Nikka Yuko recovering from COVID downturn
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on May 19, 2023.
Herald file photo
The Winter Lights Festival has been part of Nikka Yuko's pandemic recovery success.LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
The most recent Winter Lights Festival at Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden generated an economic impact of nearly $800,000, the Cultural and Social Standing Policy Committee of Lethbridge city council was told Thursday afternoon.
Working with Tourism Lethbridge, the garden came up with that financial impact, executive director Michelle Day Miles told the SPC.
The committee consists of Mark Campbell, Jennifer Schmidt-Rempel, Jeff Carlson and Nick Paladino.
“The story is going to be that we are now coming back from COVID. We lost 40 per cent of our visitors during that COVID situation in 2020 but now we’re back and with the Bunka Centre there,” the garden has a 14 per cent overall increase in visitation from 2019, Day Miles said.
The increase from 2020 to 2022 has been 82.2 per cent.
The garden is also increasing bookings, getting back to previous numbers.
“We’re not quite there yet. One of our focuses is on school tours because again schools had challenges with doing school tours throughout the COVID (period),” she said.
Miles Day had a big shout-out to volunteers, especially the board.
“I think we can all recognize the hours that were put in for the new Bunka Centre,” she said. There was a decrease with Winter Lights festival volunteers because of frigid temperatures, she noted.
Revenue generated for fee-for-service per service dollar was $2.08 in 2022. This is up from $1.87 in 2021 and $1.59 in 2020.
“We are doing our best to leverage our fee-for-service funding,” Day Miles said.
The focus of 2023 with the new building and knowing that the garden has to always look for opportunity is fundraising, content development and the shoulder seasons.
“The shoulder seasons are key there because we need to also recognize that we are always going to have slow months” such as March, April, October and November because the garden is closed to the public during those times and high revenues can’t be expected, Day Miles noted.
The Winter Lights Festival had a 32 per cent increase in visitors this season. The festival ran from Nov. 30, 2022 to Feb. 26.
“Why we had such an amazing increase is because of the Bunka Centre,” she said.
In 2022-23, the festival attracted 30,672 people, up from 23,216 in 2021-22. The first festival in 2019-2000 drew 16,631 visitors while the second year in 2020-21 attracted 19,585.
She said 11,000 people used the Bunka Centre for non-paid programs and for the washrooms last year.
“That is something we wanted to achieve – is to be a service for the Henderson Lake area and it’s coming true,” Day Miles said.
The garden is creating revenue-generating spaces including the Travel Alberta Kamakura Dome. Travel Alberta provided $100,000 for the project and the garden is “looking at increasing that use, looking at content development and also moving forward with the dome. It will always be a temporary experience for maybe three to five years but it does enhance the experience for our visitors,” she said.
Total attendance at the dome was 1,548. There were 15 sold-out dome experiences.
A visitor survey showed of the 358 respondents, 79.2 per cent have attended the festival more than once and 91 per cent gave Nikka Yuko at least a four-star rating.
“People are enjoying the Winter Lights Festival,” said Day Miles, adding collaboration is key through the winter to provide a winter activity for city residents.
She said education is also important.
Thirty-two per cent of respondents want to see more lights and activities at the festival.
The goal for 2022-23 was to increase visitations from Edmonton by two per cent and Calgary by five per cent. Those targets were exceeded with 3.10 per cent of visitors coming from Edmonton – up from 0.19 per cent and 29.97 per cent coming from Calgary, which was in increase from 2.91 per cent. A total of 21 per cent of online festival ticket purchases were from outside of southern Alberta, the SPC heard.
“We are bringing revenue into our community,” Day Miles said.
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29-28
I wonder if the Standing Committee knows that Nikka Yuko keeps all the profits from the light festival. They do not pay for the installation of the lights, it is absorbed by the maintenance budget to the tune of approximaetly 70,000 dollars. This sounds like the society trying to justify grovelling for even more money from the city. Seriously, City of Lethbridge, time to wake up and see what is happening there.