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Now that September has passed, the new visitor centre at the Drayton Valley Museum has also wound up for the season.
As this was the first year the visitor centre was in place, Sandra Blades, the chair of the Drayton Valley Historical Society, and Ryan Fynn, the chair of the Drayton Valley Hospitality and Tourism Authority, say they are happy with the way things went.
Blades says the staff they had in place were energized and excited to get things going for both the information centre and the museum. Not only did they make plans for different events at the museum, but they also worked on social media marketing to bring tourists to the centre.
“If someone was calling us, it was nice to say, ‘Hey, yep, here’s the visitor information centre, go check out the museum,’” says Fynn. “The museum has done a lot of expansions on their projects this year as well, so it was really good to showcase that.”
One of the pieces of feedback the DVHTA heard this year was a few requests for postcards. So this summer the organization asked the community to pitch in on the project and send in their photos of the area. Fynn says the postcards are now in and for sale at some of the hotels in town and will be available at the museum next summer.
The visitor centre is one part of a larger project that the DVHTA, Historical Society, and the Eagle Point – Blue Rapids Park Council are collaborating on for the community. The QR Tourism Network was launched at the beginning of September and provides easy access to information about businesses and events in the area through QR codes in the community.
“This isn’t something, as the tourism authority, that we can do by ourselves, so it’s great to have such a good partner at the table with us, with the museum and the EPBR on the tourism network,” says Fynn.
Tourists can now scan a QR code at the visitor centre or participating businesses and be brought to a website that contains information about events in the area, restaurants, recreation activities, maps, and premade itineraries depending on the length of their stay.
“We launched it, and [the DVHTA] is helping us a lot to kind of get it [going]. It’s QR code-based and focuses on [getting] people to come to our community and stay for more than an hour,” says Blades.
“So that’s picked up some really good, unique visitors,” says Fynn.
He says if someone doesn’t have the QR code, they can also visit www.thisisdraytonvalley.com for the link to the information.
Both Blades and Fynn say there are some finishing touches coming in for the visitor centre this fall that will make the visitor centre even more successful in 2027. Highway signage for the space will be put up this month, and a local company is working on installing accessible public washrooms on the museum grounds. EPBR will also be expanding its interactive display at the museum, offering more learning opportunities about the local environment.
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