Sports tourism generating millions locally

By Lethbridge Herald on March 10, 2025.

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Sport Council announced Monday that sport events hosted in Lethbridge in 2024 generated a total economic impact of over $18 million while province-wide the total economic impact reached over $21.5 million. 

Economic impact reports were completed for 214 single and multi-day sport events representing 62 per cent of all events held in 2024. Data was collected from host organizing committees for events that attracted out-of-town participants, including athletes, coaches, managers, and technical officials.

Susan Eymann, Executive Director of the Lethbridge Sport Council said hosting sport events in Lethbridge is good for the community and for sport. 

“These events bring people together, strengthen local sport organizations, and create memorable experiences for athletes and volunteers,” said Eymann. 

Dominika Wojcik, senior director of communications with Tourism Lethbridge said sports tourism is a huge piece in the overall tourism umbrella. 

“The reason for that is because between sport tourism and business events tourism, when people have a reason to visit a city, they are 77 per cent more likely to come back for a leisure visit because they had a chance to check out the city,” said Wojcik.

Sport tourism is a $7.4 billion annual industry in Canada. The projected economic impact is calculated using the Sport Tourism Canada’s Sport Tourism Economic Assessment Model (STEAM), which incorporates the latest Statistics Canada data to measure the impact of events that draw out-of-town participants and spectators.

For the 2024 economic impact of Sport Tourism in Lethbridge, most events included in the data collection were annual recurring events.

In 2024, four basketball events, including the Battle of the Bridge generated $1,181,062. Six long-standing running events contributed $502,523, while the annual Floorbusters lacrosse tournament brought in $397,094. Five-disc golf events accounted for $189,979, a single rugby event generated $427,570, and three ringette events, including the University Challenge Cup, had a combined impact of $1,248,198.

“The great thing about this is that it’s showcasing not only our amazing facilities, but also our volunteers that are able to host this type of events,” said Wojcik. 

From a tourism perspective, she said Tourism Lethbridge is committed to growing and bringing more major events into our city. 

“We’re attending the Sport Event congress next week, where this is a national event put on by Sport Tourism Canada and they host the national sports agencies that we get to meet with, network with and hopefully pitch them to come to our city,” said Wojcik. 

She added that they continue to explore opportunities to bring in larger regional, national and international events into Lethbridge. 

“We have a lot more options for people that we had before, so I think this is going to be a great opportunity for us to showcase Lethbridge as that sport destination,” said Wojcik. 

The 2024 Sport Tourism Impact Report is available online at lethbridgesportcouncil.ca/sport-tourism