Nikka Yuko chief Day-Miles earns rare certification

By Lethbridge Herald on June 6, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Michelle Day-Miles, executive director of the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden and long-time advocate for tourism in the region, has achieved the Certified Destination Management Executive (CDME) designation—a  designation only 400 people in the world have.

The certification is the highest individual credential in the tourism industry, awarded by Destinations International to recognize excellence in destination management leadership.

“It took four years and a lot of research papers to get the designation,” says Day-Miles. “And since there is only approximately 400 people in the world that have it, to be part of it… it’s a bit surreal to think about.”

She says she pursued the certification because she wanted to understand the tourism industry on a global scale. 

“When I started at Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, I really appreciated that this garden is pretty significant on the national level, but how do we rise that to a global level?”

Even though the garden receives visitors from all over the world, Day-Miles wanted to explore how it could enhance its presence on the global stage. 

“What I didn’t realize was that the tourism industry continues to change,” she says. “When I started, it was about marketing and the visitor centre. But now, it has turned into destination management.”

She says the difference is that destination management is about ensuring that the community is in alignment of what the community values and recognizes how unique they are, and the tourism products that they develop. That requires management. 

Day-Miles adds that the tourism industry changed through the COVID-19 pandemic, which changed the rules and scope. Therefore, tourism is now being seen as a unique and important piece of the economy. 

“So how do you manage that, how do you develop that, how do you ensure that your community is onboard?” says Day-Miles. “Because if you don’t have your community onboard for tourism, or sports, or events attraction, that does not make a welcoming community for those to come visit you.”

During the four years she worked towards her CDME designation, she learned that tourism product development and marketing in the tourism industry requires having community alignment. 

“The second piece is making sure that your municipal government, your provincial government and your federal government are in alignment, because you need all those three factors to do investment,” says Day-Miles. 

The Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden has received investments from Travel Alberta, but the community and the municipal government still need to be in alignment to maximize investment opportunities. 

“I think a lot of people believe that tourism is just marketing and fun,” she says. “But it requires managing people’s expectations and supporting people as they develop from the grassroots up.”

As a graduate of the University of Lethbridge with an anthropology degree, Day-Miles appreciates and understands the value of grassroot development. 

“Having this CDME designation at this point in time, I want to continue serving Tourism Lethbridge and I want to continue to enhance Nikka Yuko’s product development and reputation at the national and international level.”

In addition to her role at Nikka Yuko, Day-Miles has served on the Tourism Lethbridge board of directors for five years, including three years as chair. 

Day-Miles says she wants to continue serving the community as a whole, as everyone has a part to play in the tourism industry and many are unaware of that. 

“That’s a gap, people don’t think they are in the tourism industry, but they are. The tourism industry involves IT, marketing, digital media, service industries, retail, restaurants, hotels, volunteers, everyone.”

When people come to Lethbridge for a sports event, for example, they’re not necessarily involved in the event the whole time; they have breaks in between, which opens the door to visiting restaurants, stores, parks, even movie theatres or any other forms of entertainment. Ergo, anyone working in those places that people visit or engage in, are part of the tourism industry. 

“We need to make sure graduates are aware that there is an opportunity for them in tourism,” she says. “They are very creative students and I hope many of them can see themselves staying in Lethbridge and improving our tourism economy in their creative and technological ways.”