Experience Development
See how Calgary is raising the bar with immersive and authentic visitor experiences.
Experiences are what stay with visitors long after they return home from their trip. Great experiences engage, educate, challenge, and even transform visitors. They are also a tool to extend visitor stays, create positive word of mouth, and extend seasonality.
Tourism Calgary works with industry to identify, develop and strengthen compelling, market-ready visitor experiences that showcase Calgary’s people, places, stories and Blue Sky City identity.
Calgary Blue Sky Experiences
In 2025, Tourism Calgary started the Experience Lab, using the Veneto Collaboratory Design Studio™ process. And in 2026, the first collection of Blue Sky Experiences officially launched.
Calgary Blue Sky Experiences are compelling, market-ready visitor experiences that go beyond something to see. They create meaningful opportunities for visitors to participate, connect, learn or gain unique access to something distinctly Calgary.
Calgary Blue Sky experiences
Develop an experience through the Blue Sky Experience Lab
The Blue Sky Experience Lab is Tourism Calgary's annual experience development program, helping businesses turn promising ideas into compelling market-ready visitor experiences. Experiences that successfully complete the Lab and meet Tourism Calgary's standards become part of the Calgary Blue Sky Experiences Collection.
Who is the Blue Sky Experience Lab for?
The Lab is designed for established Calgary organizations with a promising opportunity or existing offering that could be developed into a compelling visitor experience.
You don't need to have a fully developed idea. Tourism Calgary looks for businesses with a uniquely Calgary idea, potential for visitor engagement, and the readiness and capacity to develop, launch, and sustain a new experience.
Participation is through a competitive annual intake, with final selection also considering the overall mix of experiences in the cohort.
What makes a strong Blue Sky Experience?
While every experience is different, strong Blue Sky Experiences are:
Unique to Calgary
Engaging, immersive, or participatory
Designed with the visitor in mind
Consistently and professionally delivered
Easy for visitors to discover and book
Able to be sustained over time
Most importantly, they give visitors a memorable way to connect with Calgary that they couldn’t easily experience on their own.
What are the benefits of participating in the Blue Sky Experience Lab?
Participating businesses benefit from:
Expert guidance to uncover and develop a compelling visitor experience
Hands-on coaching through development, testing, and launch
Visitor and market insights
Professional photo and video assets
Launch and marketing support through Tourism Calgary
Blue Sky Experiences may also be considered for future Tourism Calgary marketing, media, travel trade, FAM, convention and other opportunities based on annual strategic priorities.
I already offer an established visitor experience. Could it become a Calgary Blue Sky Experience
Yes. While the Experience Lab is primarily designed for businesses with ideas or existing offerings that require significant development, Tourism Calgary is also exploring opportunities to recognize established, market-ready experiences that align with Blue Sky Experience standards.
If you currently offer a compelling visitor experience that you believe could be a strong fit for the Calgary Blue Sky Experience Collection, we'd like to hear from you.
Have questions about experience development, the Calgary Blue Sky Experience Lab or whether your visitor experience could be a fit?
Contact Kaitlyn Hakvoort, Manager, Experience Development at [email protected]
Interested in participating in the Blue Sky Experience Lab?
The next intake of partners is September 2026.
