By Michelle Li
For Ottawa businesses in the downtown core, Winterlude means more than just Beaver Tails and ice sculptures. Instead of skating, businesses see spending and instead of drinking hot chocolate, companies will be reaping hot profits.
“Winterlude will be a good month for all hotels,” says Sandra Mutter, a manager at Best Western Victoria Park Suites on O’Connor Street.
Though the hotel is not yet full, she says she is expecting 150 extra guests during Winterlude. She has scheduled extra staff during those days to meet the extra demand.
“People will still be booking last minute,” says Mutter.
A 2004 Decima Research survey found that $151.7 million of Winterlude-related spending, was generated into Ontario and Quebec’s economy. Of that total, $82.5 million of economic activity was in Ottawa-Gatineau.
The survey, commissioned by the Conference Board of Canada, measured Winterlude’s attendance and asked attendees how much they spent on food, hospitality, transportation and souvenirs.
Despite fears the festival would be cancelled, due to unseasonally mild weather early this winter, Jantine Van Kregten, director of communications at the Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority, says Winterlude is expected to be on par with previous years’ earnings.
Kathryn Keyes, the media relations adviser with the National Capital Commission, estimates the festival will draw in about 600,000 people, as many people as in previous years.
About one-third, she adds, would be from outside of the region.
Keyes says the now minus double-digit weather has put people in the mood for Winterlude.
“Winter puts people into a winter frame of mind and makes them think of winter activities,” she says.
Areas expected to earn the most money, are those that are near the festival’s major sites, says Van Kregten.
These include the Rideau Canal, the Snowflake Kingdom and Confederation Park, all situated in the downtown and Centretown areas of Ottawa.
Businesses further away from the festivities, such as on Preston Street, experience a different effect of Winterlude.
“Though Winterlude is a great thing for Ottawa, it doesn’t really give us a lot of business,” says Lori Mellor, executive director of the Preston Street Business Improvement Area. “It actually swallows up our parking.”
She says at most, the festival gives people some exposure to Preston Street businesses.
“It’s not obvious immediate business,” says Mellor.
She says this is due to a different clientele.
“The people who go to Winterlude are a skating crowd, not an upper-priced restaurant crowd,” says Mellor. “There aren’t many restaurants here where you would be comfortable having your skates.”
Keyes, from the National Capital Commission, says that many businesses outside the downtown-area will still experience the economic benefits of Winterlude.
She says this is because many non-local, Winterlude visitors stay with friends and families who live all over Ottawa and Gatineau. Money is also spent in those areas.
Van Kregten, from the Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority agrees.
“If people are staying with friends who live in Westboro,” she says, “then they’ll take them skating on the canal, but then go home and spend in their own neighbourhoods.”