Explore Edmonton Co. is a

destination marketing organization A destination marketing organization (DMO) is an organisation which promotes a location as an attractive travel destination. DMOs are known as tourist boards, tourism authorities or "Convention and Visitors Bureaux". They primarily exist to provide ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. It is involved in promoting Edmonton tourism, operating two of the city's event facilities—the

Edmonton Convention Centre The Edmonton Convention Centre (ECC, formerly the Shaw Conference Centre), is a meeting, entertainment, and convention venue located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Opened in 1983, it is managed by Explore Edmonton, the destination marketing org ...

and the

Edmonton Expo Centre The Edmonton Expo Centre, formerly the Northlands AgriCom and also known as the Edmonton Exposition and Conference Centre is a multi-purpose convention centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Operated by Explore Edmonton on behalf of the City of Ed ...

, and serving as the organizer of the annual exhibitions

K-Days K-Days, formerly known as the Edmonton Exhibition, Klondike Days, and the Capital Ex, is an annual 10-day exhibition held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada mostly in late July. In recent years it has attracted between 700,000 and 800,000 visitors per ...

and Farmfair International. It was formerly known as the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC), and additionally acted as an

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

agency for the city. In 2019, Edmonton's city council voted in favour of splitting its economic development activities into a new innovation authority (which would be known as Innovate Edmonton).

History

The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) was founded by the City of Edmonton in 1993, as an independent, not-for-profit corporate entity. Its main objective was to provide leadership for the

strategy for the region. On January 1, 2018, the EEDC took ownership of the

from Northlands, as part of an agreement with the city to forgive the latter's debt. In August 2018, when Derek Hudson took over as CEO of EEDC, he said that his main goal in the position was to develop a more resilient, diverse economy, including focusing on the tourism and technology sectors. In January 2019, EEDC announced that one of its goals was to move Edmonton away from its reliance on the oil industry, and said the Corporation would focus on industries such as arts and culture; sport; health; artificial intelligence; public service; and government, in moving towards this aim. In support of EEDC's goals, Edmonton Mayor

Don Iveson Donald L. Iveson (born May 30, 1979) is a Canadian politician who served as mayor of Edmonton from 2013 to 2021. He was first elected as mayor in the 2013 municipal election with 62% of the vote, and was re-elected in 2017 with 73.6% of the vot ...

said at the EEDC's 2019 luncheon that the city needs expansion and innovation across its industries instead of waiting for and relying on the oil market to rebound. In December 2019, the Edmonton City Council voted on a notion to form a new, separate innovation authority, which would subsume some of the EEDC's existing economic development activities. As a result, the EEDC was to focus primarily on conventions and tourism. The city approved $5 million in annual funding for the new organization in May 2020, which would be known as Innovate Edmonton. In April 2020, multiple senior leaders of the EEDC departed as part of layoffs by the corporation, primarily citing the economic impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta The COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta is part of an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The province of Alberta has the third ...

. In September 2020, the EEDC announced that it had rebranded as Explore Edmonton. In June 2021, Northlands announced that it would dissolve effective July 5, 2021, and that Explore Edmonton would take over the operations of

and Farmfair International going forward.

Funding

Explore Edmonton receives annual funding from the City of Edmonton, with the remainder of its budget coming from convention centre operations and government grants. In November 2020, the organization requested "an increase in funding over the next three years to make up for declining revenues from facility and hotel bookings as a result of the OVID-19pandemic." The group has asked $18.8 million in 2022 and $14.5 million in 2023.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://exploreedmonton.com Non-profit corporations Companies based in Edmonton