Residents of Weyburn and area are the greatest tourism resource for promoting the city and area to tourists, according to a tourism study and the city's new tourism plan, adopted in draft form by city council recently.

If residents don't really see themselves as ambassadors of the Weyburn area, then a shift in their way of thinking needs to take place. Why?

The simple fact is, when the numbers are broken down and we see who comprises the biggest groups paying a visit to the city, it is by and large friends and relatives of people living here, and their most common activity is visiting friends and family.

It makes sense that the residents of a given city or area would be best to know where a tourist should go, but when you live here all year round and you've seen, say, River Park or the Charlie Wilson Silver Collection half a dozen times, it doesn't really cross your mind that this would be a great destination for a tourist to visit.

But what's the axiom for travellers, whether elsewhere in Canada, the U.S. or overseas? Always ask a local where the sights are, where the best restaurants are, what is interesting in the area to see.

This holds true for Weyburn, and the tourism study bears it out. Saskatchewan residents are the biggest group, by far, to visit here, but there is also a significant number of Americans and other Canadians. Consider the impressive number of person visits (828,000) to southeast Saskatchewan, of which fully one-third are from this province. And the dollars are nothing to sneeze at either: $69.3 million in consumer spending by tourists visiting the southeast.

This helps the local economy and local businesses, to be sure, and the numbers could probably be even better - but it will take the friendly and knowledgeable input of city residents to point out to visitors where to go eat, to visit, to sight-see, to shop, or to go for a walk in a nice park.

For this reason, each household in Weyburn will get a copy of the newest tourist guide, before the May long weekend, the traditional start of summer visiting and vacationing in Canada.

The guide will be a valuable resource for residents to show friends and family visiting here, that there are sights here to see, sights that will bring other friends and family back to visit. If a resident cannot think of what's interesting or good to visit, that's where the guide comes in. And local residents are the best ones to have contact with visitors here, whether they are here for a wedding, reunion, family occasion or just to have the pleasure of seeing the area and relaxing with friends or family while doing so.

There are many places to go and events to take in and around Weyburn, especially through the summer months: there's the RCMP Musical Ride, Weyburn's Fair along with fairs and exhibitions in nearby towns through the summer, and the Wheat Festival in August, just for starters.

Get to know the city, go and have fun, and be an ambassador for Weyburn!

- Greg Nikkel