Destination Canada and Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance sign three-year partnership agreement
March 6, 2018 – Ottawa: Destination Canada, Canada’s national tourism marketing organization, and the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA), have signed a three-year partnership agreement.
The two organizations have worked together for many years, and will continue that strong relationship under this partnership agreement which runs from 2018 to 2020, to promote Canada as a preferred sport tourism destination to the international sport community.
“Destination Canada is proud to work with the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance to bring more international sporting events to Canada,” said David F. Goldstein, Destination Canada’s President and CEO. “When sporting events are held in Canada, the athletes, families, coaches and supporters benefit our tourism industry partners and communities across Canada.”
“We have received tremendous support from Destination Canada for many years to showcase Canada as a premier location to host major sporting events,” said Rick Traer, CEO, CSTA. “Their support has helped us to consistently be ranked in the top five hosting nations internationally. With this agreement in place, we look forward to even more opportunities to both promote Canada and to measure the effectiveness of the marketing of our country across many different platforms.”
Under the agreement, Destination Canada will participate as the lead partner in Canada’s delegation, organized by the CSTA, to the International SportAccord Convention, taking place next in Bangkok, Thailand from April 15 – 20, 2018. SportAccord is the premier international event dedicated to engaging and connecting rights holders, organizing committees, cities, press and media, businesses and other organizations involved in the development of sport.
Destination Canada and CSTA will also partner on two joint Team Canada sales missions between 2018 and 2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland, the location for the headquarters of over 100 international sport organizations that control the rights for hundreds of world championship sport events. The Team Canada Sales Mission will provide a platform for Canadian destinations to interact with a variety of international sport federation representatives in a series of promotional activities, hospitality functions and business-to-business opportunities.
In its research, CSTA will include Destination Canada’s priority markets in its survey instrument used to collect primary data at sport events. CSTA will also survey international spectators at sport events to determine the factors in their path to purchase decision making process.
Destination Canada will also support CSTA’s signature event, Sport Events Congress, the largest annual gathering of sport event rights holders, municipalities, economic development agencies, event suppliers, event management firms, and elected officials in Canada.
About the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA)
The Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance is a non-governmental, member-based, capacity building organization that promotes sport tourism as a grassroots economic development initiative at the community level. The CSTA 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 $6.5 billion in annual spending by domestic and international visitors.
About Destination Canada
Destination Canada markets Canada internationally as a premier four-season tourism destination. In collaboration with partners in the Canadian tourism industry, Destination Canada creates marketing campaigns designed to showcase the best our country has to offer. Destination Canada also provides research and industry data to our partners—equipping them to optimize their businesses.
For more information, please visit: www.destinationcanada.com, follow @DestinationCAN and @ExploreCanada on Twitter.
