The City of Summerside continues to recognize the importance of a variety of events to draw visitors to our city and trigger citizen engagement and growth in our tourism offerings. Summerside, from a tourism product perspective, is challenged in its ability to draw visitors due, in part, to a lack of a singular feature points of interest or offerings that is definitively “Summerside”. For that reason, Sport Tourism has become identified as more of a priority not only to bridge that gap, but to embrace the benefits and make Summerside synonymous with Sport Hosting. It continues to be imperative for Summerside to attract visitors to events across a broad spectrum of tiers and offerings to sustain and foster future growth within the industry. To address this challenge, and to move forward with tourism growth, we have looked at other municipalities to glean from their experience the tools to enhance what we are already successful with. We have done substantial research to measure their results to determine what would best be applied to our city. It was determined that a more structured approach to Sport Tourism was required, as in many cases, municipalities have adopted a specific Sport Tourism Strategy to streamline their offering.
Significant consultation has been completed in an informal manner with members of the hospitality industry in Summerside, along with the leaders of the local sport associations. More formal discussions will occur in an official capacity once the Sport Tourism Strategy has moved forward. Research has been completed, and the pursuit of this Sport Tourism Strategy has been deemed critical to form a strong foundation of tourism annually, that is not dependent on the inconsistency of signature events.
Our successful record of providing signature entertainment events has been, and continues to be, remarkable. Summerside has had the great fortune to host a very wide variety of events, from world renowned performers such as Elton John, Bryan Adams, and Alan Jackson, to signature regional, national, and international sporting events such as 2009 Canada Games, 2022 16U Girls Baseball Nationals, 2022 World Cup of Wrestling International event and many more. Sport Tourism events complement our signature entertainment events to enhance the scope of our mandate. Signature entertainment events dovetailed with our primary focus of Minor/Amateur sport hosting will position Summerside as a year-round tourism destination.
The City of Summerside, as part of this strategy, plans to continue to show leadership not ownership in the growth of sport tourism into the future. The city plans to capitalize on the vast knowledge base and social capital that exists currently in Summerside while utilizing this strategy to foster further growth and partnerships with all stakeholders in sport tourism in the community. Expanding our existing sport tourism offerings in conjunction with events will develop Summerside’s untapped hosting potential. A cohesive hosting plan recognizes that sport events hold more than simply tourism-based benefits (i.e., Room Nights). They also drive sport development and community legacy, making the social and economic benefit cumulative, making it incredibly valuable to our city.