World Juniors: Moncton and Halifax are already dreaming of economic spinoffs

It’s a win-win for everyonelaunched Friday the mayor of Moncton, Dawn Arnoldtwenty-four hours after Hockey Canada selected the joint bid from the Maritimes for the popular tournament.

” Filling bars, restaurants and hotels is necessary at this time. »

The competition will take place from December 26 to January 5. According to the Mayor of Moncton, Dawn Arnoldit’s a great time of year to promote your city and convince people to consider Moncton for their next summer’s vacation.

The Mayor of Halifax, Mike Savage, was in Moncton on Friday to meet his counterpart. He too wanted the restaurants, bars and hotels of Nova Scotia’s capital to benefit from economic spinoffs.

We just had a couple of years so shittyhe said without putting on white gloves on Thursday. This is another sign that we are emerging from COVID.

Mr. savagewhich called Halifax and Moncton best friends, has no doubts about the success of the event. hockey fans come to the east coast and know we’re gonna put on a show that’s gonna make everybody happyhe launched.

How high can the fallout be?

In New Brunswick, the impacts are believed to be immediate. The phone hasn’t ring since yesterday for hoteliers,” says Isabelle LeBlanc, the City of Moncton’s director of communications.

No study has been conducted on the potential economic impact of the tournament in the Maritimes, given the sudden about-face that was necessary to prepare the bid, when the organization of the championship was taken away from Russia, due to his invasion of Ukraine. We spent a few short weeks preparingrecalls Isabelle LeBlanc.

She says the economic fallout amounted to $44 million for Vancouver, the last city to host the World Juniors before the pandemic, in 2019.

If we take those numbers and divide it in half—since we are two cities, two provinces—and we look at around 23 million, we are probably not far from what it will be. And 23 million in economic benefits in a few weeks around Christmas, I think these are figures that are very, very interesting for our regionsays Ms. LeBlanc.

International visibility

The Mayor Dawn Arnold mentioned Friday the international visibility that Moncton will receive, according to her, for this tournament which will bring together 10 nations from Europe and America. Matches will be played at Scotiabank Center in Halifax and at the Center Avenir in Moncton.

We built the Avenir Center in 2018 hoping one day to host big events, and one of those events was the World Junior Championshipsays Isabelle LeBlanc, of the City of Moncton, who did not hesitate to describe the enclosure as downtown catalyst.

The eyes of the world [sont] here, in Moncton, for two weeksdeclares John Wishartthe Chamber of Commerce’s General Manager for Greater Moncton.

He shares the opinion of the municipality and sees in it a validation the decision to build the Center Avenir at a cost of $113 million.

John Wishart provides an atmosphere festival for downtown Moncton during the championship.

Hope among hoteliers

The time this tournament is happening is one of the quietest times in our industry, especially in Greater Moncton.underlines Raymond Roberge, the general manager of the Delta Beauséjour hotel.

What this will do is that hotels that would have a traffic rate of approximately 15% during that period will have a traffic rate of approximately 80 to 85% he predicted.

Mr. Roberge, who is also director of Destination Moncton-Dieppe, a new organization promoting regional tourism, says that for every dollar spent at the hotel, four dollars are spent in the community by these visitors.

If the stakeholders met since the announcement exude confidence and seem to have no doubt about the potential economic benefits to Moncton and Halifax, one question remains: which of the two cities will have the joy of presenting the game for the gold medal in January 2023?

We might play rock-paper-scissors, jokes Isabelle LeBlanc, of the City of Moncton. She believes that the Canadian Hockey League (CHLCanadian Hockey League) will be able to make a decision that will not disturb the good understanding between the two hostesses.

With information from Sarah Déry, Janic Godin and Paul Légère