Riverbank to be ‘central hub’ in tourism plan
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Brandonites were given a sneak peek into the future of tourism in the city during last week’s council meeting.
In a slideshow presented to council on Oct. 19, staff from UpHouse — a Winnipeg-based marketing agency — gave a first look into a new tourism strategy that will make the Riverbank Discovery Centre a central hub for visitors.
According to UpHouse senior strategist Carley English, more than one million people visit the Keystone Centre for events annually.
“What we’re going to do is we’re going to take those event visitors, those one million plus people who are coming here anyways … and we’re going to turn them into city visitors,” English said.
“Once we do that, we’re going to make the Riverbank the central hub,” she said.
“Let’s have people really roam Brandon and see what it has to offer.”
The strategy will begin with UpHouse and the City of Brandon working to create itineraries, wayfinding, rentals and bookable experiences. Then begins the campaigns and marketing, English told council.
In the 2026 budget, council increased the tourism initiative budget by roughly $40,000 for a tourism rebrand and UpHouse was chosen to partner with the city on the plan in April.
The city budget also identified the accommodation tax — which is collected on hotel stays and equal to five per cent of the price paid for the hotel — as another source to pay for the strategy development and implementation.
The accommodation tax reserve has “generated close to $3 million in event grants, tied to more than 140,000 overnight stays,” according to the presentation slides shown to council.
“The money that goes into that will then generate more money and more people coming to your beautiful city,” English said.
“This is something that is going to generate more revenue for hotels, business, and the community around us,” she said.
The tourism strategy is not yet finalized, but the mock-up logo and merchandise branding shown at the meeting featured soft blue, light yellow and river imagery.
The branding also incorporates visuals that represent the estimated 200-plus live music events that happen in the city annually, according to the presentation.
Mayor Jeff Fawcett, in an interview after the meeting, said it’s a “good thing” for the city to have a focused tourism plan.
“I think we saw our data there that showed that we are an event city,” Fawcett said.
“It’s been exciting working towards this, and it’ll be great to see it implemented.”
The full plan, with the strategy and implementation road map, will be presented to council on Dec. 7.
» rgerrard@brandonsun.com, with files from Alex Lambert