What do Toronto, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Charlottetown all have in common? National recognition.
Charlottetown is the home of the 2015 Canadian Sports Tourism Alliances tourism organization of the year. The city beat out a number of large cities to win including past winners Edmonton and Toronto.
“It’s very important to the city of Charlottetown to be involved in the attraction of sporting events to our city,” said Wayne Long, Charlottetown’s event development officer.
He helps bring events to the city. He works under Charlottetown’s sports tourism attraction brand SCORE.
It has received four national awards for its efforts in bringing in new and exciting events to the city.
But it’s about more than the actual events, said Long, it’s more about what it does for the city.
“It gives opportunity to our residents to be engaged as spectators or volunteers and additionally it creates an opportunity for pre-and-post stays, which elevates tourism.”
Sports tourism has a large impact on the tourism industry on all of P.E.I., but especially in Charlottetown. The industry brings in $40 million annually for the local economy and that number is growing, he says.
Though all Charlottetown businesses benefit from the added traffic being in the city, the hotel industry especially benefits said Long,.
“Traditionally, the hotel industry is one of the biggest winners because it gives them the opportunity to put heads in beds.”
The hotel industry and the sports tourism industry are also related due to the special event reserve fund. The fund is made of money generated annually through Charlottetown’s accommodation levee. The levee is a small fee customer pay at hotels in the city when they book a room. All the money put into the fund, then redistributed.
The funds are split up between Meetings and Connections Prince Edward Island, for advertising for Discover Charlottetown and the remainder goes to the special events reserve fund.
Laurel Lea is the chairwoman of the special events reserve fund. She helps decide which events to get the reserve fund money.
“The goal is to help encourage event organizers or community groups to either attract events to the city or to plan new events,” said Lea.
It’s not just hotels who benefit from the increase in visitors to the city, it’s all businesses. Hunter’s Ale House, a restaurant, also notices the increase in traffic.
Jeff Sinnott, is a manager at Hunters.
“There is definitely an increase when events come to the city, we’ll get random calls asking for tables for 20 people, there’s always large groups when things are going on.”
What do Toronto, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Charlottetown all have in common? National recognition.
Charlottetown is the home of the 2015 Canadian Sports Tourism Alliances tourism organization of the year. The city beat out a number of large cities to win including past winners Edmonton and Toronto.
“It’s very important to the city of Charlottetown to be involved in the attraction of sporting events to our city,” said Wayne Long, Charlottetown’s event development officer.
He helps bring events to the city. He works under Charlottetown’s sports tourism attraction brand SCORE.
It has received four national awards for its efforts in bringing in new and exciting events to the city.
But it’s about more than the actual events, said Long, it’s more about what it does for the city.
“It gives opportunity to our residents to be engaged as spectators or volunteers and additionally it creates an opportunity for pre-and-post stays, which elevates tourism.”
Sports tourism has a large impact on the tourism industry on all of P.E.I., but especially in Charlottetown. The industry brings in $40 million annually for the local economy and that number is growing, he says.
Though all Charlottetown businesses benefit from the added traffic being in the city, the hotel industry especially benefits said Long,.
“Traditionally, the hotel industry is one of the biggest winners because it gives them the opportunity to put heads in beds.”
The hotel industry and the sports tourism industry are also related due to the special event reserve fund. The fund is made of money generated annually through Charlottetown’s accommodation levee. The levee is a small fee customer pay at hotels in the city when they book a room. All the money put into the fund, then redistributed.
The funds are split up between Meetings and Connections Prince Edward Island, for advertising for Discover Charlottetown and the remainder goes to the special events reserve fund.
Laurel Lea is the chairwoman of the special events reserve fund. She helps decide which events to get the reserve fund money.
“The goal is to help encourage event organizers or community groups to either attract events to the city or to plan new events,” said Lea.
It’s not just hotels who benefit from the increase in visitors to the city, it’s all businesses. Hunter’s Ale House, a restaurant, also notices the increase in traffic.
Jeff Sinnott, is a manager at Hunters.
“There is definitely an increase when events come to the city, we’ll get random calls asking for tables for 20 people, there’s always large groups when things are going on.”