Tourism Week is a provincially marked event each year in Saskatchewan.
Monday, at the regular meeting of Yorkton Council the week was also unanimously proclaimed to mark the week of May 26 to June 1, as Tourism Week in the city.
In material circulated to Council by Tourism Yorkton it was noted, tourism contributed $2.37 billion in total traveller expenditures to the provincial economy.
Tourism is also the province’s fourth largest export industry and export sales for 2017 were $608 million. This is money spent in the province by non-resident visitors.
“There were 63,800 tourism-related jobs in the province in August 2017. This is over 10 per cent of the current working population. Tourism offers employment to youth and residents of rural and northern communities. This is more than twice as many people as the mining and oil and gas sectors combined, and almost twice as many as the manufacturing sector,” detailed the material.
Seven out of 10 workers got their first job in the tourism industry.
The definition of the tourist is anyone travelling away from home for the purpose of business or pleasure, or to visit friends or relatives – either overnight or from a distance of more than 40 kms.
In Yorkton visitors to the area spent an estimated $38.1 million directly on the Yorkton constituency.
As part of Tourism Awareness Week, the local organization is providing the opportunity for employees, employers and the residents of Yorkton to see some of the many attractions and services Yorkton has to offer. The Familiarization Bus Tour will provide the information for your business to offer assistance and better answer questions asked by visitors, explained Tourism Yorkton president Darlene Stakiw.
In addition, Canadians are encouraged to hit their local section of The Great Trail in pursuit of loot, she said.
Partners in the treasure hunt are Trans Canada Trail (TCT), Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS), City of Yorkton – Community Development, Parks and Recreation and Tourism Yorkton.
Last year’s Great Trail Treasure Hunt proved to be one of the biggest and most exciting event on The Great Trail to date, said Stakiw.
Tourism Yorkton will be hiding caches along the section of The Great Trail, in Yorkton.
Clues will be released on the treasure hunt website to help treasure seekers along.
The Great Trail Treasure Hunt will entice Canadians to get off the couch and explore over 100 trail sections, both land and water, across Canada. It’s a fun, healthy way to learn more about Canada, said Stakiw.
