Over the 10 days of the Calgary Stampede Lethbridge was highlighted to an international audience, as the Lethbridge Lodging Association sponsored professional chuckwagon driver Doug Irvine. This is not the first time the association has partnered with a chuckwagon driver, having last year sponsored the 2022 Calgary Stampede Champion Kris Molle.
Porject Manager for the lodging association Shilpa Stocker says the organization started purchasing the chuckwagon tarps because they felt Lethbridge needed exposure in larger markets.
“Calgary obviously is a great market for Lethbridge in terms of visitors, but more so the Calgary Stampede has that concentrated Calgary audience, along with a provincial, national and international audience,” she says. “Last year when Kris Molle won, we had friends and colleagues, whose relatives were as far as the United Kingdom, watching the Rangeland Derby, and went ‘Hey, we know Lethbridge,” or “We know somebody in Lethbridge.”
Stocker says with the Lethbridge Lodging Association’s logo being VisitLethbridge.com one of the first benefits they saw was an increase in website traffic.
“We truly believe with following either inquiries through our website, or repeat visits following the Calgary Stampede, that increase from the Calgary area itself, not to mention a few outlying areas, helped people to take a second look at Lethbridge as a destination to come visit or do things.”
Stocker says the positive benefits they have saw from having the logo and branding at the Calgary Stampede played part in the marketing campaign the Lethbridge Lodging Association now has at the Calgary and Edmonton International Airports.