For decades since its storied opening at the turn of the 20th century, the Jasper Park Lodge has been known as a luxury wilderness resort in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Through its various iterations, the hotel has always been a royal retreat for guests wanting to experience the splendour of Jasper National Park by day while being pampered by night. This opulent basecamp for exploration has helped put Jasper on the map in the summers, but up until 30 years ago, come November, the JPL was like the rest of Jasper in those days—a veritable ghost town.
“The Jasper Park Lodge would close for the winter with the exception of three or four managers,” hotel historians have noted. “As Alberta only supplied a small amount of power to the Lodge in the winter, the lights were always kept off and the rounds were done by flashlight.”
When the hotel was purchased by Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts in 1988, it went from a summer property to a four-season resort. To attract guests in the winter, managers of the day decided to do something a little different. Teaming up with the Edmonton Journal, the Jasper Park Lodge promoted a new event. It would showcase the decor, fashion and ornamental designs of the holidays. Readers of the Journal knew it as Christmas in November.
“It was crafts, make-up and spas,” explained Robin Linden, Director of Special Events and Partnerships at the Fairmont JPL. “It was nails and hair. It was about getting ready for the holidays.”
Because of how it was promoted, CIN was predominantly attended by Albertans. It was also predominantly attended by women. While the winter business was a boon in what had historically been a vacant calendar month, when he started with the Fairmont in 2012, Linden felt CIN had room to grow. Six years ago, sensing an opportunity to leverage the visiting public’s appetite for culinary experiences and expertise, the promotion got a savoury spin. By incorporating wine tastings with notable sommeliers; cooking demonstrations by top chefs; and a generous dollop of professional knowhow from TV personalities and celebrity stylists and designers into their event schedule, CIN started seeing an uptick in interest.
“Our numbers started skyrocketing,” he said.
A year ago, Linden said, one of the three four-day packages was sold out—a first for the off-season promotion. This past CIN, the entire festival was booked out in April. People were still mostly coming from in-province, but there were significant gains nationally and even internationally.
More importantly, men have started to attend. Whereas 20 years ago, the make-up of the clientele was 95 per cent women, this year, it was more along the lines of 70/30, Linden said.
“We’ve got things like the man cabin, beer tastings and scotch tastings,” he said. “Next year we intend to focus even more on guys.”
For all their success in growing the festival, the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge was recognized last month by Travel Alberta. Taking home an Alto Award in the Tourism Event or Festival of the Year category is a nice pat on the back for staff who pull long shifts making sure CIN goes off without a hitch, Linden said. Whether its flipping banquet halls, shuttling tray after tray of canapés, delivering hundreds of amenity packages to attendees or making untold trips across the property as part of the in-room dining experience, the festival may be all about luxury for guests, but it’s all hands on deck for colleagues.
“For most people, Christmas is all about others—there are people to shop for, cook for and host,” Linden said. “Christmas in November is a chance for our guests to make it all about them.
“But to give them that experience, it takes an incredible effort from our team.”
Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
