The provincial government has proclaimed April 24th to 30th as Saskatchewan Tourism Week to correlate with the national celebration of Tourism Week in Canada. 

Jackie Moore, Host of Tourism Swift Current Visitor Center Services, explained that tourism is important for a variety of different reasons. 

“It is about things to do and places to go,” she elaborated. “What is very important about tourism is that it does create jobs, it supports local business, it stimulates economic growth, and it affords us the opportunity to showcase our history and culture.” 

Moore noted that the impact tourism can make on local businesses is monumental. 

“You see great attendance in the hotels, the restaurants, gas stations, gift shops, golf courses, all of our industry people, they see wonderful numbers and they see a boost in spending,” she elaborated. “So, it really is very much an economic growth and impact and that is what's so important about the tourism and the flow of visitors through our city.” 

A handful of notable tourist attractions in the Southwest include Doc’s Town Heritage Village, Windscape Kite Festival, Frontier Days, the Beaver Flat 50, the Saskatchewan Landing, and Cypress Hills. 

“It's very, very important that we constantly talk tourism, we talk destinations, we talk events because we want to see people come here,” She stated. “We want to have people enjoy what we enjoy because we really offer natural beauty and we offer wide open skies and dark sky preserves, and we really do offer a sense of safety as well. And we just want to talk about all of that and bring people to our region.” 

Historically, Swift Current has seen visitor spending and event attendance increase year over year. While those numbers dwindled slightly during the height of the pandemic, Moore stated that they have made it out the other side. 

“We've moved through it, and we are working very hard to continually promote and embrace all that Swift Current has to offer,” she concluded.  

In Saskatchewan, tourism generates over $2 billion in annual travel spending and employs almost 70,000 Saskatchewan residents in full- and part-time positions.

Visit the Tourism Swift Current website HERE.

For more information on Saskatchewan Tourism Week, visit HERE.