Field Notes2025-08-11Banff & Lake Louise Trip Builder
Trip Builder - an evolution in destination tourism.
In August 2025, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism’s Trip Builder took home top honours in the Traveler Journey category at the prestigious Skift IDEA Awards, recognized as a standout example of digital innovation in tourism.
Trip Builder isn’t just a slick digital tool — it’s a solution to a real-world challenge: ensuring visitors leave one of the world’s most beloved destinations with memories of joy, not disappointment.
In 2021, our client, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, tasked VentureWeb with developing "an online trip-planning tool to support our visitors’ evolving online needs and ensure our destination is competitive when pent-up travel demand is actualized." The VW team jumped at the opportunity and something truly special was realized.
The Challenge
In peak summer, Banff and Lake Louise are in high demand. Parking fills by sunrise, shuttle spots sell out, and restaurants can be booked weeks ahead. Too often, visitors who arrived with big dreams left without ticking off their must-dos.
The Solution
Working closely with BLLT’s digital marketing team, VentureWeb designed Trip Builder to meet travellers where they are in their journey — and make planning not just easier, but fun. Visitors can:
- Start with curated Trip Ideas or build from scratch
- Filter by season, interests, accessibility, family- and pet-friendliness
- Drag and drop experiences into a custom itinerary with real dates and maps
- Save and share plans with travel companions
The tool is also a strategic driver for responsible tourism, subtly nudging users toward better travel choices through tips, reminders, and model itineraries such as “Car-Free Banff” or “Walk on the Wild Side.”
An innovative tech stack
We wanted to create an "app-like" feel to the UI for the Trip Builder so we elected to use the react framework and build heedlessly using the Sanity CMS and Firebase. Lightning-fast performance and a user-friendly database allow the site to query and store external data.
The Impact
Since launch, Trip Builder has:
Helped create nearly 200,000 custom itineraries and over 230,000 selected experiences
- Attracted high-value, values-aligned travellers from Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia
- Boosted visitor satisfaction, with significantly higher Net Promoter Scores among users
- Promoted over 160 curated experiences and hundreds of local businesses, encouraging longer stays and deeper exploration
Looking Ahead
We are layering on new features for Trip Builder. Using LLM's and AI querying of the reams of real user intent data gained. Utilizing AI as well as making it even smarter and more intuitive to use will ensure that Trip Builder continues to evolve and support the destination over a broad range of planning, marketing and sustainability initiatives.
Trip Builder embodies BLLT’s Lead Tourism for Good vision — supporting visitors, the community, and the environment alike. As BLLT’s Sam Reid puts it: “Banff and Lake Louise are magical places — and we want people to experience them at their best. The Trip Builder is our way of helping them do that.”
