REGINA - Those involved in Saskatchewan’s tourism industry are feeling good about the prospects for more growth in 2025.
That is in spite of some of the uncertainty being seen with President Donald Trump’s tariff threats. But the industry has seen even darker times before due to the COVID-19. These days, the local sector has been seeing an upswing, driven in large part by event attraction.
Recent years have seen Regina in particular host some big events including the Grey Cup and the Montana’s Brier, and more events are on the way in 2025. Mayor Chad Bachynski listed them off at the recent State of the City address:
“We will continue to work closely with our tourism stakeholders and Economic Development Regina to elevate Regina's profile. To really put us on the map for renowned attractions and events.
“The Regina Hotel Association, in collaboration with tourism, partners and venues, continues to play a crucial role in driving tourism and economic activity in our city. In 2025, Regina will host over 70 events, generating over 70,000 hotel room nights. This includes everything from multiple hockey and ringette tournaments, to dancing gymnastics competitions, to the canoe - kayak championships, to the five-pin national bowling championships, not to mention Skills Canada National Competition, the Futsal open championships, Baseball Canada's Men's Senior National Championships, Lacrosse Provincials, the Sask Highland Gathering and Celtic Festival, and the Vanier Cup.
“These events, along with long-standing traditions like the Saskatchewan Roughriders season, Canada's Farm Show, First Nations University Annual Spring Powwow, the Queen City Marathon, and Canadian Western Agribition showcase our city's ability to support and attract major gatherings. Additionally, with 10 new bids to host future exciting events submitted in January alone, the momentum for events choosing Regina remains strong. The next several years presents an incredible opportunity for Regina.”
Jennifer Johnson is Regina's Deputy City Manager of Communications, Service Regina, and Tourism. She points to growth in visitor spending in 2024 with a 24 per cent increase from January to October compared to the previous year, and she points to visitor spending forecast to surpass $625 million, marking the first time Regina’s visitor spending has surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Johnson believes that the multitude of events being held in the Queen City this year will keep the tourism momentum going.
“Yeah, we focus a lot of our time and energy on attracting those events, I would say both big and medium sized events,” Johnson said.
“We have really good facilities in Regina to host things like minor sporting events, volleyball tournaments. The REAL District has, you know, really unique properties all interconnected like that. So we're known for those facilities.”
There are three particular markets Regina focuses on to attract tourists, according to Johnson. One is friends and family — those Saskatchewan expats who are returning home to visit. A second market is the area within about a 200 km radius of people from rural areas who might spend one to three days in the city.
The third is the group that comes to Regina for those big events and conventions. For those, Tourism Regina partners with the Regina Hotels Association in making bids.
Johnson said events are “a big deal for Regina. And we are known as very good event hosts here.”
She acknowledges one of the main challenges in attracting tourists is “actually just competition for people's time and energy and money.
”People have so many options now that it's tough to compete sometimes in that landscape. But we're doing everything we can to position Regina as highly competitive. So even things like working with the airport to secure new and more daily flights to and from Regina really helps the tourism industry here. As we just talked about, working to attract events here, that really helps the tourism industry. Because if you bring in, you know, hundreds of people for a volleyball tournament, they're also staying at hotels, eating at restaurants. And if we do our jobs right, they'll be visiting local attractions.”
She points to some of the efforts they do to include all of the major properties in the city in a master calendar, so that visitors can easily access information not only about attractions but also what might be playing at Casino Regina, Conexus Arts Centre or Globe Theatre. They also send out an e-newsletter out to subscribers, and discount codes are provided as well.
“We try to tell everyone when they come to the city what else there is to do and explore and experience. And the better job we do of that, we're hoping they spend an extra few hours, an extra day or two, and they just take in more and more of the tourism industry here.”
Other parts of the province also are hoping to boost their tourism numbers, and are getting some funding help in that effort. Last week the government of Canada came through with over $2 million in funding for tourism offerings and infrastructure in the province.
That funding is being spread out among nine Saskatchewan tourism operators and organizations across the province. Some of those receiving funding include The Ridge on Amisk Resort Inc. at Denare Beach, Cypress Hills Eco-Adventures Ltd. out of Maple Creek, the Ukrainian Museum of Canada in Saskatoon, Waterhen Eco Lodge Ltd. at Waterhen Lake, the Mounted Police Heritage Centre in Regina, and Whitecap Dakota First Nation which is establishing a cutting-edge Geodesic Dome Planetarium at Dakota Dunes Resort.
Other areas of Saskatchewan are also doing their part to attract major events this year, with Moose Jaw due to host a big one soon with the World Men's Curling Championship running from March 29 to April 6.
The province is pointing to tourism numbers being on the upswing in recent years. According to numbers provided by the province from Statistics Canada, in May of 2024 there was a rise in visitor spending in Saskatchewan from $2.4 billion in 2022 to $2.87 billion in 2023.
Domestic travel spending in 2023 hit $2.69 billion, while overseas spending reached $153 million.  Total visits in Saskatchewan in 2023 also rose by 15 per cent, reaching 11.3 million for an increase of 1.5 million visits over 2022.
Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport Alana Ross acknowledged the importance of hosting events when asked about it last week at Royal Saskatchewan Museum — itself a popular Regina attraction thanks to Scotty, the largest known T-Rex fossil in the world.
“All of the events that we host attract people to come from all across our country and sometimes they're international events,” Ross said.
“And it really is, it's an opportunity for people to come and see what we have in the winter, what we have in the summer. So we're looking forward to all of the events that we're having.”
But there are some headwinds, in particular with the threat of Trump tariffs from the United States. Minister Ross acknowledged the uncertainty when she was asked if this might impact visitor numbers from the USA.
“I can't predict what's going to happen in the future. Talks are still ongoing. So we don't, I don't know what the outcome is going to be. But as Premier Moe said, tariffs hurt everyone. So we will continue to take that stand and we will continue to work with our counterparts.”
On the flip side, there is also the possibility Saskatchewan could take advantage of the “buy Canadian” reaction of tourists in this country to the Trump tariffs, with those tourists potentially opting to see Saskatchewan.
“Yeah, it's a great opportunity and we really want to be able to share everything we have in our province with everyone from across the country. Like you drive through and you see the, on number one highway, you see the prairies, you go north, you get into the forest, the lakes,” Ross said.
“I'm up on Lake Country right on the edge of the boreal forest. It's beautiful up there too. And then these wonderful opportunities like the museum that we have for people to come and see. They're wonderful tourist opportunities.”
Johnson also acknowledged the uncertainty with the tariff situation.
“We're watching it closely, of course, and we'll be monitoring closely,” Johnson said, “We're hopeful that it doesn't impact us here too negatively. And in fact, that it might be an opportunity because there might be more Canadians looking for staycations and we might be able to offer them a location that they haven't been to previously, or they'd been to a long time ago and are interested in coming back. But I think it's early days and I just, I'm not sure, you know, we're really not sure what type of impact it will have.”
