What's Happening in Calgary, AB…

Calgary’s tourism operators recently received the news that this sector made a significant contribution to the city’s economic growth over the course of last year.

Figures released by Tourism Calgary indicated that it was a record-breaking year for the city. Over eight million visitors came to the area for business or pleasure, resulting in a contribution of $1.7 to the economy. This marks a 6.3 per cent increase over the year previous.

Hotel operators report numbers that were very positive for them. About 3.1 million nights were sold, with 1.2 million of them being weekend stays. Further, 48,142 of these nights were for sporting events, while 69,077 were for people traveling on business and other trade-related reasons.

The city was also successful in bidding for 59 different major sporting and cultural events.

All of this also had a positive impact on the employment situation, as it created jobs for 68,305 that were tourism related. It also resulted in spin-off benefits for other businesses like printing companies, which provide materials and support for firms such as restaurants, hotels, motels and others.

According to Tourism Calgary, the theme for this year will be music, as both the Juno awards and the opening of the National Music Center will soon be taking place in the city. In 2017, it will play host to the Rendez-vous travel and tourism trade show.