Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance – March 18, 2019 (Ottawa, Ontario): It will be three days packed with professional development, business-to-business promotion and networking for the nearly 400 people in Ottawa to attend Sport Events Congress 2019 (SEC19).

This annual gathering of sport event rights holders, destinations, event suppliers and sponsors is organized by the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA) and takes place at The Westin Ottawa from March 19-21, 2019. Held yearly since 2001, SEC brings together the key players in the tourism industry’s fastest growing segment.

The program features current trending topics in the sport tourism industry, including the conundrum of legalized cannabis, and the growing phenomenon of esports. Featured keynote speakers include CFL Commissioner, Randy Ambrosie; Mary Moran, formerly of the Calgary 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games bid; and The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Tourism, Official Languages, and La Francophonie, who will close out the gathering on Thursday.

Another featured activity of SEC19 is the Sport Events Exchange where nearly 60 different sport organizations ‘speed-date’ with destinations for eight minutes at a time to see if their sport and the city/region would be a good match. Over 800 appointments will be carried out during the sessions.

CBC / Radio-Canada Broadcaster and Olympian Alexandre Despatie will host the marquee event, the 13^th PRESTIGE Awards Presentation presented by Saskatoon Sports Tourism followed by the PRESTIGE Awards Networking Reception & Luncheon presented by IHG. The PRESTIGE awards honour the best in 2018 sport tourism events, volunteers, organizations and sponsors

#SEC19 │ #sporttourism │ @SportEventsCong

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About the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA)

The Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance is a non-governmental, member-based, capacity building organization that promotes sport tourism as a grassroots economic development initiative at the community level. The CSTA services over 500 members across Canada, including 130 municipalities, 300 national and provincial sport, multi-sport and major games organizations and a variety of other sport and tourism industry partners. Sport tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry in Canada with over $6.8 billion in annual spending by domestic and international visitors.

 

For further information contact:

Barb MacDonald, Communications Consultant, CSTA

Tel: (613) 894-1769                          Email: bmacdonald@canadiansporttourism.com