Complete: More than one million visitors have passed through the Asessippi Ski Area and Resort during the resort’s 14-year tenure, turning what was once believed to be a questionable endeavour into a complete success.

“It was really exciting,” Asessippi director of marketing Roz Pulo said about reaching the milestone on New Year’s Eve.

Pulo, who has been with the resort since its inception, said the ride has been filled with many bumps, but in the end it’s been gratifying to see the resort grow and flourish in the region.

“It’s a huge milestone and it proves that the plan worked and there were a lot of people that said it would never work,” Pulo said. “It certainly hasn’t been easy, but it’s very rewarding and it’s great to know that goals have been met and have been exceeded in a lot of areas.”

Asessippi has 25 runs with three chairlifts, two terrain parks and a snow-tubing park that has doubled in size from last year.

Another recent addition is the snow carpet. Measuring 650 feet in length, the carpet is the ideal way for beginners and children to get from the bottom of the hill to the top, eliminating the fear of getting hung up on a T-bar lift or not being strong enough to hold onto a handle tow.

And it’s been the commitment from investors to continue to upgrade Asessippi that Pulo credits for some of the resort’s success, growing it from a small hill to the expansive winter resort it is today.

“Our investors haven’t hesitated to take risks, to put money back into the company and expand.”

With youth programs like the 1-2-3 program and promotions such as the Sunday Sampler, which allows children to get a lift pass to the bunny hill and rentals for under $10, Pulo said the resort has made a priority of growing on a grass-roots level.

Today, she said the resort has winter pass holders from Winnipeg to Brandon and Yorkton to Regina. And each year the sell has been made easier and easier by the runs and conditions the resort can offer.

“Our snow conditions have improved every year and the snow making and our snow makers, sometimes I just look at them with awe because I can’t believe how quickly they can get the hill put together,” Pulo said.

This year the resort is off to another great start, boasting about a 10 per cent increase in traffic during the holiday season over last year.

“I think we’ve helped to change the culture in the region,” Pulo said. “When we first started there were a lot of kids that didn’t ski at all and now you can see kids walking to school with their toques and goggles on.”

And the resort should only continue to grow as skiers, snowboarders and tubers who grew up on the hill and saw it mature right from the beginning start to introduce their children to the sport.

“I just want to thank everyone that has helped make us a success,” Pulo said.

http://www.brandonsun.com/local/asessippi-ski-resort-reaches-milestone-186770641.html?thx=y

THE final pieces of a deal to co-manage a vast tract of boreal forest with aboriginal groups is expected to be announced this morning, Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh confirmed Sunday.

Lake Winnipeg First Nations Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi have approved land-management plans with the province.

The agreement clears the path to proceed with a decade-long bid to get a huge slice of northern Manitoba designated a United Nations world heritage site into the hands of UN officials.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/bid-to-seek-heritage-designation-for-boreal-forest-nears-completion-186739021.html

The Interlake Tourism Association’s Gail McDonald appeared before the Town of Winnipeg Beach council on Jan. 9 as part of her tour of Interlake municipalities to promote the concept of “experiential tourism.”

“We are now moving towards introducing the idea of experiential tourism in the Interlake as a means to using tourism facilities and infrastructure all year-round rather than just the summer months,” McDonald said during her 15 -min. presentation to the councillors.

http://www.interlaketoday.ca/2013/01/13/ita-promoting-experiential-tourism

STUDENTS from around the world could soon be calling the former Downtowner Motor Hotel their new home away from home.

The owners of Winnipeg's India Palace Restaurant -- Ashwani and Suroj Nagpal -- have purchased the former Ellice Avenue hotel-turned-hostel from the North Portage Development Corporation for about $2 million, and are spending more than a million dollars to convert it into a residence for foreign and out-of-town students.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/restaurateurs-buy-ex-hostel-for-student-residence-186589721.html

Work will start shortly on construction of a new swinging bridge at Souris, with Winkler's WBS Construction taking on the project. The old bridge was taken down in 2011 because of the rising flood waters of the Souris River.

Mayor Darryl Jackson looks forward to having the new bridge in use this summer. "The end product is going to be a swinging bridge, but it will look quite a bit different than the old one," says Jackson. "For a variety of reasons, I mean there's insurance, liability, it just wasn't possible to rebuild the structure, you know, copy what it was."

http://www.pembinavalleyonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30527&Itemid=425

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Fort Lauderdale — home of the iconic 1960s Spring Break film "Where the Boys Are" — boasts 23 miles of sugar sand beaches where bathing suit-clad tourists sip daiquiris under lazy palm trees. And then there's Broward County, known for hanging chads, election debacles and a namesake who championed draining the Everglades.

So which one has the name recognition to bring in the most tourism dollars? County and city stakeholders met Thursday to discuss possibly changing the name of Broward County, the second largest in the state with 1.8 million residents, to Fort Lauderdale County.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/broward-county-considers-changing-name-to-fort-lauderdale-to-add-glitz-attract-tourists-186483851.html

The way we travel is always changing, and 2012 provided ample proof of that. To help you prep for your 2013 vacation, Oyster honed in on the top trends currently rocking the travel world, from the royal travel craze to the rise of the pod hotel. Here's what's hot -- and what's not! 

CELEB HOTEL DESIGNERS

CELEBRITIES and fashion icons -- Kelly Wearstler, Oscar de La Renta and Ralph Lauren, to name a few -- have been designing hotel interiors for a while, but 2012 proved this trend certainly isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

This year we've seen tennis star Venus Williams design two presidential suites for the Intercontinental Miami, Diane Von Furstenburg design a two-bedroom penthouse for the Australian Hayman Island Resort and Lenny Kravitz contribute to yet another Miami hotel design project -- the SLS Hotel South Beach.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/whats-hot-and-not-186588811.html

(A complete article published originally in the WFP, Jan.  '28)

An application will be made at the present sitting of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba to incorporate "The Publicity Bureau of Winnipeg and Manitoba." The objects of the Bureau are to maintain an agency to bring Tourists and Conventions to Winnipeg and Manitoba, and by publicity and other means to develop the tourist traffic, the industries and commerce of Greater Winnipeg and Manitoba.

Dated the 7th day of December, A.D. 1027. MAX STEINKOPF. Solicitor for the Applicant