As ultimate hosts, Tourism Calgary proudly supports the attraction and activation of sport, cultural and major events. These events generate significant economic impact, while building Calgary’s brand, enriching the city’s vibrancy, supporting hosting infrastructure and attracting visitors.
Hosts
Hosts
Calgary Sport & Major Events Committee
The Calgary Sport & Major Events committee aligns with The City of Calgary’s Sport for Life Policy and Festival and Events Policy, as well as Calgary’s Destination Strategy. As advisors to Tourism Calgary and The City of Calgary, Calgary Sport & Major Events committee provides strategic direction and oversight to a proactive process of evaluating and attracting major sports, recreation and cultural events to Calgary.
Based on Tourism Calgary’s strategy, decision-making criteria, principles and guidelines, committee members support management to evaluate and recommend events for potential investment, and suggestions for approaches to bids.
Event attraction / support
Attraction:
A key function of Tourism Calgary is to support the attraction of sport, cultural and major events. Attracting events that build Calgary’s brand and offer shareable experiences provides the opportunity to showcase Calgary’s hosting abilities to organizers, participants, fans and citizens.
Support:
Tourism Calgary’s event support starts with a comprehensive bid package, then extends to the event itself and to post-event review. The primary areas of support include event marketing and event servicing. Using nimble, bold and creative marketing tactics, Tourism Calgary promotes events to the right audiences so that organizers can meet their objectives. To ensure the best experience for the host organizing committee, participants and organizers, Tourism Calgary also offers comprehensive event servicing support – that could include something as memorable as a White Hat Ceremony - that will give your event a truly Calgary touch.
Economic impact
Event tourism is an important subset of the visitor economy. For most events, visitor spending on things like accommodation, meals and transportation is usually the biggest factor in generating economic impact. However, spending by event organizers on things like venue rental, security and pageantry are also an important consideration.
Using Destinations International’s Event Impact Calculator, Tourism Calgary can input data such as the size, duration and type of event to measure its financial impact on business, employment, income and taxes. Not only does this information help determine the return on investment of events, it arms Tourism Calgary with quantitative evidence that can be used to support its ongoing advocacy efforts toward growing and developing Calgary’s events and meetings business.
While events provide significant economic benefits such as increased tourism, employment opportunities, infrastructure development and urban growth, it is equally as important to note the positive social impacts of events such as increased international awareness, community pride and quality of life for Calgarians through legacies and participation.
Event partnership opportunities
Tourism Calgary welcomes any opportunity to partner with its diverse network of industry partners to provide unique, memorable experiences for event organizers, participants, fans and Calgarians. While partnerships can vary by event, Tourism Calgary is open to any mutually beneficial collaboration opportunities.
To inquire about or share your ideas around event partnership, contact:
Kris Fiorentino, Specialist, Marketing & Communications - Sport, Culture and Major Events