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Creation of Sports Tourism Office supported by city council

After an investigation into the underrepresented sports tourism market, consultants said that Stratford currently has the capacity to host more sporting events. Projections for revenue for the city were not included in the consultants' investigation
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A screenshot from Monday night's Stratford City Council meeting, where delegates from Destinate Group Ltd. advocated for a sports tourism group.

Tourism in the Stratford will be getting more diverse in the next couple of years, as the city supports the development of a new Sports Tourism Office. 

The final report and sport tourism strategy for the City of Stratford was presented to city council on Monday night. Todd Brandt, Lori Sly and Steve Nicol of Destinate Group Ltd., consultants for investStratford in this strategy, presented their findings. 

“Sports tourists tend to spend more both domestically and internationally,” Nicol said. “So it's a very attractive market for communities and destinations across the country.”

Their investigation found that Stratford has the capacity to host more sporting events and should do so to better shoulder the tourism off-season in winter.

Sports tourism was identified as a priority for the city in 2018. The need to catalogue current events and tournaments, maximize the technology, generate spillover impact on the local economy, optimize the availability and capacity of facilities, and increase the flexibility and uses within facilities was also identified. 

Through funding from the FedDev Ontario Regional Tourism Relief Fund, the strategy was completed, suggesting that a dedicated sport tourism entity be established and funded that would oversee the development of Stratford Sport Tourism (SST). 

The steering committee suggested that Destination Stratford would host SST. 

Coun. Mark Hunter asked when such a plan would generate positive revenue for the city. Brandt answered that it will take approximately six months for a group to be established and a few years before it is fully operational. Additionally, projections were not included in their investigation. He indicated that if the city has patience, it could see huge returns. 

Conversation veered into the makeup of the group that will steer SST, with Coun. Jo-Dee Burbach relaying that there are citizens involved in accommodations that are interested in the project.

Coun. Larry McCabe revealed that over the past weekend a hockey tournament that his business was not aware of resulted in one of the busiest days they have ever had. He was in favour of the strategy and said that communication between the sports industry and the tourism industry in Stratford should be important.  

City council voted in favour of supporting the creation of the Stratford Sport Tourism Office. No hard commitments from the city were made in terms of funding. The steering committee will explore funding opportunities to create an organized structure. Any budget impacts will be presented for the 2024 budget.