A Jurassic Jaunt | Travel Drumheller & Tourismo
A Dino-Mite Opportunity
Drumheller is internationally recognized for its prehistoric history and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, which draws dinosaur enthusiasts from around the world.
Travel Drumheller saw an opportunity to encourage more of those visitors to explore beyond the museum and discover the community’s shops, restaurants, attractions and unmistakable local character.
The answer was hiding in plain sight: Drumheller’s collection of quirky concrete dinosaurs.
Challenge
The Royal Tyrrell Museum attracts significant visitation, but many travellers leave the area shortly after their museum experience.
Travel Drumheller wanted to give visitors a compelling reason to spend more time exploring the wider community—and create more opportunities for downtown businesses to benefit from that visitation.
The organization needed an experience that could:
Encourage visitors to explore beyond the museum
Disperse foot traffic throughout Drumheller
Connect visitors with local shops, restaurants and attractions
Bring the community’s concrete dinosaurs to life
Appeal to families in an engaging and memorable way
Be developed without placing a significant burden on its internal team
Solution
Travel Drumheller worked with tourismo to transform 12 of its concrete dinosaurs into an interactive, self-guided visitor experience: the Dino Trail.
A town-wide digital trail
Built using the tourismo platform, the Dino Trail guides visitors from one dinosaur to the next through the Travel Drumheller website.
The themed trail itself took only a few hours to build, giving the team an efficient way to connect individual landmarks into one cohesive visitor journey.
Hidden content at every stop
Dedicated QR codes placed at each dinosaur unlock original animated content and narrated stories.
Rather than simply seeing the statues, visitors can interact with each one and uncover something new as they move through the community.
Local businesses built into the journey
The digital trail highlights nearby restaurants, shops and activities, helping visitors find places to eat, take a break or pick up a souvenir along the way.
These timely recommendations connect the experience with local businesses when visitors are already nearby and deciding what to do next.
A reward for completing the trail
Visitors who scan all 12 QR codes are invited to collect a Dino Trail colouring book from the Travel Drumheller Visitor Information Centre.
The physical reward provides an additional incentive to complete the experience while giving families a tangible reminder of their visit.
Creative support from concept to completion
tourismo’s creative services team and collaborators helped develop the original animations, children’s stories and colouring book that brought the experience to life.
This gave Travel Drumheller a fully realized campaign without requiring its internal team to produce every creative element.
Impact
Within a matter of weeks, Travel Drumheller transformed familiar community landmarks into an interactive tourism experience designed to encourage exploration.
12 QR-enabled dinosaur stops
One interactive, self-guided town trail
Original animations and narrated stories
Local business recommendations incorporated throughout the journey
A physical reward for visitors who complete the trail
A themed itinerary built in only a few hours
A complete engagement campaign developed in a matter of weeks
The Dino Trail demonstrates how destinations can use assets they already have in imaginative new ways.
By combining local character, interactive storytelling, and carefully placed business recommendations, Travel Drumheller created an experience that is distinctly its own—and gives visitors more reasons to explore the community beyond its best-known attraction.
