By Stephen Moore

Red Deer bid committee to explore hosting future events

Feb 5, 2019 | 9:43 AM

Red Deer is looking to build on its momentum when it comes to tourism.

City council has approved the creation of a bid committee to discuss economic and community benefits of hosting different events. It would consider major bidding opportunities and make recommendations to council.

“I think it’s important that we pursue the bid committee, obviously, in order to sustain the financial health of our community it’s important that we continue to diversify our local economy and one way to do that is through tourism,” says Mayor Tara Veer.

“We’ve seen how one event has led to another major event, but it’s also important that we proactively go after other types of events other than what we have been able to secure to date.”

Veer says the city needs to respect the community’s “financial and volunteer capacity to host events.”

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“It’s imperative that we are intentional in terms of the major and minor events we’re going after so that the community’s working in tandem,” she notes.

City Manager Craig Curtis echoed Veer’s comments about the importance of bringing more tourism to Red Deer.

“It’s really about community building, about economy and about building our own activities in the city. We have many opportunities due to our central location for economic development and tourism and we probably are not taking full advantage of that”

Curtis mentioned they don’t just focus on sport tourism, but rather diversify the range and go after other events like cultural activities and music festivals.

He’s excited about the approval of a bid committee.

“It’s sports, culture, economic development and community development all rolled in one,” he exclaims.

Red Deer has had success hosting events in recent years and is set to host the Canada Winter Games starting next week.

This new committee’s members are to be determined at a future date.

by Stephen Moore

Red Deer bid committee to explore hosting future events

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