COLD LAKE – Cold Lake could play a major role in an ambitious plan to turn northeast Alberta into a much bigger tourism destination, with Kinosoo Ridge being considered for all-season resort development and regional air travel potentially becoming part of the mix.

Travel Lakeland President Michelle Wright presented the organization’s developing 20-year tourism strategy to Cold Lake City Council on Sept. 8, outlining a draft plan that could ultimately represent $500 million to $550 million in tourism investment across the Lakeland region.

The idea isn’t simply to advertise what the region already has. Travel Lakeland wants to develop major attractions that can bring substantially more visitors into northeast Alberta, then use those attractions to support smaller tourism operators throughout the region.

“What I can tell you right now out of the draft report is for Travel Lakeland, it’s a $500 to $550 million investment plan that will see signature attractions developed in hubs across Travel Lakeland,” Wright told council.

The organization’s presentation describes a future built around outdoor recreation, soft adventure, culture and culinary tourism, including water and wilderness experiences, Indigenous, Métis, Ukrainian and French history and locally produced food and beverages.

Cold Lake is one of the hubs

When Councillor Vicky Lefebvre asked whether Cold Lake would be considered a hub despite being at the end of the road, Wright’s answer was clear.

“Yes, absolutely.”

Wright said the hubs currently being considered include Smoky Lake, Lac La Biche, Cold Lake/Bonnyville and St. Paul, with another being considered farther south.

Cold Lake already has some of the pieces Travel Lakeland is looking for.

“The museums here in Cold Lake are a huge draw as well as the lakefront and that’s already in place,” Wright said.

One potential opportunity is Kinosoo Ridge, which Wright said Travel Lakeland is considering as an all-season resort that could draw more visitors to the area.

That doesn’t mean a massive Kinosoo Ridge expansion has been approved or funded. The overall Destination Development Plan is still in draft form and the specific projects envisioned under it would require considerably more work and investment.

Could tourists eventually fly into the region?

One of the more interesting parts of the discussion came when Mayor Bob Mattice asked what Travel Lakeland meant by improving “air access.”

Wright said the strategy being developed includes subsidizing flights into regional airports to initially build passenger demand.

“Part of our strategy and the marketing dollars that we are putting into bringing visitors out will be subsidized air travel to our regional airports,” she said.

Travel Lakeland has been looking at the size of aircraft regional airports can accommodate and identified Edmonton, Jasper and Calgary as primary markets.

The concept would be to subsidize flights for approximately 18 months, with Travel Lakeland anticipating that enough demand could be established for the flights to continue without marketing subsidies afterward.

Again, those flights aren’t booked and no new commercial air service to Cold Lake was approved at Tuesday’s meeting. They are part of the organization’s developing tourism strategy.

Why northeast Alberta?

Travel Lakeland believes northeast Alberta needs to sell more than beautiful scenery.

Wright told council the organization’s consultants have identified the region’s culture and history as a major competitive advantage.

“Everyone that we’re in competition with has beautiful vistas and beautiful spaces. What we have that no one else has is the depth of culture and history,” she said.

That includes Indigenous communities and the region’s Ukrainian, French and other cultural histories.

The presentation also identifies connected tourism routes as a way to encourage people to move between communities rather than visit a single destination and leave. Cold Lake is among the communities identified to anchor that broader development.

Travel Lakeland has already catalogued more than 1,800 tourism assets across the region, including what businesses and attractions offer, operating hours, prices, and contact information. The organization wants municipalities to help keep that database current and eventually use it as a common regional tourism inventory.

Museums could also become a larger piece of the strategy. Wright said the draft plan calls for identifying core museums and finding ways for smaller facilities to work together, extend their reach and attract more visitors.

The plan comes with a future ask from municipalities

Travel Lakeland is currently funded in part through a municipal membership model of 30 cents per capita.

For 2027 and 2028, the organization intends to ask participating municipalities for an additional 70 cents per capita annually, bringing the proposed contribution to approximately $1 per resident per year for two years.

The presentation says the additional money would bridge operations while the Destination Development Plan begins generating other revenue and provide matching funds for grant applications.

Wright estimated the membership and special assessment model would collectively generate about $150,000 for Travel Lakeland.

CAO Kevin Nagoya questioned whether larger municipalities could eventually face a maximum contribution rather than an unlimited per-capita calculation. Wright said Travel Lakeland would consider a cap in its funding formula.

Cold Lake Council did not approve that funding Tuesday night.

Wright made clear that the presentation introduced what Travel Lakeland intends to ask for. A formal request for a decision will return to council at a future meeting for debate.

A 20-year play for tourism dollars

Travel Lakeland’s Destination Development Plan itself is a three-year planning project intended to guide tourism development over the next 20 years.

Wright said Travel Lakeland is contributing $183,000, and another $183,000 is coming through provincial economic development funding, bringing the total to $366,000 to develop the strategy.

Travel Lakeland has also received $60,000 from Travel Alberta for marketing, while another project is helping the organization prepare its internal systems to implement the larger plan.

The presentation ties the regional strategy to Alberta’s goal of growing tourism expenditures to $25 billion annually by 2035.

For Cold Lake, the proposal is still more plan than promise. No $500-million cheque is coming to the city, and no commitment yet that Kinosoo Ridge will become an all-season resort or that tourists will soon be flying into the Cold Lake airport.

But the direction is clear: Travel Lakeland wants northeast Alberta competing for a much larger piece of Alberta’s tourism economy, and Cold Lake is firmly on the map as one of the places expected to help draw people here.