Sundre's Visitor Information Centre recently set a new milestone when a Calgary resident became the facility's 5,000th patron.
With several months left to go in the calendar year, 2017 has already beaten the 2016 figure of about 4,500, which itself was a record over the 2015 total of roughly 4,000.
Previously, the centre had not seen more than about 3,000 people in a given year, said Mike Beukeboom, Sundre and District Chamber of Commerce president.
"We're just thrilled. That's big a milestone reached for our small visitor information centre," he said.
"It really says a lot. The area is growing. We're getting better known as a destination."
As the more renowned tourist hotspots in the Rocky Mountains become increasingly overwhelmed, the local market for people seeking alternative outdoor recreational opportunities will only continue to gain traction, he said.
"They're starting to really get full," he said about popular places such as Banff and Canmore.
"There are times when they're close to maxed out."
Helping to spread the word about Sundre to entice more people to consider visiting the area has been a successful advertising campaign called Explore Sundre, which is run by the municipality, he said.
"Sundre is no longer Alberta's best kept secret."
Citing provincial figures obtained by the municipality, Beukeboom said there is an average of roughly seven million vehicles that come through Sundre every year.
"A good portion of that is tourism."
Of course there is also plenty of industrial transportation coming through town, but efforts to tap into tourist traffic must be ongoing, he said.
As exciting as reaching 5,000 visitors was, that milestone "is just the tip of the iceberg," he added.
There are no plans in the foreseeable future to add onto the existing Visitor Information Centre, located immediately east of the Red Deer River Bridge on the north side of Highway 27, but Beukeboom said that day might yet come.
Meanwhile, the chamber constantly strives to evolve and improve the facility to make it more meaningful and useful not only to visitors but to residents as well.
Such endeavours include the educational boardwalk that remains under development and will offer a new level of service by catering to tourists as well as providing students with a local educational opportunity, he said.
"We're just so looking forward to, and excited about, its future as a resource for the entire community."
And as the municipality welcomes a new council on a four-year term, Beukeboom underscored the importance of developing a regional master plan not only among the town and county but also with involvement at a provincial level.
"That's a conversation that needs to start with the province."
All of the pieces of the puzzle ó such as for example industrial transportation, environment, economy, and tourism ó should be considered in a comprehensive master plan, he said.
"It's very clear the Town of Sundre and Mountain View County have different priorities at this particular time. That won't work moving forward," he said, calling for a more proactive relationship between the municipal partners. He added the province must also be involved in those conversations.
"That's paramount."
The chamber operates the Visitor Information Centre with funding from the Town of Sundre, Mountain View County, as well as the organization's own revenues, which includes membership fees and donations. Also crucial are the contributions of volunteers, without whom the new milestone record would have been impossible to reach, he said.
"The fact that we're now at the point where we can hire summer staff, that could never have happened without the volunteers getting us here," he said.
"That facility operates because of the support we get."
