WINNIPEG — Tourists are filling up Manitoba Parks after coming to Winnipeg for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Instead of staying at the booked up hotels in the city during the tournament, Ray Leroux from Colorado is one of many Americans camping in between the games.
“These parks are better than anything we have,” said Leroux. “I stayed in St. Malo for three days, I went to the game on Monday and then moved here and went to the game yesterday.”
Manitoba parks are seeing a significant increase in out of province visitors this month.
According to Manitoba Conservation, in 2014 there were 28 out of province visitors at this time. In 2015, there are 169.
“It’s kind of nice having the woods experience and then being able to drive into the city and have that whole city game atmosphere,” said Fred Feirn who is from Minnesota for the World Cup.
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Lorie Wilkins has camped at Birds Hill with her family for the last eight years and has never seen the park this busy.
“It’s nice to talk to some of the Americans see how they do things compared to what we do up here ,” said Wilkins.
And some of the tourists are already starting to plan their next trip.
“We’d go further north, this park is huge and I think it would take a few days to explore everything,” said Feirn.
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