City of Maple Ridge

TOURISM STRATEGY

Initiative

“Discover us.” It’s romantic…the notion that people will stumble upon your greatness by chance. For your senses as if it was only you who saw and felt it for the first time.

It doesn’t work. The A to Z of “something for everyone” will not have people racing at Olympian speed to see you. Experiences must be distinguishing and excellent to motivate. There’s just too much competition.

Product development and excellence must lead the tourism conversation in communities. What experiences are elevated? Can we group those experiences into thematic experiences? The more differentiated the product, the further people will travel to obtain the experience. And the better the odds of avoiding marketing expense by having people obtaining elevated experiences “selling” those experiences to others via third party endorsement.

Enter a transformative product development-focused City of Maple Ridge Tourism Strategy that gut-checked value proposition to open a gateway to realistic product development pathways.

At the foot of the coast mountains on the north shore of the Fraser River with the untamed wild out the backyard – including Golden Ears Provincial Park – the 3rd highest day use visitation of 307 BC provincial parks – the story of the City of Maple Ridge’s tourism future begins with a Vancouver metro customer-centric observation: “It’s been said you know it’s time for a getaway when you start looking like the person on your driver’s license.”

Get away to your nearby ADVENTURE HUB in Maple Ridge – where every day can be an adventure in adrenalized outdoor experiences that lead our tourism story to come.

A set of key initiatives will serve to strengthen Maple Ridge’s primary active outdoor adventure product – with a key focus on learn-to guided experiences, trail development, and eco-tourism.

The City’s supporting product actors that capitalize on local strengths – grown and made-local “farm fresh”, and urban hot spots (curated) that celebrate the best of the best in food, entertainment, culture, and shopping strengthen connection to land, people and life-well lived, rounding out the adventure hub value proposition.

A visual plan-on-a-page in the form of a Tourism Development Roadmap identifies cornerstone actions in Product Development, Marketing, and Enablers & Catalysts pathways. In aggregate, the Strategy works to elevate the visitor experience holistically as a matter of product experience design through the visitor’s eyes – from online presence to wayfinding to placemaking.

Tourism must achieve a delicate balance between visitor numbers and quality of experience while being mindful of resident desire to avoid negative impacts. Local awareness of tourism benefits becomes part of the strategic equation. More powerful in Maple Ridge is incorporation of Values Statement to guide a sustainable – even regenerative – spirit in a future-forward:

In Maple Ridge, the mountains make magic, the rivers run wild, and the land sustains us – inspiring our culture and creativity. We are a pathway for people’s exploration of their soulful desires…. deeper and visceral meaning of life to be found in connection to wild places, and to people. We are an enabler for mental and physical health and well-being these connections nurture.

We will ensure positive legacy for future generations in demonstrated and communicated “values in action”: 1) Land stewardship; 2) Regenerative land-based actions; 3) Nurturing of net zero tourism operations; 4) Circular economy development; 5) IMMERSIVE Learning experiences that deepen connection between land, people, and food; 6) visitor and resident environmental awareness building.

Results

The Economic Development Strategy was endorsed in the summer of 2022.

A first implementation initiative in 2022 saw the creation of an Accommodation Investment Opportunity profile to work to attract a cornerstone of community ability to better realize tourism benefits.