamloops will also be offering one of the BOLD members some paid shifts in September to assist with volunteer training and booth management.
Mobile Visitor Servicing Model
With the ‘Loops Explorer Station acting as a Bike Valet for the City of Kamloops this summer, the BOLD Team was strictly a roaming and pop-up team. They would set up at events throughout May-August, and would frequent Riverside Park, the BC Wildlife Park, and local campgrounds on non-event days. This model worked well, as they were always able to connect with locals and visitors, even when the city appeared to be asleep.
2024 Visitor Servicing
Our BOLD Street Team has been working hard all summer engaging with guests from around the world. Tourism Kamloops maintained a mobile visitor servicing model this season, meaning the team travelled to different events and hot spot locations around the city. This allowed us to go where the people are, rather than waiting for them to come to us. Our team was smaller than in 2023, but with four staff, we were able to be in the community for six days a week, routinely. Our 2024 team was comparable to the 2022 team.
2024 Total YTD | 2023 Actual Year End | 2022 Actual Year End | Difference between 2024 and 2022 | |
Face to Face – Hours of Support | 1982 | 1613 | 784 | 152.81% increase |
Face to Face – Visitors | 5947 | 14331 | 8626 | 31.06% decrease |
Our hours of face to face support saw such a significant increase this year, as we opened our marketing office in January. Working hours are tracked, as we offer digital support 40 hours/week, as well as in-person support for those who do come through the door. While the marketing office is equipped to handle the odd visitor, we are still a mobile-primary visitor servicing team without a permanent location in the city.
Other Opportunities and Experiences
The BOLD Team was also lucky enough to experience some unique opportunities this season. Below is a list of photoshoots in which some BOLD members were models:
- Bike Valet
- Keep it Loopy Sign
- The Spot BC
- Spoke N Motion E-Bike Rentals
- Riverside Park Beach
The BOLD Team also got to help host FAM Tours with both Fulham FC and Aston Villa FC while they were in town. They also met with Peter Larose of Larose Research & Strategy to collaborate on collecting data for an ongoing study about mountain biking in Kamloops. They conducted a total of 14 two-hour surveys and collected 33 responses from locals and visitors (some as far as Zurich who came to Kamloops just for the mountain biking!). They say the coolest part was how excited the mountain biking community was to see Tourism Kamloops supporting their passion.
Visitor Servicing in the Off-Peak Season
Tourism Kamloops will continue the same mobile model from the summer into the fall, winter, and spring, popping up at local events and hot spots in the community; we are lucky to have three of the BOLD Street Team members continuing as volunteers, and will be training new members of the volunteer team as well. In addition to our booth spaces, we will continue to provide digital support through phone, email, and social media, now more than ever before. We are hoping to venture into more social media platforms, implement new AI software on our website, and launch an online tourism academy for industry partners and students.
The sun may be setting on another successful summer season, but Tourism Kamloops is maintaining a full steam ahead approach for what’s to come.
For inquiries about our BOLD Street Team, Volunteer Ambassador Program, or visitor servicing, please connect with Meghan Lawson at or 250-320-9705.
Author: Meghan Lawson
Meghan is your connection for visitor servicing, the BOLD Street Team, volunteer ambassador team, and keeping the events calendar up to date.