I canât tell you just how much I do not recommend this place. I have visited so many of Canadas tourist destinations, big and small, and this was the worst by far.
I visited this place with my mother with high hopes, and it turns out to have been taken over by foreign investors who clearly do not know anything about upkeeping a business to its countries cultural standards regarding scenic tourist destinations.
Immediately upon arrival to the front waiting area, you will find gacha games and a balloon maker that have nothing to do with Hells Gate, just cheap dinky toys with such designs as airplanes.
The reception desk was manned by someone who was clearly still learning English, which in and of itself is not a problem, but they only spoke to us enough to take our transaction for the tickets and tell us the wait time, and nothing else. There was no attempt to engage in conversation, as to why we might be visiting, or to speak about the destination that we were paying around $40 a person to visit.
The only information we received about the destination was a two minute rehearsed speech on the tram ride down, by another person who was also struggling with English. Every single staff personnel we spoke to struggled with English, which is a horrible choice for a Canadian tourist destination.
Every single staff person was either talking to their coworkers in a different language, or on their cellphones. Not a single staff person tried to engage us. I had so many questions about the Tram and the area, and it felt like I couldnât approach anyone.
The gift shop had the most generic items, the ârestaurantâ (if you could call it that) had only prewrapped sandwiches, pop, and chips. The sweet shop with a giant sign for âice creamâ outside? Had one single scoop of ice cream left. The rest of the sweet shop was sparsely stocked with candy that looked like itâd been sitting untouched for a very long time.
If the business owner is reading this, I have recommendations for you.
One, hire Canadian employees to work at your Canadian Tourist Destination. Youâll find that that alone will help increase guest experience greatly.
Two, remove the random Japanese gacha machines, or fill them with Canadian gacha prizes. Plastic moose, tiny salmon, little bears, etc.
Three, hire a front desk till person who is very social and will engage in in-depth conversations with your guests. It will make them feel that their patronage is valued.
Four, stock your shops properly. You can easily buy candy in bulk and stock that shop to the brim. As well, stock the ice cream. No point of having and ice cream shop with no ice cream.
Five, have an actual menu for your restaurant. It is not that hard to have cooked lunch items that tie into the area, like salmon sandwiches, fish and chips, etc.
Six, have a few staff in your gift shop, and instead of having them sit on their phones scrolling and laughing, have them greet anyone who enters, have them knowledgeable about the area, have them engage people.
Seven, in your âmuseumâ, hire someone to give mini tours and talk about Hells Gate history. Maybe instead of having people have to go turn on the videos about Hells Gate, have one video play every 20 minutes or so. Walking into a screened room with a dark tv and lights on makes the room look well untouched.
And eight? Have some staff walking about the premises, engaging guests around the areas that theyâre near. Have someone on the bridge talking about the tram and bridge, have someone running the gold panning station, have someone by the lookout point talking about the lands history.
Having friendly, engaging staff and stocked shops will increase your ratings highly. Until then? I wish I couldâve given zero stars. At least the...
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