EDMONTON - Sutton Place Hotel general manager Richard Wong is joining Travel Alberta. He will open the corporation’s new office in Edmonton and be responsible for its team of regional industry consultants.

Travel Alberta was created out of the provincial government’s tourism department, and opened its head office in Calgary in 1999. Tourists spend $5.7 billion a year in Alberta, about one-quarter of that in the Edmonton region.

Wong has spent more than 25 years in the hospitality sector, and has been the Sutton’s general manager since 2003. The hotel is being sold.

Wong has served as a board member of Edmonton Economic Development Corp., as chairman of the Downtown Business Association, and as co-chairman of the Edmonton Destination Marketing Fee and the NAIT Tourism and Hospitality Advisory Council, among many other community and charitable organizations.