THE OPPORTUNITY

Grasslands National Park (GNP), located along Saskatchewan’s southern border, is Canada’s only National Park dedicated to prairie grasslands, home to one of the country’s most endangered ecosystems and over 30 species at risk. The park’s unique geography, ongoing land acquisition, and environmental regulations have posed challenges to its operations and visitor services. BC Hughes worked with parks staff to navigate these complexities and develop creative, authentic visitor experiences that maximize the park’s potential.

THE PROCESS

The project involved implementing Parks Canada’s nine step, evidence-based Visitor Experience Strategy process, designed to plan for visitor experience developments in a logical, as well as a creative way with an understanding of who will visit the park. The process explored the destination’s essence of place, visitor goals, target market and used these factors for conceptualize future visitor experiences that will be delivered by the park and/or its partners.

THE OUTCOME

BC Hughes worked with parks staff to determine opportunities for Grasslands to create new and exciting offers that are examples of doing parks differently. Parks staff were able to determine several opportunities to provide a more engaging visitor experience for tourists to the park.

Subsequent to the completion of the Visitor Experience Strategy, and hinging on Tourism Saskatchewan’s interest in developing birding experiences to attract this niche market, BC Hughes mentored staff in their creation of a Day with a Specialist program, aimed at giving visitors the opportunity to experience Burrowing Owls in their natural habitat. Together, GNP and BC Hughes worked through logistics, pricing and identified memorable moments to successfully launch the program, and to provide a template for the development of future Day with a Specialist programs.