People love to gather around a table to enjoy locally prepared dishes. It gives them a truly authentic, immersive cultural experience. According to the 2020 Food Travel Monitor from the World Food Travel Association, 53% of leisure travelers are food travelers.
In Alberta, the demand for food tourism is growing. From near and far, visitors want to connect with the land through locally grown and prepared food to create unique memories.
The Canadian Experiences Fund (CEF) supported the tourism sector by investing in players who showcase Canada’s strengths. This includes farmers, ranchers and culinary artists who create farm-to-table experiences, attracting visitors from down the road and around the globe.
CEF has helped many tourism operators in Alberta to grow their offerings. Let’s look at two of them here. Both explain to their guests what they do and how they do it, then serve them gourmet meals with locally grown ingredients.
Through the CEF, we invested nearly $100,000 in each of these businesses. They both used the funds to:
- expand their unique culinary programs
- enhance what they offer to visitors
- keep the local food sector well stocked
Prairie Gardens is in Bon Accord, Alberta, north of Edmonton. This rural farm has 25 acres for agri-tourism activities. It farms another 15 acres to supply high-end restaurants in Edmonton that specialize in farm-to-table dining. Prairie Gardens offers visitors over 50 food-based activities around the farm, including:
- corn maze and pumpkin patch festivals
- an educational community garden
- gourmet farm-to-table dinners
- field trips for schools
Prairie Gardens used the funds to enhance its year-round culinary tourism to host guests in any season. And it modernized its facilities, to expand its crops and grow more food for local cuisine. Their efforts continue to strengthen the Alberta food tourism sector and create demand for locally sourced food.
Eau Claire Distillery is in Turner Valley, Alberta, southwest of Calgary. It is an award-winning “farm-to-glass” producer of hand crafted small-batch spirits. Eau Claire uses locally grown ingredients to make gin, vodka and single malt whiskey. Its products are sold at over 400 stores across Alberta.
Eau Claire used the CEF funds to expand its Distillery Garden event facility. It now provides new and enhanced tourism programming, including activities through the winter months. Eau Claire will keep providing visitors with a glimpse into the history of the rural areas surrounding the distillery.
Both these projects also support one of the CEF’s top priorities: to expand winter and shoulder-season tourism.
The CEF funded 81 organizations in Alberta with over $14.8 million to create or improve tourism products, facilities and experiences.
Rural culinary experiences boost Alberta tourism (length: 2:44)
Transcript: Rural culinary experiences boost Alberta tourism
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Video opens to Eau Claire Distillery in Turner Valley, Alberta. The building has red main doors, four large windows along the main level, and the Eau Claire Distillery sign is written at the top.
DAVID FARRAN, President, Eau Claire Distillery: Eau Claire was the first craft distillery in the province of Alberta.
Video transitions to clips of the Eau Claire Distillery logo and rows of Eau Claire whiskey.
We really started because we wanted to showcase the best of Alberta.
Video transitions to a female employee working in the distillery. She is standing in front of distillery equipment, taking notes.
Video transitions to David Farran, President of Eau Claire Distillery.
Barley in Alberta is considered some of the best in the world. So we thought of all things and all places that should have a strong whiskey distillery, Alberta was the place.
Video transitions to a bottle of Eau Claire whiskey. The whiskey is poured into a glass with the Eau Claire Distillery logo on it.
Whiskey and all of our products that we produce at Eau Claire distillery are actually enjoyed with food, so the culinary aspect of our business is really important. We try and showcase that here at the distillery, and it's our goal to use local as much as we possibly can.
Video transitions to a employees taking samples from the distillery for testing, and working with the distillery equipment.
Video transitions back to David Farran.
The PrairiesCan funding, we put towards building a patio, which really enabled us to become more of a four seasons event centre, and to put something in Turner Valley that was a destination.
Video transitions to the Eau Claire Distillery restaurant. The space has mahogany floors, table, and chairs. A bar is on the left hand side. The walls are painted white and there is a spiral staircase on the right, leading to a loft with another seating area.
What that means is that we're creating jobs in a small rural area of Alberta.
Video transitions to employees packaging Eau Claire products.
We've gone from 0 to over 40 employees, and we've become a catalyst for the community to grow in other ways.
Text on screen: PrairiesCan committed $99,912 to Prairie Gardens to develop and implement an enhanced year-round culinary tourism experience, and $99,999 to Eau Claire Distillery to purchase equipment for its expanded Distillery Gardens event facility.
Text on screen: Additional footage provided by Levven Electronics.
PrairiesCan website: www.prairiescan.gc.ca
PrairiesCan Twitter: @PrairiesCanEN
Prairies Economic Development Canada Wordmark appears on screen.
Animated Canada Wordmark appears on screen.
