Masters World Cup Generates over $2 Million in Economic Activity for Canmore

Study by Sport Tourism Canada conducted in March of 2022

September 28, 2022: (OTTAWA, ON) ….. Sport Tourism Canada (STC) studied the economic activity generated by the 2022 Masters World Cup, held in Canmore, Alberta from March 3 to 11, 2022. It took place at the world-renowned Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park, where participants from around the globe enjoyed seven days of racing and cultural experiences in the Canadian Rockies.

The study was commissioned by the Alberta World Cup Society with STC’s economic impact team developing the survey for this event and providing remote support. It outlines that Canmore’s economy benefited from just over $2.0 million in economic activity as a result of the successful hosting of the Masters World Cup. The study also indicated nearly $2.4 million in economic impact for the province of Alberta. 

Over 400 valid responses were collected during the event, which drew over 800 visitors from nearly every province and territory in Canada, 15 different US States, and 16 other countries. Data gathered included age, place of residence, and days attended, while out-of-town respondents answered questions about their length of stay, money spent in various categories and the importance of this event in deciding to travel to Southern Alberta. The average visitor spent 7 days at the event and the majority were participants.

Once the data was collected, the STC team analyzed the visitor information gathered by the survey responses. 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 used the STEAMPRO economic impact assessment model  to produce the detailed report with the economic impact assessment in terms of total output, GDP, wages and salaries, employment and taxes.   

“As Canada’s sport tourism sector recovers from the past two years, and the impact of the Covid pandemic, it is important to validate the impact of hosting sport events in our communities,” said Heather Bury, Chair, Sport Tourism Canada Board “This is the fourth time we’ve worked with the Alberta World Cup Society and we are pleased to provide this relevant, accurate data that demonstrates the importance of sport hosting on Canmore, the province, and our Canadian economy.”

“Measuring the economic impact of our events has been a standard procedure for the AWCS since 2012, said Norbert Meier, Events Chair, Alberta World Cup Society. “Our stakeholders expect certain outcomes from world cup events and want to know how the community, the province and the country benefit.  Economic Impact is a key set of metrics by which we assess the event’s success. Working with the STC has been very easy and we have great confidence in the work they do.” 

Summary of Key Findings:  

• $1.75 million of initial expenditures 
• $2.4 million overall economic activity in the province 
• 837 out-of-town visitors 
• $931,475 of visitor spending 
• $641,521 wages and salaries supported locally 
• 8.2 local jobs in Canmore supported by the event 
• $1.34 million boost to provincial GDP 
• $489,507 taxes supported across Canada  

This event was the significant factor in people choosing to visit Canmore, rating it a 9.5 out of 10 as a rationale. People also indicated that having this a ‘vaccinated only’ event was a good compromise to ensure the event could be held during the time of the Covid pandemic. The top cultural experiences that people participated in were Relaxation and Discover Canmore, sightseeing, snowshoeing, dogsledding and experiencing hockey and curling.

Read the Full Report.

Watch the event video. 

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 the tourism industry sector in Canada with over $7.4 billion in annual spending by domestic and international visitors and is central to local and regional economic recovery from COVID-19.  

Media Inquiries