Securing the 2016 World Cup cross-country ski races in Lake Louise and Canmore – to be televised internationally – is said to be good news for the local tourism industry.
Parks Canada has not given the final stamp of approval to the latest of a string of special events to get approval in the national park, but all indications point to a green light for the Lake Louise event.
Canmore and Lake Louise will host two western stops on a Canadian Tour de Ski-style World Cup race series in 2016 following approval from Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) last month.
Ski races of this kind can draw upwards of 30 million viewers and local tourism officials are hoping that will lead to vacation bookings in Banff National Park.
Stuart Back, director of in resort services for Banff Lake Louise Tourism, said the local tourism industry has been fully supportive of the organizers in the bidding process to secure the event in Canada and in Alberta.
“We’ve been working for some time to improve the cross-country ski experience in Lake Louise and we think the event will help profile the quality of the experience that exists in Lake Louise,” he said.
“There’s obviously a confidence this region can support events of these nature. The exposure of awareness of this destination is only going to be a good thing. There’s lots of work to be done on the detail, but it’s very good news.”
The event will be the first of its kind on Canadian soil, resembling a “Tour de France” style series with stops in Gatineau, Quebec City, Canmore and Lake Louise.
Organizers envision between seven and nine races over a two week period, including three at the Canmore Nordic Centre and one at Lake Louise, beginning and ending at Chateau Lake Louise.
Lake Louise is an unknown to World Cup officials, and the trails will be more rugged, but FIS officials did tour them last December. More testing will occur next winter.
Norbert Meier, Alberta World Cup Society (AWCS) president, said he has been in discussion with Parks Canada since January about the possibility of bringing a cross-country World Cup ski race to Lake Louise.
“We’ve had a number of meetings over this short span of time (four months) and much detailed work still needs to be done,” he said.
“We’ve reviewed the overall race concept, several options for race courses and the general operational requirements.”
Meier said they still need to go through the entire Parks Canada event approval process and the AWCS is committed to doing that now that they actually have an event commitment from FIS.
“Parks Canada provided me with the proverbial ‘green light’ to include a Lake Louise race in the event outline we presented to the FIS,” he said.
“We also have a list of operational and environmental considerations Parks will want us to address.”
Melanie Kwong, superintendent of Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay, said Parks Canada is very open to receiving a formal proposal.
“I’ve had a chance to see the world class facility we have in Lake Louise for cross-country skiing. If we could make this work, it would be tremendous for the destination in terms of the profile we could bring for area,” she said.
“At the same time, we do have process and we’ll make sure we will be adhering to this, but if we can do this in an environmentally responsible way, it has a lot of potential for this area.”
