As Canada continues welcoming fully vaccinated international visitors and pent-up travel demand is actualized, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism (BLLT) has launched a comprehensive Trip Planner tool that allows travellers to plan their dream trip to Banff National Park seamlessly. A product born out of the pandemic, it is the only trip planner tool of its kind in Canada.

Integrated into the BLLT website, the robust tool delivers an easy-to-use online trip planning experience for visitors from the dreaming phase to the trip phase. From day trippers to repeat visitors and first-timers, the tool can assist travellers in planning any length of trip for any purpose. Rolled out at the end of August with summer experiences, the planner tool saw 400 signups from around the world within its first week.

“We’ve created the ultimate tool for personalized trip planning,” said Courtney Babott, Director, Marketing, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism. “Every other trip planner we’ve seen dumps the user into a map view to start, that is more useful when the travellers are further into their planning or in the destination. This tool is unique because it encompasses different user journeys, based on your stage of planning. It is the only planner tool of its kind in the travel sphere in Canada that we’re aware of. I think of it as Pinterest meets planner meets beautiful day-by-day calendar of your trip.”

“We’ve created the ultimate tool for personalized trip planning”

– Courtney Babott, Director, Marketing, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism

Users have the option to build out a personalized itinerary or utilize a number of pre-built itineraries for inspiration, such as “Nurture Yourself in Nature,” “Walk on the Wide Side” and “Christmas in the Mountains.”

Personalised itineraries are categorized into three themes – experiences, accommodation, and food & drink – so travellers can find what most appeals to them. Visitors can select future dates of travel, name their trip, and then drop and drag a variety of experiences into each day in Banff National Park. Once saved, the itinerary planner itemises a day-by-day outline of the experiences with need-to-know information, distances, the time required, and a mapping reference.

Winter activities are now available. Key experiences include skiing at one of three mountain resorts, dog sledding, ice skating, sampling regional cuisine on the Eat the Castle tour, and soaking in the vistas from the Banff Gondola.

To enhance the visitor experience, the trip planner helps reduce congestion in key locations in Banff National Park by encouraging sustainable transit options. All itineraries and route plans include transit schedules, maps, and reservation details.

Despite having to overcome some complex user experience challenges, BLLT, in collaboration with digital agency, VentureWeb Design, and Travel Alberta, were able to build and launch the tool in just three months. Thoughtfully and strategically designed, the tool was tested by a global audience through every step of the design phase, resulting in a consumer-centric product.

Plans for the next phase of design are underway. Feature and functionality rollouts will be ongoing.