New VR video lets people explore all Lethbridge has to offer

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on October 5, 2022.

Tourism Lethbridge photo A dance performance at Nikka Yuko is recorded by a 360° VR camera as part of a Tourism Lethbridge project.

In recognition of World Tourism Day on Sept. 27, Tourism Lethbridge released a 360-degree virtual reality video of public and event spaces that will assist the city in attracting new business events.

Tourism Lethbridge feels that meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) are vital to the tourism economy.

“Business events bring visitors to our community for the event, and are an opportunity to generate return family and leisure travel,” as read in the press release.

Destination Canada reported prior to COVID that MICE travellers had a $1 billion impact on the Canadian economy.

“You know a lot of people when they think of tourism, they think of summer travellers – maybe they’re RVing, maybe they’re wearing Hawaiian shirts,” said Stephen Braund, Tourism Lethbridge’s director of brand development. “But really it’s event tourism that helps drive our economy, a lot of it happens in the shoulder season, and that includes both sporting events but also business events – meetings, conferences, events like that. So we really wanted to come up with a way that we thought we could showcase some of the facilities that we have in town, and share them both at conferences that we will be attending to event planners and various organizations that we might be able to lure to the city.”

Tourism Lethbridge connected with Winged Whale Media for the video.

“They used 360-degree angle cameras to capture a VR video that allows viewers to control the angle of the camera and explore the space that’s being filmed,” said Braund.

Braund said business event travel is really lucrative not only to events like conferences and larger meetings, but fills hotels in the city and drives business to restaurants and other local shops.

“It’s also an opportunity to connect with the attendees to show off our incredible area and hopefully get them back as leisure travellers as well and their friends and families,” he said. “And for us it was a no brainer to target this. It also helps that we have a world class facility that is just a few months from opening, the new Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre, which is at the Lethbridge and District Exhibition. That’s going to offer 268,000 square feet of space that can host a range of different events. So it just seemed like the right time.”

Businesses looking for different facilities to host events will also be able to view inside the Enmax Centre, the Galt Museum and Nikki Yuko Japanese Gardens through VR video.

The VR video of these facilities is available through the Tourism Lethbridge YouTube channel and the organization’s business events page at http://www.meetinlethbridge.com.