CHINATOWN TRANSFORMATION
FINALIST: 2025 EDMONTON TOURISM AWARDS
THE MANDATE
Develop a strategic activation to counter negative regional perceptions and drive foot traffic to Edmonton’s Chinatown. The project required a student-led operational framework to execute a walking food tour that balanced culinary discovery with deep historical context.
Client: Chinatown Transformation Collaborative Society of Edmonton (CTCSE)
Sector: Regional Tourism / Public Advocacy
Timeline: Q2 – Q3 2024
Status: Mission Success // Industry Finalist
THE METRIC:
MISSION SUCCESS:100% Sell-out rate for the 2024 Summer Season.
RECOGNITION:Finalist for the 2025 Edmonton Tourism Awards.
The Challenge: Chinatown faced a significant "Friction Gap." Public sentiment was stagnant, and local merchants were disconnected from the younger demographic. We needed to transform a "neighborhood walk" into a high-value cultural asset that could be operated by summer students while maintaining institutional-grade storytelling.
The Strategy: Churchill Strategy deployed a Narrative Architecture designed to re-frame the district as a "Hidden Map" of Edmonton’s history.
Identity Engineering: Branded the experience as "Chase the Dragon"—a name that signaled adventure and discovery, shifting the narrative away from socio-economic challenges toward cultural exploration.
Operational Protocol: Built a scalable "Playbook" for summer students, ensuring that historical facts were delivered with the precision of a professional guide, maintaining brand authority at every stop.
Merchant Alignment: Integrated local business owners into the narrative flow, turning stops into "Chapter Markers" of the tour, which ensured merchant buy-in and authentic engagement.
Scarcity Modelling: Positioned the tours as limited-capacity "Missions," driving immediate bookings and creating a summer-long waitlist.
The Outcome: The project exceeded all operational benchmarks, proving that high-friction areas can be revitalized through precise narrative control and tactical experience design.
Commercial Impact: Injected direct capital into 10+ local merchants through consistent, high-volume tour traffic.
Educational Impact: Successfully trained and deployed 4+ students into professional tourism roles.
Institutional Impact: Secured a position as a Top Finalist for the 2025 Edmonton Tourism Awards, placing the project alongside the city’s largest established tourism assets.
