.JPG;w=960)
YORKTON - The Government of Saskatchewan has proclaimed April 15-19 as Saskatchewan Tourism Week. The week coincides with the national celebration of Tourism Week in Canada.
Sadly the plethora of weeks proclaimed by government each year tend to have many people tuning them out, and that is unfortunate because it never hurts to pause and think for a moment about something such as the tourism sector.
As noted in a recent government release, “Saskatchewan Tourism Week brings attention to the significance of tourism, which generates over $2.4 billion in annual travel spending and employs almost 71,000 Saskatchewan residents in full and part-time positions. It is a time to acknowledge tourism businesses and operators, whose efforts drive a vibrant visitor economy, create jobs and enhance quality of life.”
Certainly given the week of April 15-19 being marked, it’s easy to see the importance of tourism locally.
We have just seen the annual Yorkton Spring 4-H Show held only a week ago, and this past weekend there was Spring Expo. Both events obviously bring people to the city – and those people are tourists. Yes, they may come for a specific reason of attending one of the aforementioned events but they may also stop at local stores to shop, eat in local restaurants, or buy fuel for the return trip home. Each of these things help keep the city’s economy rolling.
And this weekend is the Parkland Dance Festival and Prairie Fire Taekwondo event which will bring people to the city, and just beyond is the Parkland Outdoor Show and Kaylana Dance Festival.
Yorkton is fortunate in that regard. So many weekends throughout the year have major events to draw people to the city, often complimented by a veritable cornucopia of smaller events which still often have visitors attending.
While certainly with two canola crushing facility, a flax processor, an oat miller, and soon a pea processor all here, agriculture is the major economic engine for the city, but there would be a massive hole in our economy if tourism suddenly stopped.
Having people travelling here on a regular basis keeps people employed in the service sector, and those workers buy cars and homes and have children who attend local schools, and suddenly it is easy to understand and appreciate each tourist is a very important cog in Yorkton’s economic engine.
The week just proclaimed just puts that importance in the limelight a bit more than usual.
