After a record year for attendance, visitors have recognized the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
    The museum, which will be celebrating its 30th anniversary on Friday, September 25, has been recognized second in the top 10 best museums in Canada as part of the Travellers’ Choice Hotel Awards on TripAdvisor.ca.
    “We are honoured to have been named the second best museum in all of Canada,” Jaimee Turner of Marketing and Public Relations for the Royal Tyrrell Museum said.
    “Particularly because this is based on customer reviews so we are very honoured that our visitors have actually rated us that,” she said.
    Turner said the staff plays a big role in being recognized in something like this.
    “It goes to say that we have incredible staff. Our researchers are constantly digging up new fossils, we’re constantly preparing. There are always new ideas coming forward. It is everything from front line staff to our displays, to what people experience when they walk through our doors. We are just absolutely honoured that people have reviewed us as such,” she told inSide Drumheller.
    “It is a place for all ages. It is great to hear that people can come and whether they are two years old or 82 years old, as long as they are having a good experience we are absolutely thrilled,” she said.
    She added that as of Friday, September 18 the Royal Tyrrell Museum has had 1,252 reviews on TripAdvisor.ca.
    “We would like to thank people who have left reviews and have taken the time to advise other travellers who are in the area and people who are planning to come to the area, we certainly are appreciative of everyone who has left us these reviews,” she said continuing by adding the Royal Tyrrell monitors the reviews left on TripAdvisor.
    “The visitor reviews certainly help us make the experience as best as we can for the people who are coming and we certainly credit people who have left reviews for us,” she said.
    “If they aren’t a positive review we take that and we look at opportunities to improve our visitors’ experience and I think that makes us a better museum as well. You need to have honest feedback from people. Luckily the majority of our ratings are really good, but for the ones that aren’t, we certainly take those into consideration and it definitely helps us improve,” she explained.
    The Royal Tyrrell Museum will be offering free admission during Alberta Culture Days from September 25-27 as a way to celebrate 30 years of palaeontology.
    As part of the celebration, the Royal Tyrrell released a video on Monday looking back over the last 30 years.
    “It is a piece we put together to celebrate the last 30 years of our contribution to the scientific community and the actual community, being part of Alberta, part of Drumheller. (It recaps) some of the statistics, some of the highlights,  (and) the journey from our actual launch in 1985  and goes chronologically through the last 30 years of the museum,” Turner said.