Estevan is preparing for another busy tourism season in 2017. 

"The City of Estevan will be opening its Visitor's Centre on May 19," explained Rebecca Westling, the destination marketing communications consultant for the City of Estevan. "The Visitor's Centre will be open form 9 am to 5 pm, seven days a week. There you can find information about our area, souvenirs, booking an energy tour, anything you need to help plan your summer in our city."

She said that the number of visitors was down slightly in 2016 compared to 2015 but above numbers from 2012-2014. And the number of visitors last year, to the Energy Tour, increased.

"We are proud to say Energy Tours saw an increase of 35% of visitors on the tour in 2016," she added. "Local residents going on the tour decreased by 152 people but that tells us that more and more people are coming from out of town to participate in the tour and that is a really great thing and exactly what we're looking for. We want people from outside of Estevan to experience the energy tour and see what our city has to offer."

It is the number of out of province and out of country visitors that has Westling excited.

"We keep seeing an increase of people coming from areas within our province, from, Manitoba, the States and Asia. And those people, they're requesting information about adventure recreation, events and conferences and community services. They're wanting to know where to go to golf, where they can go boating, what events are happening in our city and also where to get gas and restaurants and shopping.