Above Watch: Soft oil prices and the economic downturn have folks in the tourism industry a little nervous. Gary Bobrovitz reports.
CALGARY – The biggest private Stampede party saw 17,000 attendees at Fort Calgary in 2014. But this year, soft oil prices, job losses and budget cuts are having an impact.
“We are not immune to the economic downturn,” said Stampede Roundup manager Caitlin Boyle. “We have seen ticket sales are a little bit slower, but we do expect they will sell out before the event.”
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Oil was over $100 per barrel during last year’s Stampede, but now it’s in the $50s. This means corporate hospitality budgets are down; companies don’t want to spend money wining and dining clients after employees lost their jobs.
“I have suppliers that say their events are cut by half, and to speak specifically to budgets, there are things being taken out that are sort of ‘nice-to-haves’…A lot of budgets are sort of healthy, but they are being scaled back.”
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While about 70 per cent of Stampede visitors are from the Calgary area, the falling Canadian dollar could help cushion the downturn locally by attracting more American and foreign tourists to the July event.
“In previous times when our dollar has been a little bit lower, we have seen a bit of an increase,” said Stampede spokesperson Jennifer Booth. “Canada is on sale, and they have more buying power.”
Organizers say Stampede ticket sales traditionally pick up after Victoria Day weekend; attendance was 1.26 million in 2014.
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With files from Erika Tucker
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