Often items which come before Yorkton Council are more related than might appear on the surface.
That was certainly the case this week.
The first presentation at the regular meeting of Yorkton Council Monday had Neil Thom, chair of Yorkton Tourism providing a brief look at the group’s efforts in 2015.
“As a four season destination we are involved in a range of activities aimed at growing the industry. Marketing, education, visitor services and information technology remains our focus to insure we realize maximum economic benefits for the city,” Neil Thom, president of Tourism Yorkton told Council.
“Tourism is a significant revenue source for Yorkton’s hotels, museum, art galleries, restaurants, shopping facilities, events, festivals and many other endeavours. Combine that with the fact almost ten per cent of the city’s workforce is in tourism related industries and it becomes more important than ever to maintain a strong organization that can work with all the stakeholders to continuously improve our events and attractions.”
Next up was Don Kunkel who spoke on the success of the Canadian Junior Girls 2015 Golf Championship held at the Deer Park Golf Course last August.
Kunkel said support was fantastic, including more than 40 businesses making donations, providing in-kind contributions, or taking out ads in the event program.
Once the event, which was ran Aug. 3-7, was on, Kunkel said it went smoothly, with the course in what he termed it’s “best-ever condition”.
And golfers appreciated the course conditions.
“We had nothing but great comments from all the players,” he said.
The event was also financially successful.
“We paid all our bills, and had some money left over,” said Kunkel.
The $10,000 profit is being donated back to Deer Park for the installation of forward tees for juniors, seniors and ladies play, said Kunkel.
When that work is factored in with the on-course washrooms, a retro-fit of the ladies change rooms in the clubhouse, and some new fencing “there was nearly $40,000 in on course improvements because we were able to host this event,” he said.
While it might not appear the two presentations are inter-connected, the championship golf event is actually an excellent example of what tourism is all about in terms of benefiting the local community.
The golf event attracted golfers, and their families and supporters from across Canada, in essence each becoming a tourist to the city.
And of course the Deer Park Golf Course is clearly a tourist draw for Yorkton. While local golfers obviously utilize the course, and it is an integral recreational facility for Yorkton, it has often attracted major regional, provincial and now national golf events which dovetail nicely with what tourism is by definition.
That is why recreation facilities are so important to a community; like the hockey arena which played host to the Grand Slam of Curling in December gain attracting tourist players and fans alike.
Quality recreational facilities are a huge part of attracting tourists, and what all those tourists mean to the city. In that regard our city is fortunate as we have many excellent ones, including the aforementioned arena and Deer Park Golf Course.
