Saskatchewan Tourism Industry

Ever wondered what impact tourism actually has on Saskatchewan? This section provides facts and figures about just this and answers some frequently asked questions. From stats about the number of visits recorded in the province, to the number of people employed by tourism in Saskatchewan, to the amount of money spent in the province because of tourism, this section has it covered.

Fast Facts about Saskatchewan’s Tourism Industry

•    Tourism contributed almost $1.68 billion in total traveller expenditures to the provincial economy in 2010.

•    Tourism is our province’s fourth largest export industry and export sales for 2010 were more than $488 million. This is the money spent in the province by non-resident visitors.

•    Tourism is a significant revenue source for hotels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, museums, art galleries, parks, outfitters, nightclubs, casinos, sporting events, shopping malls, festivals, craft shops, golf courses, and many other endeavours. In 2010, there were almost 9.1 million visits to and within Saskatchewan.

•    There are approximately 3,700 attractions, events, and tourism-related businesses in the province.

•    There were 58,000 tourism-related jobs in the province in August 2011 – almost 21,000 of them were wholly supported by tourism with a further 37,000 jobs partly supported by tourism expenditures.

•    Seven out of 10 workers got their first job in the tourism industry.

•    Tourism encourages entrepreneurship – more than 95 per cent of tourism and tourism-related businesses are small- or medium-sized companies and many are independently owned and operated.

Tourism Saskatchewan

•    The tourism industry in Saskatchewan is represented by Tourism Saskatchewan, an industry-government partnership that works to develop and promote tourism in our province. We represent almost 2,000 members and more than 3,500 tourism industry stakeholders.

•    Tourism Saskatchewan is involved in a range of activities aimed at growing the industry, including marketing, development, education, membership and visitor services, research, information technology, and training.

•    The Saskatchewan Tourism Education Council (STEC), the education and training branch of Tourism Saskatchewan, delivered training to just over 4,000 people in 106 communities across the province in 2009/2010.