The 2011 Canadian Senior Curling Championships added $400,000 to the Digby economy. File photo.
(by Jonathan Riley)
We knew it was big and now we know just how big.
The 2011 Senior Curling Championships injected at least $366,000 of direct visitor spending into the local economy here. Add spin-off spending to that and the event had an impact of $400,000 on the local economy.
“I guess I’d call that successful,” says Bob Powell, recreation manager with the Digby Area Recreation Commission. “And these are extremely conservative estimates. We were very careful to count only new money, money that was spent by people who came here solely for the curling.”
Powell has in his hands the economic impact study prepared by Dr. Brian VanBlarcom who studies and teaches the economics of sport, recreation and tourism at Acadia University.