Ottawa increases major event fund to $2.5 million after 2017 tourism success

After the success of Ottawa tourism in 2017, the city wants to keep the momentum going as they announced Wednesday that they will be increasing its contribution to the major events fund to $2.5 million annually.

According to the city, the new municipal accommodation tax, which came into effect January 1 of this year, will “ensure investments are made to promote and grow Ottawa’s tourism industry and build on the success of 2017.”

The city says an estimated $500,000 of the projected tax revenue will go towards the convention development fund, which will be used by Ottawa Tourism and the Shaw Centre to attract more large international and corporate conventions to Ottawa.

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On top of that, a further $1 million of the revenue will be invested in the major events fund, which Ottawa Tourism uses to attract large events to draw tourists to the city. This is in addition to the city’s existing $1.5 million annual contribution to the fund, increasing its capacity to $2.5 million per year.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of tourism in the nation’s capital,” said Coun. Jean Cloutier, who spoke on behalf of Mayor Jim Watson. “It’s the third most important sector of our economy after the public service and higher tech, and approximately 40,000 jobs depend on hospitality and tourism.”

The city also said that the programming and marketing of Ottawa in 2017 saw the city’s tourism sector deliver “outstanding results.”

“Ottawa hosted more than 11 million visitors, an increase of 8.8 per cent, and total visitor spending surpassed $2.3 billion, an increase of 10.3 per cent, or $225 million, over 2016,” said the city in a release.

“This new funding is really going to enable us to bid even more and host even more events here in the city,” said Michael Crockatt, president and CEO of Ottawa Tourism. “That’s important to us because collectively as an industry we set a very aggressive target that by 2022 we want every year to be as successful, from a major events and major meetings perspective, as 2017 was.”