During the summer of 2021, the Strathmore Wheatland Chamber of Commerce (SWCC) began its Tour 564 campaign to encourage residents to visit businesses throughout Strathmore and Wheatland County.

Hayley Poirier a director with the Chamber was thrilled with the spotlight the SWCC was able to help shine on these local businesses.

“We were so proud of the idea that we were able to use one of our local videographer businesses to go out and give them the opportunity to create an amazing infomercial all about them, the success of that summer I feel, was that we gave people a tool to be able to promote themselves.”

Poirier explained that the initial goals of the campaign run in 2021 were to provide more opportunity and promotion to the over 40 businesses within the SWCC membership in Strathmore and Wheatland County.

“It was called Tour 564 for that reason so that people could go out and learn about our communities and tour Wheatland County and 564 because we're all attached to Route 564."

With the additional grant money, the SWCC will be running a contest for businesses, “We want all of the businesses to go to our website theswcc.ca and tap on the link Tour 564 contest. It's going to be a simple question about why they deserve a chance to become one of the recipients of the Tour 564 video campaign,” explained Poirier.

Moving into 2022 the SWCC will be hosting virtual meetings for businesses to provide some ideas on how to grow over the next year. The team will be hoping to start the year with different virtual panel discussions with the goal to move to in-person gatherings later this year, the first focusing on growth and promotion.