2021 World Para Nordic Skiing World Cup supported over $1.4 M in Economic Activity for Canmore

Study by Sport Tourism Canada conducted in December of 2021

Thursday, April 14, 2022: (OTTAWA, ON)  Canmore’s economy benefited from over $1.4 million in economic activity as a result of the successful hosting of the 2021 World Para Nordic Skiing World Cup. It took place December 4-12, 2021 at the world-renowned Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park in Southern Alberta. The Economic Impact Study, conducted by Sport Tourism Canada (STC), also indicated just less than $1.7 million in overall economic impact for the province of Alberta.

The study used a survey developed by STC specifically for this event. The survey was conducted by event staff and/or volunteers from the Alberta World Cup Society. They collected data onsite during four days of the six-day event in a variety of ways:

• Intercepting spectators onsite for interviews
• Providing a QR code to allow respondents to complete at their leisure
• Sending an online survey to all team managers to gather team feedback.

Training of the surveyors and remote support was provided by the Sport Tourism Canada team.

An estimated 80% of the spectators at the event were surveyed, while 13 of the 14 teams/delegations provided their feedback and spending numbers. This significant participation provides a high confidence level for the results contained in the report. Survey questions asked about the length of stay in the area, the amount of money spent in various categories, while participants were asked not only about their spending, but also their travel preferences and the event experience. The average team size was 13 people, and the average stay in Canmore was 21 nights.

Once the data was collected, STC used the STEAMPRO economic impact assessment modelto analyze visitor data gathered by the surveyors. The aggregate visitor spending was nearly $680,000 with 93.7% spent by participants and 6.3% by spectators.

The combined spending from out-of-town visitors, participants, media, and VIPs was then added to the capital and event operational expenditures to produce an overall determination of the expenditures associated with the event. When all of this data and information was combined, STC produced a detailed report with the economic impact assessment in terms of total output, GDP, jobs, employment and taxes.

“We are pleased to see that Canmore once again was regarded as a world-class host in its fabulous facility,” said Norbert Meier, Event Chair of the Alberta World Cup Society. “Despite holding this event within the Covid-19 guidelines, we were able to provide a safe event, that generated both strong economic activity and sound reputational value for Canmore.”

Summary of Key Findings:

• $1.14 million of initial expenditures
• $1.67 million overall economic activity in the province
• 320 out-of-town visitors
• $677,000 of visitor spending
• $425,000 wages and salaries supported locally
• $940,000 boost to provincial GDP
• $347,000 taxes supported across Canada
• Spectators and Participants ranked their safety (from Covid—19) as 9.4 out of 10

It was a first visit to Canmore for 23.1% of those surveyed – while 97.4% indicated they were ‘Very Likely’ to make a return visit, and 100% would recommend Canmore to others. The Canmore Nordic Centre received an 8.5 rating out of 10 for its facilities in relation to other competition venues.

About STEAMPRO 
This economic impact model was developed by STC in partnership with the Canadian Tourism Research Institute (CTRI) at The Conference Board of Canada. The CTRI serves the travel and tourism industry in providing sound economic forecasts and models with timely and insightful interpretation of data specifically relevant to travel. The model makes use of the most current and detailed input-output tables and multipliers available from Statistics Canada and leverages the credibility and robustness of sector specific tax data available from Statistics Canada’s Government Revenues Attributable to Tourism (GRAT) report.

The STEAMPRO model been used since 2002 on over 300 EI assessments from small-town events to major multi-sport and international games and contains 100% Canadian data to directly reflect what took place at the specific event in the specific Canadian host community. It is considered the ‘gold standard’ in the field of economic impact assessment, providing credible and Canadian economic impact results.

About Sport Tourism Canada (STC)
Sport Tourism Canada is a non-governmental, member-based, capacity-building organization that promotes sport tourism as a grassroots economic development initiative at the community level. STC services over 500 members across Canada, including 130 municipalities, 300 national and provincial sport, multi-sport and major games organizations and a variety of other sport and tourism industry partners. Sport tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry in Canada with over $7.4billion in annual spending by domestic and international visitors and is central to local and regional economic recovery from COVID-19.

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