The Sport Tourism Strategy was developed by Sport Tourism Canada and funded by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The strategy was endorsed by City Council on October 23, 2024.
Benefits of Sport Tourism
- Economic impact: Sport tourism generates significant economic benefits for Barrie. It creates jobs, increases revenue for local businesses, and attracts visitors who spend money on accommodations, food, transportation, and other goods and services.
- Destination marketing: Sport tourism events can help raise the profile of Barrie as a destination for both domestic (regional, provincial and national) and international visitors. Hosting sporting events can attract media coverage and provide exposure for Barrie's attractions, hospitality, and community.
- Community engagement: Hosting sport events can provide opportunities for community involvement and engagement. Local volunteers can contribute to event operations, and residents can participate in events as athletes or spectators. This can help build a sense of community, promote civic pride, and encourage further investment in sport facilities and related services.
- Health and wellness: Sport tourism can promote health and wellness by encouraging active living, physical activity, and sport development. Participants and spectators can engage in sports and recreational activities, which can have positive health benefits and promote healthy lifestyles.
- Social and cultural exchange: Sport events can bring people together from different regions, cultures, and backgrounds. With Barrie’s growing population and changing demographic, sport events can promote social and cultural exchange, facilitate the sharing of knowledge and ideas, and build bridges between communities.
- Sport development: Events have the ability to inspire youth to get involved in sport. Sport event hosting can bring opportunities for athlete, coach and officials development, furthering the capacity, technical expertise and competitiveness of the city, local sport organizations and participants. In addition, sport event hosting can create opportunities for the development of sport programming.
- Infrastructure development: Hosting sport events can provide opportunities to develop or improve sports facilities, transportation infrastructure, and other key infrastructure assets through new and diverse funding sources. These investments can benefit the community for years following the sport event, both in terms of infrastructure, but also quality of life for local residents.
Background
In October 2022, the City of Barrie in partnership with Tourism Barrie embarked on a journey to create its first five-year Sport Tourism Strategy. The project supports the City of Barrie’s Tourism Master Plan to “develop a sport tourism strategy that identifies the structure and resources required to attract and host sport events that positively impact the Barrie brand and community via economic, social and sustainability outcomes.”
The project was funded by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) Tourism Relief Fund and carried out by Sport Tourism Canada’s consulting team with completion in March 2023.