When the Ontario Special Olympics Winter Games take center stage next week, it won’t just be athletes and coaches benefitting from hard work.
The city’s economy will likely see a direct boost of at least a half million dollars.
That’s the estimate that North Bay Chamber of Commerce President Jake Lacourse sees.
With over 500 athletes, coaches, families and officials coming to the city, it’s easy to see the economic benefit.
‘Our hotels are booking out, which is great. Some caterers are selected to provide meals for the athletes specifically but you know there is going to be an economic impact. Because people are going to want to buy souvenirs in North Bay, they are going to want to go shopping in the malls.”
The city has already seen some of the benefits as some competition venues have had upgrades to their equipment in order to support the Games.
Lacourse calls that kind of spending, as well as hotel and food purchasing, as direct impact, money spent during those several days in North Bay.
It also comes during the winter tourism season, which can at times be a little slower than summer.
Lacourse says it is the second year in a row a larger sports tourism event has filled up hotels on snowy nights.
“Last year we enjoyed the World Ringette championships, which happened at the end of December, beginning of January, which had a huge influx of revenue from outside coming in. This year we are lucky enough to have another sport tourism event, in the form of the Special Olympics, which definitely helps out with levelling off those values that we typically experience in tourism in our community.”
The largest unknown is how the Games, and those who visit the city for them, can provide an impact down the road economically.
With the city doing its best to put its best foot forward, Lacourse says there can be a spinoff after the games are over, long term.
“Maybe there are some people who are deciding to relocate somewhere, perhaps some retirement people that are coming in to our community that are thinking about relocations. So that can happen. Every time we bring in a sport tourism or any other tourism event to our city there’s certainly an opportunity to show them what we have to offer whether they want to relocate here as a permanent resident or whether they want to spend some tourism dollars around our community, it’s all good.”
Which means even more gold for city business after the athletes have collected theirs.
