Tunnels of Moose Jaw excited for summer

Even when you’re one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city – if not the province – it never hurts to put your name out there a little more, even if it is for one night.

It was with that in mind that the Tunnels of Moose Jaw recently held a service industry event that included tours, a sampling of Prairie Bee Meadery wine and even an afterparty at the Cornerstone Bar & Grill, all with the goal of exposing more businesses to what the city has to offer.

“It something that’s happened in other cities but we thought we’d try it here,” said Kelly Carty with Tunnels of Moose Jaw. “Hotels, restaurants, any sort of a tourist destination, bring them all together so they can understand what’s available in our city.”

That includes the Tunnels themselves, which even with their notoriety might come as a bit of a surprise to those not in the know.

“They know we’re here, but they might not necessarily know there are two tours, they might not know we’re open every day of the year except Christmas Day,” Carty explained. “And when you experience it, you’re more excited about it, like ‘that was so much fun you have to go.’ It’s like you eat at a good restaurant and you tell everyone to eat there, you want good word of mouth. So we want to have people enjoy themselves and they’ll remember it.”

Not that things aren’t hopping at the Tunnels right now – there’s plenty of bootleggin’ and underground hijinks taking place on a regular basis, to the point they even have to expand staff at this time of year.

“It’s super busy, really good,” Carty said. “We’re expanding our retail stuff, so it’s really great.

“This is a super time of year, we have a lot of young people come and see us so May and June is a lot of school groups. The energy is high and they have so much fun.

“Then this time of year our staff doubles, we have lots of university students and high school students, so it’s pretty busy. From the end of May until the end of August and into September we see a lot of people coming through.”

A major reason for that is how well known the Tunnels have become, to the point that if finding things to do in Moose Jaw is a goal, they’re one of the first things mentioned.

“People from all over the world come here because they’ve heard of us. We’re right on the Trans Canada as they make their Trans Canada trips, so that helps,” Carty said. “It’s awesome, we’re really happy to be ambassadors for our city, our province and our country.”

And the Tunnels might not be done yet – rumours abound that something might be afoot, possibly even further expansion. Carty confirmed as much, to an extent.

“There might be, stay tuned… we can do whatever we can do. That’s all you’re getting out of me,” she said with a laugh. “But it’s exciting and we’re looking forward to the future.”