With Sundre's tourism booming and the town's exceptional potential to become one of Alberta's top destinations for culture and recreation, Sundre Economic Development currently offers a number of grants to help entrepreneurs take advantage of this opportunity.
Sundre experiences a traffic flow of about 20,000 vehicles per day travelling along Main Avenue West through town during the summer, based on counts collected in 2015 by Alberta Transportation at the traffic lights. Many of these vehicles carry travellers, especially during the summertime. Travellers bring with them disposable income, which we all want to be spent at our local businesses.
Since we also know that approximately 50 per cent of all visitors come from within the Calgary area, this represents a major market opportunity to take advantage of. The question is how do you get these travellers to stop at your business or attend your event? Being that these visitors usually come from Calgary, we can expect that they also bring with them the discerning tastes of a modern urban consumer. Of course the quality of our goods and how friendly we are with our customer service are the most important factors for consideration to ensure you have a repeat customer and receive good reviews on websites like Trip Advisor. But to get them through our doors in the first place, our appearance and how we communicate with them in advance can be the deciding factor for whether they actually bother to stop and visit your business or attend your event, or simply keep walking or driving by.
Having a beautiful community that is enjoyable to pedestrians contributes to the quality of place, as well as the quality of living, of both residents and visitors. Feeling proud about where you live or work because the place is architecturally controlled and designed well is just like the feeling a visitor gets when they visit a new place and feel the urge to explore because of how the community presents itself. Think about every community you've ever enjoyed walking through ó if you're like most people, you might have noticed how nice the shops look on the outside, making the community more welcoming.
Fortunately, the Downtown Area Revitalization Committee (DARC), administered by Sundre Economic Development, provides two grants to help contribute to the destination development of our community.
The Storefront Improvement Program (SIP) grant provides up to $5,000 per applicant. The SIP grant relies on architectural guidelines to help improve Sundre's architectural character. It is important to look good, so if you're considering redoing your storefront, contact Sundre Economic Development. As part of the SIP grant, you may also be eligible to receive free consulting and digital rendering services from an architectural designer.
For event organizers, the Sundre Event Development Initiative Fund (SEDIF) grant can provide you or your organization with up to $2,500 to help promote your event. Certain caveats apply, such as the event must bring more than 25 per cent of attendees from more than 40 kilometres away. The idea is to have the grants work together to draw people into town for local events, and to have them frequent our newly improved storefronts and support our economy while they're here.
Let's leverage our strengths and work on continuing to develop our appeal. Take advantage of grants while funding exists.
