Revelstoke summer 2025 tourism season is finally wrapped as businesses prepare for Moonlight Madness, Revelstoke Mountain Resort’s opening day and the winter season. After months of international trade tensions, economic worries and talk of increased tourism, local businesses are taking stock on how the summer shaped up.
Paying for an experience
For Revelstoke Museum and Archives, visitor numbers themselves weren’t up as anticipated, but customer behaviors were notably different. Even in July, when the museum saw a drop of roughly 400 casual visitors it saw a boost of over 100 ticket sales.
“People were more willing to pay admission and come in and have an experience,” assistant curator Laura VanZant said, explaining the museum tracks who enters even just to explore the gift store section of the museum and then compares overall numbers to admissions.
That focus on events and opportunities to explore Revelstoke instead of gifts and memorabilia seems to align with conversations VanZant had with visitors.
“There were a notable amount of comments about tighter budgets, not being as willing to pay for stuff,” she said, adding guests seemed more interested in spending money to learn about the place they were visiting.
While visitor demographics didn’t change noticeably for the museum, which still welcomed local, national and international guests throughout the season, VanZant said a new trend in guest interactions is starting to emerge.
“The rate of positive interactions was higher than in previous years,” she explained, adding conversations with other customer-facing businesses throughout Revelstoke’s downtown seemed to find the same trend of visitors on their best behavior. A higher percentage of international visitors paid with Canadian currency as well.
“They were more prepared to participate in the Canadian economy than in previous years,” she said.
Earlier in the year, in anticipation of potential tariff increases on books and other materials sold in the museum gift store, VanZant worked to shift as much of the store stock to Canadian businesses. Guests seemed to appreciate the strategy, with visitors often checking on whether items had been made, designed or developed in Canada.
Those comments, along with others about wanting to keep money local for the upcoming holiday season, means Revelstoke Museum & Archives is stocked and ready for Moonlight Madness Friday, Nov. 28, the annual evening of sales and shopping in downtown Revelstoke. This year, the museum is offering 20 per cent off store wide excluding items based on consignment. A sales table will also have items 30 to 70 per cent off.
“It is one of the highest volume sales for us in a year. It can sometimes be a bit of a barometer for how the holiday season is going to go,” VanZant said, adding the museum extends Moonlight Madness deals into the following Saturday so visitors and museum members who can’t make it out Friday evening still get a chance to enjoy. It’s partially a thanks for a community that shows unwavering support for the museum.
“I can’t predict what winter is going to be like. Every year I think it changes,” VanZant said. “But I can absolutely guarantee that the community will be in this space.”
A season for the patio
Dose Coffee’s team didn’t see much down time this summer, between rebranding from Dose Coffee to Spilt Milk, running Alfred’s pop-up diner in the evenings and the general traffic a downtown location generates.
“People are learning to make the most out of early summer, in case we do have a bad fire season, and then with it being such a good year again things carried on,” Lauren Webster, Dose and Spilt Milk co-founder told Revelstoke Mountaineer, explaining that good numbers at the shop started early and didn’t see much of a wobble.
Revelstoke’s growing reputation as a summer recreation destination, international political tensions and a long stretch of favourable weather all contributed to a rise in sales at Dose Coffee, Webster said.
“Whether it’s visitors, whether it’s our locals, people really appreciated being outside this year. And we saw that on our patio and take-out window.”
Similar to Revelstoke Museum & Archives, Dose staff noted how behaviours from international guests are trending upwards even as the summer wrapped up.
“They’re up here really wanting to support, and our team was noticing how that seemed to impact everyone’s experience. That friendliness goes a long way,” Webster said.
The shop’s focus on Canadian importers has shielded coffee prices a bit from tariff and trade struggles, but international factors are still seeing prices increase as Spilt Milk rolls out its new line of beans. But the shop has worked hard to maintain good sales relations with regional distributors and is comfortable with supporting fair prices Webster said.
“As long as that money is going into the hands of the people who deserve that increase in price, which is the people who are producing these coffee beans. We’re very proud of our relationships in these industries and supporting those players,” she said.
As Spilt Milk settles into the new rebrand and merchandise is made available, Webster is already focusing on the next adventure; Alfred’s new permanent home, located on First Street West.
“It’s the perfect little venue, it’s cosy, it ticks all the boxes we want Alfred’s to be.”
Revelstoke is already showing up for the new location, with reservations for Thursday, Nov. 27 opening night sold out.
Similar to VanZant, Webster is willing to bet on steady community support no matter what sort of snow season winter brings.
“We really appreciate the trust that the community puts in us when we do these things, and the support that we’ve received over the years,” Webster said.
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